Newbie getting ready to buy a new test kit.

[WinterHarkins]

So I’m relatively new here. I’ve got 2 tanks running both Have cycled. One is a little over a month. The other is 6 months old.
I’m on a $100 budget. What the best test kit be to buy within that budget.

we all can’t afford Hanna’s out here. So please don’t be rude.
Thank you all in advance!!!

 

[jsker]

Hanna ;Hilarious ;Hilarious ;Hilarious

I like the Aquaforest test kits, The Aquaforest test kits are spot on, not expensive and simple to use.

 

[Jmcg89]

I have salifert kits that I really like, I later bought a hannah for alk but the salifert tests worked great for me, the Hannah just saves time but I have found it matches up with the results of the salifert for alk at least.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I like Salifert and Nyos.
What specific parameters are you buying new tests for?

 

[WinterHarkins]

I like Salifert and Nyos.
What specific parameters are you buying new tests for?

Specifically Alk cal ph and I’d like to add Mg.

I was given api and a ph pen. But both are inconsistent on their readings. My pico tank has corals (spreading) and nems in it doing rather well. A lot of biodiversity in there as well with pods running around

the nano is newer but I seen the cycle. However I’m getting high ph readings in both tanks and low dKH readings every test. With a dip test (have for f/w shrimp tank) it shows ph right at 8.3 range. Ph pen after calibration reads 8.8. Alk is 6-7 dKH.
So time for better tests!


sorry for the story

 

[Ultra Aquatics]

Salifert, cheap and reliable. Only thing I use Hanna for is copper.

 

[Chrisv.]

If you're confident that you're cycled, the essentials are nitrate, phosphate, calcium, and alk. Calcium and alk are easy to test using titration tests. I like the red sea version but they are a little more expensive. Phosphate and nitrate are a bit tricky to measure because they require comparing a color change to a reference card. I know you mentioned not being able to do Hanna for everything, so I'd pick a Hanna phosphate test because that's the hardest to do using a comparison chart. I'd go Hanna for phosphate and maybe nyos for nitrate.

 

[arking_mark]

If you are on a tight budget, I'd recommend going without test kits and going old school for husbandry.

A trick I used for many years was weekly 10-20% water changes with high-parameter IO Reef Crystals. The high-parameter would just substitute for dosing anything and worked well for a predominantly softy/lps tank.

Certainly don't buy any kits that you won't use to make adjustments to your tank.

Measuring nutrients (NO3/PO4) is useless if your not going to implement nutrient control through various methods (refugium, skimmer, carbon dosing, media, chemicals, etc...)

Ca is another example of something you'd rarely need to measure and adjust as it's abundant in our aquarium and consumed mostly in balance with Alk. Additionally, Ca tests are pretty inaccurate compared to Alk tests. So you are better off dosing based off Alk measurements anyway.

Which leads to the one test that is most useful to reef aquariums...Alk testing. Its fairly accurate and alk can deplete quickly in a reef aquarium. More importantly, it's measurement can be used to dose everything else. Based on your alk consumption, we have excellent correlation of what and how much Ca and other elements are depleting.

If you want to keep things simple with dosing, go with All-for-reef as it provides an ionically balanced single dosing solution that even has some carbon dosing...

 

[gbroadbridge]

So I’m relatively new here. I’ve got 2 tanks running both Have cycled. One is a little over a month. The other is 6 months old.
I’m on a $100 budget. What the best test kit be to buy within that budget.

we all can’t afford Hanna’s out here. So please don’t be rude.
Thank you all in advance!!!

Salifert compares very close to Hanna checkers for everything except Phosphate.

The Red sea pro phosphate is very close to a Hanna.

The advantage of Hanna is an easy to read display, rather than squinting at color charts. Hanna is no more accurate than any other hobby grade test.

 

[gbroadbridge]

Specifically Alk cal ph and I’d like to add Mg.

I was given api and a ph pen. But both are inconsistent on their readings. My pico tank has corals (spreading) and nems in it doing rather well. A lot of biodiversity in there as well with pods running around

the nano is newer but I seen the cycle. However I’m getting high ph readings in both tanks and low dKH readings every test. With a dip test (have for f/w shrimp tank) it shows ph right at 8.3 range. Ph pen after calibration reads 8.8. Alk is 6-7 dKH.
So time for better tests!


sorry for the story

You really don't have to worry about pH. As long as your Alk is okay, your pH will almost always be acceptable.

Salinity and Alk are the most important tests. Don't even worry about Mg. Nitrate and Phosphate are also important with new tanks to avoid Dino problems