What test kit brand are you using?

[BighohoReef]

Hi R2R Community!

My FIRST POLL! Some quick background: I’m a numbers and data guy so I love it when people post polls and give feedback. I can’t tell you how many purchases in this hobby because of that. This morning while testing nitrates I was having trouble finding the right color to match my Salifert NO3 chart. Frustrated I went to the forums to see if could find a easier to read test kit option. Though there are tons of great threads out there I just couldn’t find a comprehensive guide and then it got my noodle thinking about this poll and hopefully to help to understand why we use what we use to test. If you’re like me I want the closest most accurate results., just sometimes the colors domatch up

1. Vote for the test kit or kits you’re using.

2. Why you chose that particular brand

3. Share your pros and cons and if you’ve switched brands recently, why.

As always I appreciate the feedback, I look forward to running the numbers maybe by the end I might just be making a test kit switch! Thank you.

Currently using:
Salifert and Hanna Instruments

 

[andrewey]

Calcium: Red Sea
Alaklainity: Hanna, confirmation with red sea or salifert
Magnesium: Salifert
Nitrate: Salifert
Phosphate: Hanna

 

[LRT]

Hanna, Salifert - Mag,Alk,Cal
Salifert- Phosphates
Red sea- Nitrates and Nitrites

After using API and a cpl others o have come to find these most easy to use as well as being partially color blind the colors easiest to see- Still have to have the wife confirm though. Lol

 

[User1]

Other:
Neptune Trident is source of record.

When I manually test:
Hanna: Alk
Hanna: Phosphate
Nyos: Nitrates

ICP: ATI (twice a year)

Basically I use the ICP test(s) twice a year to take a holistic look at my water. 5 minutes before the noon Trident test I'll grab a glass of water from the tank and also fill up ATI's sample tubes. This way I can now run the manual tests above and compare to ATI's ICP results and the Trident. So far it hasn't failed me and all numbers are within their respected ranges. I do not run any manual tests outside the ICP test window.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Over the Years I have used Hach (a notable missing brand from the list), Salifert, Seachem, LaMotte, and some others.

I would not focus on any single brand being best in all kits.

For alk, I prefer a DIY.

 

[mike550]

Hanna for Salinity, Phosphate, Alkalinity
Salifert for Nitrate, Calcium, Magnesium

 

[RobB'z Reef]

always been a Hach fan and use their kits for most everything. Their digital titrators are pretty nice as well as their digitial PH probe. I'm curious about some of Hannas stuff, they are new since I've been back to the sport.

 

[adromero]

PH, calcium and nitrate API
Phosphate and alkalinity Hannah
Magnesium Salifert

I bought a Hanna instrument for calcium and PH, but I can never get them to work consistently

 

[Mastiffsrule]

I invested in this years ago. Never had a bad test yet. Have lost a few fish though

 

[BighohoReef]

Over the Years I have used Hach (a notable missing brand from the list), Salifert, Seachem, LaMotte, and some others.

I would not focus on any single brand being best in all kits.

For alk, I prefer a DIY.

Nothing that can’t be fixed.. Hach will be added! In all honesty I hadn’t heard of it. Now I have a interest piqued!
Thank you and thank you for the feedback!

 

[BighohoReef]

I invested in this years ago. Never had a bad test yet. Have lost a few fish though

Where do I get one of these?!?!? It might solve some of my invasive fish issues. You find you have issues with hair ball algae in your return? Haha

 

[RazorRamon]

Calcium: Slifert
Alk: Hanna
Mag: Salifert
Po4: Hanna
Nitrate: Nyos
Ph: Elos

 

[Whasmack]

Mostly Salifert.
Salifert : Alk, calc, mag, potassium
Hannah : salinity, phosphate
Nyos : nitrate

I’ll be switching back to Salifert for nitrate (maybe Red Sea). The Nyos yellow is easy to read, but the colors don’t match up to the card.

Salifert has always been reliable and predictable. Even if they are off from a ICP test, it’s usually consistently off. And they are super easy to use & read. The potassium is the only one I will use now.
The fact they are cheap is a bonus.

Hannah for phosphate has been perfectly aligned with ICP testing. So far the salinity probe has been great. I refuse to go back to Hannah alkalinity because they screwed me a couple years ago with a “recalled” reagent. When I figured something was off, i looked up bad reagents and there were a TON of them!! I wish I would have been notified.

 

[210 Reef Tank]

Alk. Hanna
Cal. Red Sea
Mag. Red Sea
Potassium Red Sea
PO4 Red Sea
PH. Red Sea
Phosphate Hanna, Red Sea
I send in water samples to ICP just to keep me on track.
Soon to be setting up the Trident test system. May need help with that

 

[James Emory Verified Sponsor]

Hi R2R Community!

My FIRST POLL! Some quick background: I’m a numbers and data guy so I love it when people post polls and give feedback. I can’t tell you how many purchases in this hobby because of that. This morning while testing nitrates I was having trouble finding the right color to match my Salifert NO3 chart. Frustrated I went to the forums to see if could find a easier to read test kit option. Though there are tons of great threads out there I just couldn’t find a comprehensive guide and then it got my noodle thinking about this poll and hopefully to help to understand why we use what we use to test. If you’re like me I want the closest most accurate results., just sometimes the colors domatch up

1. Vote for the test kit or kits you’re using.

2. Why you chose that particular brand

3. Share your pros and cons and if you’ve switched brands recently, why.

As always I appreciate the feedback, I look forward to running the numbers maybe by the end I might just be making a test kit switch! Thank you.

Currently using:
Salifert and Hanna Instruments

 

[James Emory Verified Sponsor]

Most test kits are titration kits like calcium, magnesium and dKH so the exact color is not an issue, when the color changes tells you when to read the scale in the syringe. I've tried expensive Red Sea Kits and in all honesty they are not much better than a cheaper Salifert or NYOS kit. At least not worth the money in my opinion.

 

[Shirak]

I primarily use:
Hanna ULR Phosphate
NYOS Nitrate

Trident

Then... I occasionally run:
Salifert DKH/Ca/Mg
Hanna DKH

I also have Redsea Pro Ca/Mg No3/PO4, I
Salifert Si, K
TMarin DKH

I got a bunch lol

I like the Hanna PO4 for fast and reliable accurate IMO
Hanna DKH I am less certain as I have done back to back tests and gotten different answers with different vials and I and religious with cleaning the vial and orientation within the checker and sample volume etc.
Salifert fast and easy to do titration
NYOS nitrate since it seems to have good low level color change and goes higher than the RSpro NO3 without messing with the sample.

 

[windemerejack]

Salifert for everything except phosphate, for phosphate I use Elos High Resolution test kit.

 

[Daniel92481]

I figured a picture is worth a thousand words. ;Pompus

 

[Vette67]

Hanna: phosphate, alkalinity, calcium
Nyos: nitrate
Salifert: magnesium
Milwaukee: pH and ORP.