Test Kit Shootout! and Reviews in General

[Cameron]

OK after digging through, I think we need a test kit meeting or a club sponsered review, roundup, shootout. This is just IMO, I would be VERY interested if the club sprang (or even got donated from manus) for several manufactorer test kits say for Ca and Alk and one of our local reefers ran through them for a review either at a meeting or just as a forum review telling us the specifics and accuracy of the various kits.

Salifert, Seachem, Elos, Sera, API, Lamotte, etc. There are a lot of test kits and I as a member would like to know what is working these days. Maybe see some pics of each test and hear about how easy they are to use.

For that matter, maybe the club should sponser a series of reviews. I know in the PC world many clubs such as these end up getting freebies to test out when the write up serious fair minded reviews. Personally, I find this area lacking in this industry. You often get a couple people trying some high profile products, but the stuff we use every day like food and chemicals rarely get any head to head testing.

Anyway just a thought.

[ericmcj31]

Sounds good to me

[LiveRock27]

I second this idea. I would love to find out how Seachem tests against other brands.

[Roland Jacques]

Yep yep yep

[LorenK]

Great idea Cameron.

[jmaneyapanda]

I think I have an unused lamotte calcium and alk test kit i'll pitch for this.

[jade76]

that is a great idea..I was actually just thinking about upgrading my kits to a better brand than Im using now.

[Xyzpdq0121]

Cam, If you can get the major brands to donate the kits and do a professional write up, I think it would be awsome. I can prob get the club to pitch in for some but not every test from every brand. I will donate some tests out of my suitcase of testing equip.

[wbholwell]

I think it's a good idea to also compare them to an outside "professional" test.

Anyone know of a good place to get the test water tested with a high degree of accuracy?

[Roland Jacques]

We can make a list here of test kits, that WE can donate (our own kits, extras...) to be used for testing right here. i have a bunch also. (I think if they are relatively new kits that might work.)

We could probably resell some of the better kits for 30% off and recoup any money spent.

[mysterybox]

Great idea! Actually, awesome idea. I am IN on this one!

some thoughts..................

1. they must be new kits with batch numbers
2. we need to test the same samples of water
3. we need to verify the samples with a known reference
4. I could donate (or get reimbursed from the club.....no big deal depending upon who is picking up the tab) 1 sample (1 time) to AWT.


I have had more freakin' issues with test kits than .........................

anyway, here is my current problem:
first, some history....
When I first started reefing, I used api for all my testing. Well, after killing about $1000.00 bucks worth of whole colony wild caught or maricultured sps due to:

round 1) API: phosphate & nitrate test gave me readings of 0 to 5, when nitrates were like 60 & phates sky high.
I went to all Salifert except dd merck (& HACH) for phosphates. Issues resolved after I pinpointed the problem.

round 2) as you may have heard, I had 3 of those screwed up alk test kits from salifert. He had so many issues that it was beyond belief with so many people. I again began having problems with my sps & tissue receding especially tips. Everyone said that it was alk. I bought 2 additional alk kits to verify Habib's. anyway, Habib sent me another kit with a reference solution that verified his other kits were so far off it was ridiculous. OK, it wasn't alk after all, however, since I was looking at alk due to the kits results, I lost 2 sps colonies by the time I realized that it was phosphates again. I switched back to api for alk. I also signed up for a monthly test with AWT, to verify my hobby kits, so I wouldn't have a nervous breakdown from this stress...whew! OK, let's get back.

round 3) I gave up salifert calcium due to saliferts mess with alk & my verification with AWT. I started using API calcium. This past week my results were saying that my calcium was at least 520. Stupid me, I lower my calcium dosing to get it to 450 or so. Sounds reasonable, right? wrong!
Here is my current AWT results done at the same time as API calcium & API alk (alk is close)

This was done 5 minutes before my 1 of 4 auto doses daily of my 2 part. So I know already that this would be the lowest readings of the day, but I didn't expect mag & calc that low!
AWT:
Ammonia (NH3-4) ........................Good .......................0.013
Nitrite (NO2)................................Good .......................0.003
Nitrate (NO3)...............................Good .......................0.4
Phosphate (PO4) ..........................Good .......................0.01
Silica (SiO2-3) .............................Good .......................0.4
Potassium (K) ...............................Low................ .........316
Calcium (Ca)................................Good ........................353
Boron (B) .....................................Low.......... ...............1.9
Molybdenum (Mo).................High......................... ..........0.3
Strontium (Sr) .............................Good .........................8.2
Magnesium (Mg) ...........................Low.................... .......963
Iodine (I¯)...................................Good .........................0.03
Copper (Cu++) ............................Good ..........................0.02
Alkalinity (meq/L).........................Good .......................... 3.26


