Test Kit Mishaps

[Anemone_Fanatic]

Have you ever had a test kit tell you an incorrect result that gave you a thorough scare? I'll start. I was just testing my ammonia levels a few minutes ago, and when I checked the result, it was 2 ppm! For a minute, I felt that the apocalypse was on its way. But then I realized that the pipette I used to fill the testing vial was used to feed the corals a few days ago, leaving some food in the pipette. I learned a valuable lesson, and that is to clean your testing pipettes well!

 

[X-37B]

I had one the otber day. I was making water with IO purple from a brand new bucket. I always lower alk from 10ish to 7.5.
So I made 18 gallons and got the SG correct. Normaly I just add some sosium bisulfate and then test alk. I decided to check it first since its a new bucket.
Alk tested 7
Ca 290
Mag 900
what the heck
I retested it with more than one kit.
So the whole bucket is way off from the last one which was
Alk 10
Ca 410
Mag 1350

Yes I emptied it out to 50% and mixed it up real good and still way off.

I will be going back to esv and donated it to lfs for their fish only tanks.

 

[Geebs19]

I think I was randomly testing nitrites and using Red Sea I used 5ml instead of 16ml.

 

[rmorris_14]

Refractometer