is sali STILL having realiability issues?

[benny z]

just bought a new sali mag test kit. my mag according to the one i've been using the past 6 months reads 1200. the new one reads 1425.

:squigglemouth:

i really hate inconsistent products. :crossedlips:

guess i'll buy an elos to see if two agreeish.

 

[Ian]

elos FTW...

 

[benny z]

i know, i know... i just hate using them.

i don't know why i keep buying sali calc and mag kits. i just keep wanting to give them "one more try".

 

[ReeferRob]

Ya seems like people like the Elos more, calcium test kit is supposed to get 40-50 tests. I got 12!!!!! Salifert mag kit I ordered didn't come with instructions. These test kit companies are like insurance companies. :crossedlips:

 

[wishntoboutside]

True on that I went to the sera reset kits over a year ago and have not looked back

 

[Acroholic]

Does anyone have any links to anything besides anecdotal information that there has ever been any problems with Salifert Test Kits?

A friend of mine owns a LFS and has told me these are absolutely nothing but baseless rumours started by their competitors, with absolutely no basis in fact.

I use Salifert test kits and have used them in comparison with Elos and have not seen any significant difference in results....ever.

How much of what is being communicated here is just what is being heard and repeated, and how much is real fact? How about some hard evidence? Anyone got any links to some real comparison tests that actually provides some support for these supposed "reliability" issues with Salifert?
Dave

 

[droblack]

Salifert works fine for me. Kh and Ca.

 

[Ike]

Does anyone have any links to anything besides anecdotal information that there has ever been any problems with Salifert Test Kits?

A friend of mine owns a LFS and has told me these are absolutely nothing but baseless rumours started by their competitors, with absolutely no basis in fact.

I use Salifert test kits and have used them in comparison with Elos and have not seen any significant difference in results....ever.

How much of what is being communicated here is just what is being heard and repeated, and how much is real fact? How about some hard evidence? Anyone got any links to some real comparison tests that actually provides some support for these supposed "reliability" issues with Salifert?
Dave

What's baseless are your friend's assertions... Habib readily admitted to there being a problem with the alkalinity test kits a few years back, and even sent many people replacement test kits. I was one of them and I've got 3 kits that read the same sample totally different, almost 3 dKH too high on one of them.

That's all stuff I can get beyond. What I can't get beyond is the fact that there is zero customer support now for Salifert. Just try getting someone from Salifert to communicate with you... Habib disappeared from forums, the email they provide is inactive, the phone number they provide either doesn't work or is unanswered, and I'm not about to write them a freaking letter.

I will no longer trust my aquariums to Salifert kits and have had better luck with cheap API kits.

P.S. A little research in the old Salifert RC forum will confirm what I've just said.

 

[benny z]

that's basically my perspective, too. i know habib was very ill there for a while when the first alk issues popped up...not sure how involved with the company he is anymore. i stopped using their alk kit after a few kits that didn't match and switched to lamotte. seems hit or miss, as i use a lot of kits, and some of the sali calc/mag kits are good and some are not. i hoped since i bought new stock with this mag kit that it would be good, but ugh. probably the last sali kit i buy.

 

[Acroholic]

What's baseless are your friend's assertions... Habib readily admitted to there being a problem with the alkalinity test kits a few years back, and even sent many people replacement test kits. I was one of them and I've got 3 kits that read the same sample totally different, almost 3 dKH too high on one of them.

That's all stuff I can get beyond. What I can't get beyond is the fact that there is zero customer support now for Salifert. Just try getting someone from Salifert to communicate with you... Habib disappeared from forums, the email they provide is inactive, the phone number they provide either doesn't work or is unanswered, and I'm not about to write them a freaking letter.

I will no longer trust my aquariums to Salifert kits and have had better luck with cheap API kits.

So are you going to condemn an entire line of test kits because of one bad batch of alkalinity test kits? You yourself said they replaced some bad alk test kits....sounds like they made it right. Pretty short sighted to write off an entire line becasue of one bad batch of one type test kit.

Name a manufacturer that hasn't had a defective product once in a while.

My first Elos test kit had the 5 ml mark erroneously screened on the test vial. It was .5 ml too low. That had the potential to throw off results for lots of folks. Did Elos step up and replace them? Not to my knowledge. Does that mean the entire line of Elos Test kits are bad? Of course not. It means that whoever makes their vials made a mistake.

One Tunze powerhead breads and is replaced under warranty, does that mean every Tunze product is bad? No.

Give it a break, man. Open your eyes. If you choose not to use Salifert, then fine. But don't extrapolate one defective product batch to condemn an entire manufacturing line.

Dave

 

[nayrgaijin]

I use Sali and things seem to be doing fine

 

[Ike]

So are you going to condemn an entire line of test kits because of one bad batch of alkalinity test kits? You yourself said they replaced some bad alk test kits....sounds like they made it right. Pretty short sighted to write off an entire line becasue of one bad batch of one type test kit.

Name a manufacturer that hasn't had a defective product once in a while.

My first Elos test kit had the 5 ml mark erroneously screened on the test vial. It was .5 ml too low. That had the potential to throw off results for lots of folks. Did Elos step up and replace them? Not to my knowledge. Does that mean the entire line of Elos Test kits are bad? Of course not. It means that whoever makes their vials made a mistake.

One Tunze powerhead breads and is replaced under warranty, does that mean every Tunze product is bad? No.

Give it a break, man. Open your eyes. If you choose not to use Salifert, then fine. But don't extrapolate one defective product batch to condemn an entire manufacturing line.

Dave

No, I'm going to write off an entire line because it took me several months to get my replacement test kit and even that test kit seem to be off by about .5dKH. But mainly why I write them off is because Habib and Salifert no longer provide the tick poor customer service they used to, now there's just no customer service. In addition I heard Salifert switched to the same single reagent acid titration that API, Elos, and many others use, it's just far more expensive than the API.

