Milwaukee phophate tester

Lonelyreef · Jul 1, 2015

my friend recently tested my water with a Milwaukee tester and it's saying my phosphates are at 3.2. I keep questioning him if it's set right or calibrated right because I'm testing it with a salifert an Api tester from my planted tank and a
Red Sea tester and all of those are showing me very little phosphates at all. Less than 1 but my salifert tester has my nitrates at about 3 so I guess my question is I feel like my nitrates being around 3 is very close if not dead on but I'm questioning that my phosphates are at 3.2 according to my friends Milwaukee phosphate tester when my testers suggest otherwise.

Are nitrate values tied to phosphate values in any way?

Is it possible a Milwaukee phosphate tester could be off or is it reading it different than I understand them to work.

Thanks for the help

Lonelyreef · Jul 1, 2015

Also are salifert and or Hannah testers very accurate or are Milwaukee testers the most accurate they make. Also not sure if they measure things the same way in ppm or if there is a conversion for one or the other

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jul 2, 2015

Do you know which meter?

The Milwaukee meter I see only goes up to 2.5 mg/L (ppm).

http://www.milwaukeeinst.com/site/products/products-by-parameters/phosphate

Lonelyreef · Jul 2, 2015

He said he retested and it read .32 but that is still quite a difference between what my salifert and other test read. Is there any reason for such a drastic difference or are the milwaukees that much better than hobby grade equipment

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jul 2, 2015

I wouldn't know which to believe, since you don't even know if he is using it correctly. Getting two readings off by a factor of 10 doesn't give me confidence in his testing.

The chemcial method is basically the same as a typical kit, so it is not inherently different, just a little easier to get a reading.