Losing Faith (...in test kits)

[JSB]

Ok, so when I got back into the reef game last year, I spent a little more money and bought a full suite of Red Sea test kits. I was happy with them as they seemed well built. Then, I started to see an issue with phosphates in my tank, where I simply could not get them below .08. I did frequent water changes, added GFO, and eventually a bio-pellet reactor to address this. A few weeks back I found out that some of the Red Sea phosphate test kits have an issue, where the reagents are not accurately dispensed, causing the tests to never read below .08. When I adjusted the test procedures, I was at 0 phosphate, and out $300 worth of fixes to the phosphate problem I did not have.

Last week, I noticed that my Alk was dropping, as it was reading 7.8dkh on the Red Sea kit. So, I dosed up to 8.0, and made some adjustments to my dosing schedule to sustain it. This week my Red Sea kit read 7.0 dKh. I drug out a Sea Chem Alk test out of the cabinet to approach it from another angle. SeaChem says 9.8 dKH. Now I at a point where both of these readings would cause me to do something, however, not the same thing. I don't know which test to trust, if either. I have lost faith in my test kits.

I am moments away from pulling the trigger on a full suite of the Hanna Checkers, but how will I know that they are correct? I know they are easier, but that does not make them right. Any experience? Any advice

sb

 

[pickupman66]

The Hanna Checkers are very accurate. I am about due to get the ALK one my self as my salifert is almost empty. I used one of our club's a while back and they do work very very good.

all that said, each test kit and batch MAY be different. I know that my salifert ALK kit reads 1DkH lower than the Hannah. Ive never liked the accuracy of The red sea brand. Salifert and Hanna are the only ones ill trust these days.

 

[KJAG]

The Hanna Checkers are very accurate. I am about due to get the ALK one my self as my salifert is almost empty. I used one of our club's a while back and they do work very very good.

all that said, each test kit and batch MAY be different. I know that my salifert ALK kit reads 1DkH lower than the Hannah. Ive never liked the accuracy of The red sea brand. Salifert and Hanna are the only ones ill trust these days.

I've found the Salifert P04 kit to be inaccurate as well. It's a worthless kit IMO. With that said I love Saliferts kH, Ca and Mg kits. The Hanna checker is a must to accurately test phosphates

 

[H@rry]

I have used Salifert for Alk, Ca, and Mg and consider them accurate enough to run reef tanks with. I hardly ever test for Ca and Mg any more since I have calcium reactors on controllers. I've found that if the Alk is within tolerances the Ca and Mg come along with them (just my experience, YMMV). While I've never checked the Salifert Alk kit against anything else, I consider it "close enough". Now, PO4 is another animal altogether! I've never seen a test kit for it that I trusted. A month or so ago I bit the bullet and bought the Hanna PO4 checker and tested all three of my tanks. A week later I tested them again and got the exact same readings. That pretty well convinced me that the differences between tanks was not due to operator error or just plain inaccuracy of the test itself. I put GFO in socks in the sumps of the tanks where PO4 was detected and checked again in a week. In one tank it had gone down and the other tank tested 0.

 

[JSB]

Well, I think I am going to go ahead and bite the bullet myself. I understand that most of the Salifert are good, but they likely have all the various stuff that make most test kits hard to use. Already my kitchen table looks like a meth lab every Sunday morning. I don't mind spending a few extra dollars if it is something I can trust and it makes testing easier.

Thanks all.

 

[JSB]

Just an update. I got the Alk, Ca, and P04 Hanna checkers and really like them. The are easy to use and simple to read. I wish I would have done it sooner.

 

[WillKatt]

I love my Hanna checkers as well. I had the same problem with an API alk test kit that just out of the blue started reading at around 6dkh when it should have been between 8.0 -8.5. I guess when they expire they actually expire. lol

Luckily I thought to myself somethings wrong I just did a large water change using aquavitro salinity (which was the first time I had used it) and would not expect things to be that low considering their guarantee. So I still had a little extra salinity mixed up that was left over. I tested it and same thing dkh was really low.

At first I was angry at Seachem for selling me a bunk bucket of salt but then thought it could be the test kit. I went to a friends and grabbed his Hanna Checker and sure enough it came out right at 8.5.

I was really glad I double checked as I had already pulled out RHF's baking soda recipe to try to correct it.

My point in all this??? If something seems way off double check with another test kit. I now keep two different kits for CA, ALK, MG, PO4, and a hand held ph probe with calibration fluid.