Looking for a recommendation on a good test kit for my salt system. I have been bringing my water to LFS one told me all was good next day another told me I had high phosphates nitrate and nitrites. And rexommwbding that I change 30% of my water. Now in between the two test I did have a bit of disturbance in the sand bed adjusting the water flow. My kids were also feeding the fish daily which I also now may be causing the problem.
good water test kit
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ColaAddict
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I use API and hanna. hanna can get expensive, so usually I test mostly with the API and if I see something off, I do a confirmation test with hanna. API get's innacurate when it get's old and some people say when the bottle get's low.
BobDale
Community Member
I have been seriously misled by API. I kept getting high ammonia readings no matter what i did. One day, while mixing up a water change, i decided to see what API had to say about the freshly mixed water. It read high in ammonia. I don't trust API.
Reefing8EZ
unregistered
Salifert tests and hanna meter have worked well for me?
My question is how often do you guys test?
My question is how often do you guys test?
I really like the Hanna Checkers, but you have to be really careful on the Calcium one. Need a steady and experienced hand. I check at least twice a month on Alk and once a month for Ca, PO4, NO3/4, sometimes ammonia. Mainly the API ammonia test is a backup test because it detects toxic and nontoxic ammonia so can read really wrong. In my QT I use the Seachem ammonia alert badge as a guage but check parameters every other day. I have used Salifert, Seachem, API, and Hanna (also another way back when). I find the best Hanna for Alk, Phosphates, Calcium, Salifert for Nitrates, and ammonia I am still out on. Hope this helps.
Lynnmw1208
Active Member
+1 I agree. I love the red sea pro test kits. I have since thrown out my API kits. the only one I kept from them is pH. The nitrate and phosphate kit is really easy to do with red sea as well as the calcium, alk and magnesium.
