Water Test Kit Who's the Best?

[jkmargerum]

My tank is about 7 months old now, and i know there are folks out there with a lot more experience then me, so I pose the question:

What water test kits are the best?

I don't even mind mixing brands for certain tests. I have experienced some mixed results with different kits, so I am in need of the experts to bring forth their knowledge once again and save a newbee...

Thanks

 

[Reefer87]

Test kits which you should invest on are Salifert's.

 

[MrPike]

I second the Salifert test kits. With the exception of PH, I really prefer a ph meter over any test kit. Reasons for this are the vague color charts, and the frequency that I test PH.

 

[jkmargerum]

Thanks for the info... I have a PH and TDS meter on order right now.

I will order up some kits, now best place... I have seen kit prices run from $13 to $21

 

[old salty]

I've tried several brands, but certainly not all of them. Here are my three recommendations: Elos, Lamotte, and Salifert.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

There is no single best brand, but kits from Hach, Seachem, Salifert, and LaMotte are generally good, with a few oddballs from those brands that I do not recommend.

 

[Bebo77]

here is a price list for salifert test kits...

http://geocities.com/hans1976/Salifert.html

 

[Icefire]

Without having bought one, I would give ELOS a try as they are NIST certified.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I'm not familiar with them, but I've not heard of kits being certified or even what that means (although there certainly could be such a program that I am unaware of). Do you have more information on it?

Does it perhaps just mean that the manufacturer tested it on a certified solution and claim to get the correct answer? Are they certified for use in seawater?

 

[Icefire]

Certified for accuracy

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

OK, so they took a NIST standard (which would not likely be seawater) and assert to have checked the accuracy of the kit against that standard. It isn't actually NIST certification of the kit itself, if I read that properly.

 

[Icefire]

Look like a certification of the batch being conform..

When we calibrate a multimeter, we calibrate it with one with a tracable NIST calibration.

I guess it's the same, they have NIST calibrated samples and instrument to test each kit.

Something like that:

https://srmors.nist.gov/view_detail.cfm?srm=191C

Elos
Serious aquarium enthusiast needs prooven and reliable result once testing the water parameters of their tank. Our Test Kits Line is designed for this: to grant reliable result. For this reason each test have been carefully validated using NIST certified samples in order to grant the best precision.