You need to wake up and actually comprehend what I wrote. I hardly condemned them solely for having one bad batch of test kits, hence this statement refering to the bad kits... "That's all stuff I can get beyond. What I can't get beyond is the fact that there is zero customer support now for Salifert."

 

[KEEPERZ]

Agreeish-I like that!! I had the bad Sali Alk kit and had a bad Elos Mag kit as well-the Alk hurt more =(- saying that, I hope test kits keep improving as we move forward-Elos replaced my kit but I didn't even bother Habib cus the damage was done-glad to hear the Sali has been better

 

[Acroholic]

No, I'm going to write off an entire line because it took me several months to get my replacement test kit and even that test kit seem to be off by about .5dKH. But mainly why I write them off is because Habib and Salifert no longer provide the tick poor customer service they used to, now there's just no customer service. In addition I heard Salifert switched to the same single reagent acid titration that API, Elos, and many others use, it's just far more expensive than the API.

You need to wake up and actually comprehend what I wrote. I hardly condemned them solely for having one bad batch of test kits, hence this statement refering to the bad kits... "That's all stuff I can get beyond. What I can't get beyond is the fact that there is zero customer support now for Salifert."

Personally, I've never had to contact any test kit manufacturer for customer service in the 35 years I've been keeping aquariums.

If you had a problem with the test kit, then why not return it to your place of purchase? That is what I'd do. Get your customer service either by replacement or refund from whatever outfit you purchased from. If you got the replacement you reference thru your Vendor and it took that long, I'd have gone with another brand and just gotten a refund.

I understand not wanting to buy if you get poor customer service, but threads like this do nothing but perpetuate the myth that Salifert test kits are inaccurate. Anyone can have a bad batch. Salifert seems to have their act together now, at least in the accuracy of their kits, at least IME.

 

[Ike]

Personally, I've never had to contact any test kit manufacturer for customer service in the 35 years I've been keeping aquariums.

If you had a problem with the test kit, then why not return it to your place of purchase? That is what I'd do. Get your customer service either by replacement or refund from whatever outfit you purchased from. If you got the replacement you reference thru your Vendor and it took that long, I'd have gone with another brand and just gotten a refund.

I understand not wanting to buy if you get poor customer service, but threads like this do nothing but perpetuate the myth that Salifert test kits are inaccurate. Anyone can have a bad batch. Salifert seems to have their act together now, at least in the accuracy of their kits, at least IME.

I've been in this hobby longer than Salifert has existed, I've used all kinds of test kits. I also only suggested Salifert and Lamotte for years. Some of my other kits through the years have clearly been a little off, it's to be expected from hobby grade kits... However, the Salifert kit was off by about 3 dKH, but I'm not sure it started that way. The kit was used on a new setup. How or why that happened I'm not sure, Habib never really shared the problem. I'm not even sure he ever figured it out. Either way, this was on the manufacturer and not my LFS or supplier. Typically with any product, once it's used it's up to the manufacturer to fix any issues. The replacements people got were directly through Habib.

I finally figured out my test was off when all my coralline crashed for a second time when my dKH reading dropped below 9, I later lost a couple SPS colonies to STN as well some other mysterious coral problems during the time. nI don't think Salifert as a whole are inaccurate, I think their quality control sucks and that they have no customer support. When I buy something I at least like to know that if I have a problem I'm going to be helped, or at least have a chance. With Salifert and Habib it has become blatantly clear that they no longer have any intention of supporting their customers.

One other thing that I should be clearer on... My replacement test kit wasn't really a replacement, it was to test some changes he made and was one of the first kits with the reference solution. Shortly after he got those kits to some people he disappeared from RC and many were just stuck with faulty kits, it wasn't just one batch either IIRC. In addition there were a lot of problems with syringes and the ink wearing off easily. Not a big deal for those of us that have old syringes and kits laying around, but a real pain for people getting their first test kits in the hobby.

 

[Reefinginpasadena]

ive been using sali for awhile now and im happy with it all my corals are doing good and my tanks doing great so not sure how everyone else is having such bad luck.............. Well for the Alk test they do give you a thing to compair how off it is so you see how off it is then do the math its not that hard.

 

[gregr]

Got a good chuckle out of this thread. Start a thread asking about verified issues and when someone posts fact you attack him. You shoulda just started a thread like this: "Salifert is great no matter what the facts are and I don't belive you if you disagree". Do some searches and read what the experts in the hobby are saying. Then come back and apologize to the guy who tried to help you.

 

[Acroholic]

Guys, I apologize to Ike for my rant the other night. I was not having a good night. I usually try to be more level headed when I post.

Anyways, if Salifert had an Alk Test issue, it seems to have been taken care of. My Alk Test has a reference sample with it.

Sorry to anyone that has had bad experiences, but mine have all been good so far. Salifert's line of test kits seems to be accurate as of now, at
least IME.
Dave

 

[gregr]

My apologies to BennyZ- I was referring to Acroholic's comments and I see that he has just apologized- kudos to you for apologizing. This thread caught my eye because my Salifert alkalinity kit is reading 12-13 dKH and I was pulling my hair trying to figure out why it was so high. My research (on the internet and with local experts) tells me the kits aren't to be trusted so I got a Sera kit. It reads three points lower. I'm about to go downstairs and test some freshly mixed saltwater with both kits. By the way- my Salifert kit is very new- doesn't expire for three more years.

 

[gregr]

Not exactly what I expected. The Sera kit gives 7dKH and the Salifert 7.5 on newly mixed saltwater. On my tank water Sera read 9 and Salifert 11.5. Did both tests two times on tank water and new saltwater. Results were the same on all four tests.