So, as you can see my calcium was at 350 and mag at 963!!!!!!!!!!! freakin' awesome! (sarcastic), So I dose my calcium & mag up a little too fast (12 hours). I lost 1 of 3 tub birdsnest frags through tissue loss. No big deal, but again....these HOBBY TEST KITS! And I know how to drip a drop, measure, shake, swirl, wait, time, read, etc.
Calcium (470) is fine again & mag back to >1300. All corals are doing great (except that 1 tubs)

I have found API:
Great at alk & ph
sucks at nitrates, phosphates, calcium

I have found that salifert:
ok on calcium, really good at mag, really good at nitrates & amonia
sucks on alk & really sucks on phospahtes

I have used many test kits and found many to be inconsistent at best. I only state what I am very familar with. But there are many more that are great, & many more that suck.

PHOSPHATES:
perfect is DD MERCK & HACH (most likely ELOS, too)
whew!

[LiveRock27]

Have you found a brand that is good/great with Calcium?

[mysterybox]

salifert ok
within 50

[LiveRock27]

Has any one had any experience w/the Seachem tests?

[mysterybox]

Seachem will be fine. Just shoot for the middle range. Use the test results from the same kit. If your tank is looking good, you're fine! All hobby test kits have a margin of error. It's only an issue if you have a really bad kit. I'm sure a lot of Salifert alk kits are very good. I just had some bad luck. However, when your calcium is 350, but your test kit says >520, that's a problem.


Here is one of my posts on rc with Habib on 8.23.2007 after I received his comp test lit with reference solution:

I thank you for my replacement kit with the calibration or reference fluid!

I am really confused though.

on 08-23-2007

replacement kit says: 12.8/4.57
Old kit (0805-A-NV & 0406-E) says:10.6/3.77

on 08-24


replacement kit says: 13.8/4.91
Old kit (0805-A-NV & 0406-E) says:10.9/3.77
marineland (IO) says: 3.50

I tested the replacement kit with the reference fluid, and it came out to 7.0. (pretty much right on 6.5)

With the new replacement kit the syringe is a little different & the KH-IND is in a different bottle. Am I to do the test exactly as instructed as before?

Which test kit figure should I use?
If the new replacement kit is accurate, then my SPS's have been at 13 to 14 DKH. What signs of trouble should I be seeing? Should I take it down? EVERY known tester has stated that your kits are extremely accurate, and at most +/- 10% HIGH! They always state that your kits test out on the high end, so I kept my ALK (with the old kits) at around 9.9 to 10.9 DKH. What should I do?

Sincerely,
Ralph Scheriff

[Cameron]

Someone more experienced than I should conduct the tests or maybe multiple people so we can get a few different perspectives.

I think we should keep the tests to Calcium, Alk, Mag, Phospates, Ammonia and Nitrates.

First we need to decide on the kits.

API
Elos
Hagen
Instant Ocean
Jungle
LaMotte
Merck
Red Sea
Salifert
Seachem
Sera
Tetra
Tropic Marin
Tunze

So what other tests would we like to see? What other suggestions do you have for how to test?

[mysterybox]

The list looks good to me. I agree it would have to be a "professional" lab type person conducting the tests. Maybe you can ask your "friend" that came by your house when your sps rtn? Just a thought. No rush really. I would imagine that their are a few qualified people around ATL.

[mwitten]

Originally Posted by Cameron

Someone more experienced than I should conduct the tests or maybe multiple people so we can get a few different perspectives.


So what other tests would we like to see? What other suggestions do you have for how to test?

Hach would be nice as well.

It might be nice to have a couple of different light sources available too... Not sure how to work that, but distinguishing colors has always been my big issue.

-Mike

[bobz]

Holy cow! After reading this thread I'm afraid to use any of my test kits!!! Apparently all mine suck! At a minimum I guess I'll replace my API phosphate and nitrate kits. I am using Salifert for calc so guess that one is ok for now. Can some one tell me what AWT is?
Thanks
Bob Z

[Cameron]

What online store carries the Hach tests these days?