Test kits

[ndz98]

I am looking to buy a phosphate and nitrate test kit but I'm kind of torn between two.

The Red Sea algae control test kit is nice because it comes with 100 tests for each test. It also only costs like 45-50 bucks.

The Hanna checkers are also really nice too but they don't come with as many tests. The reagent refills are also much pricier and don't come with very many, and the overall price of one Hanna checker is around 50 bucks.

Or my other option I just thought of is I could go with a couple Api test kits for now until I start my job and just tough it out for maybe a month or two. Yes I know they aren't the best tests but it's better than nothing.

 

[saltyphish]

What kind of livestock do you have? Depending on if you have a coral heavy tank or not. I use the Hanna checker for my phosphates and find it to be very accurate. I have never used the red sea kit for phosphates but I do use their Nitrate test kits and highly recommend it as well. The Api phosphate only goes as low as .25 ppm and that is way to high. Their nitrate kit did not seem too bad but I cant remember how low it tests for.

 

[JackDE]

I use API test kits and want something better for Phosphate because like saltyphish said it only tests as low as .25 and 0 so if you are between you have no clue where you really are.
The Nitrate test kit for API is okay, it tests in increments of 5 but 5-15 are all kind of the same color to me.
So basically get something better than API for Phosphate and Nitrate.

 

[ndz98]

What kind of livestock do you have? Depending on if you have a coral heavy tank or not. I use the Hanna checker for my phosphates and find it to be very accurate. I have never used the red sea kit for phosphates but I do use their Nitrate test kits and highly recommend it as well. The Api phosphate only goes as low as .25 ppm and that is way to high. Their nitrate kit did not seem too bad but I cant remember how low it tests for.

I've got some 5 frags of zoas, Acan, favites, trumpet, rbta, montipora, gsp, frogspawn, and a hammer.

 

[Duke4Life]

Avoid API phosphate, I was ready 2 do some serious stuff before I had it checked by a Hannah. API = beginner/low cost.

 

[morpheas]

I haven't tried red sea although they seem awesome. My experience is with salifert for both phosphate and nitrate and for the price/test i like it...

If you have bad eye's for colors like me hanna could be a good solution...

 

[Kungpaoshizi]

Salifert for nitrate, hanna 736 for phosphate (nothing else is as accurate as the hanna 736; take reading multiplied by 3.0661 divided by 1000 = ppm)

 

[PatW]

The Red Sea Pro nitrate test has a lower detection limit for nitrates of about .1 ppm. That is nice if you run low nutrients.

The Hanna ulr phosphate test is the only test that I know of that really does a good job on phosphates at low enough concentrations to really be useful. However, if you get algae going, they suck up the phosphates and even the Hanna reads 0.