Accurate lab grade ater testing sevice

andywe · Apr 4, 2012

I just wanted to throw out a resource for those who might need a little more than what our at home tests can do. Especially if your having tank issues and such. Aquarium Water Testing offers a 13+ panel test for your tank water. Takes about a week with shipping time. Not the cheapest thing in the world, but if you factor cost of corals dying versus the test cost, pretty minimal. Anyway, just an FYI for those who have never heard of it or did not know about it.

Cheers!

mcarroll · Apr 5, 2012

+1

When you consider the $/test (about $3) it's actually sorta reasonable. What a better LFS might charge for Hach tests. Add in the fact that they are all high-grade lab test methods and it's quite the bargain.

One can't use a service like this (about 1 week delay) to gauge dosing though, so it can't replace a good Alk (or Alk+Ca) kit at home.

Also, one must pay attention to the fact that they are using all different testing methods...this throws a lot of people off when they read their AWT results. ("What do you mean my calcium is only 325???") This means (e.g.) if you're testing for calcium at home with Salifert and you send some of the same sample to them, you will get different "correct" calcium numbers from the same water sample. Not comparable.

One last note...kinda sucks they took Boron out of the standard test range....that number helped make sense out of the alkalinity number you get from them (which excludes Boron; unlike our home kits). Just something else to keep in mind about the differences in their results from ours.

-Matt

cee · Apr 6, 2012

They got some bad reviews when they first came out. But hell, if you can get that Swedish blonde to test your water, its all worth it, right?

andywe · Apr 6, 2012

Lol Dave

H@rry · Apr 6, 2012

cee said:
But hell, if you can get that Swedish blonde to test your water, its all worth it, right?

You know, I didn't even notice her until you pointed her out.

mcarroll · Apr 7, 2012

cee said:
They got some bad reviews when they first came out. But hell, if you can get that Swedish blonde to test your water, its all worth it, right?

It's easy to understand where bad reviews would come from as the results aren't straightforward to read and it's somewhat natural to try and compare with your "high quality home test kit", but it never will. (Ever read through Amazon reviews on a product you know well and just wonder what all the 1-star reviewers were smoking?

)

Of course you are putting your faith in their ability to correctly run their test methods, but I've had no reason to suspect their results on the occasions I've used them. Their results seem consistent with experience and trends that home tests show, and I have little doubt that their numbers are more accurate, FWIW. (I still do testing+dosing using Salifert at home....not currently using AWT.com for anything.)

-Matt