Expiration Dates on Test Kits

[Reef GE]

My Red Sea Pro Calcium, KH, Ma reagents expired in May/June of this year. Any chance they are still reliable? Should I reorder? How much does the exp date matter?

 

[vetteguy53081]

My Red Sea Pro Calcium, KH, Ma reagents expired in May/June of this year. Any chance they are still reliable? Should I reorder? How much does the exp date matter?

3-4 months after expiration should be trusty.
The date is the last day of sale of not mistaken

 

[Gablami]

I treat it like medication expiration dates. Still works to some degree, but the further out it gets, the less reliable I think. If you really want to know that it’s accurate, use non expired kits.

 

[Tathamet]

I think it depends on the environment they’re stored in. Mine all went out of whack a few months before the expiration date. You can always make a test solution to test the accuracy of your kits with the foundation elements though.

here’s how to make the test solutions (sent from Red Sea customer service).

 

[Timfish]

Considering what's at risk I would replace it. I've checked old reagents that were years out of date and they gave the same readings as new. But I've also had new reagents give very different readings. Now I have multiple test kits from different manufacturers and at least once a year do a very thorough cross check. And I do this with digital electronic testers too after getting 4 different alk readings with 1 dKH variation with two different testers and two different sets of reagents with the same water sample.

 

[Reef GE]

I also have the problem that my tritator syringes fill to different levels. According to Red Sea manual there will be .1-.15 ml of air, two of mine however consistently have .2 ml of air no matter how fast or slow I fill syinge. The other has .1-.15 of air IF I fill quickly but even then not always. Is there some way to buy new reliable tritators without buying a whole new kit. .05 ml does make a difference when measuring alkalinity.

 

[Reef GE]

Forget my last post, air doesn’t make a difference, unless I run out of fluid. It’s how far the plunger moves that matters.