Whats in your water testing arsenal?

[HexaReef]

Im looking at getting some better water testing equipment; salinity, tds, temp, and for params..

What do u use, and why do you like it?

I need ideas

 

[madweazl]

After using many, I've settled on:

Alkalinity - Hanna (ease of use)
Calcium - Red Sea Pro (I'm more consistent with this than Salifert)
Magnesium - Salifert (simple to use)
Phosphate - Hanna ULR (nothing else compares in my opinion)
Nitrate - Salifert (low to high range results with the same sample)

 

[DIvid]

Personally I use Hanna for Alk and Calc (for the calc tester make sure you use Distilled not RODI, always had an issue with rodi and the calc tester.) I'd also like to pick up their phosphate tester. Red Sea for Ca, Alk, Mag. (Ca and Alk to verify an oddball hanna reading) phosphates, nitrates, and colors - K, Fe, Iodine. (typically only test potassium thats all I found I need to dose.) I use a Seneye monitor to monitor PH, Temp and Ammonia. When things start to look off or to get a good baseline for when your corals look happy ICP-OES testing - such as ATI or Triton are great testing tools to have in your arsenal aswell. For a few others Salinity - Refractometer. TDS - Basic TDS meter off amazon has done me fine. For temp other than the monitoring from my seneye I always have a regular analog thermometer to verify aswell.

 

[madweazl]

Hanna's calcium kit should die a fiery death! Tedious waste of time and money...

 

[DIvid]

Hanna's calcium kit should die a fiery death! Tedious waste of time and money...

I had alot of issues with it until I made the switch to using distilled water. After that Ive had very consistent results, and I also find it's alot less work then busting out the red sea kit to get a reading. I test 3 times a week typically and cant say I'm unhappy with the product any longer. Just my 2 cents.

 

[HexaReef]

Ive heard a lot of good things about hanna and red sea test equipment.

 

[miPapareef]

After using many, I've settled on:

Alkalinity - Hanna (ease of use)
Calcium - Red Sea Pro (I'm more consistent with this than Salifert)
Magnesium - Salifert (simple to use)
Phosphate - Hanna ULR (nothing else compares in my opinion)
Nitrate - Salifert (low to high range results with the same sample)

Same here, I use these also. Except I stopped testing magnesium because it’s in an ICP test bi-monthly and never changes.

 

[MTBake]

After using many, I've settled on:

Alkalinity - Hanna (ease of use)
Calcium - Red Sea Pro (I'm more consistent with this than Salifert)
Magnesium - Salifert (simple to use)
Phosphate - Hanna ULR (nothing else compares in my opinion)
Nitrate - Salifert (low to high range results with the same sample)

Same here. I also send out an icp test quarterly. More or less for peace of mind really.

 

[sundog101]

Alk- salifert
Ca- red sea
Mag- red sea
PO4- hanna
NO3- salifert

 

[Potatohead]

Refractometer for salinity, obviously.
Calcium - Salifert
Alk - Hanna, Salifert backup
Mag - Salifert
Nitrate - Red Sea Pro, although I modify it slightly to get more resolution around 5-15. Salifert as backup.
Phosphate - Hanna ULR

 

[PiscesPower]

Apex and Milwaukee Refractometer for conductivity/salinity
Hanna for Alk, Ca & ULR phosphorus
Saifert for Nitrate - Have Red Sea as well but lost one of the reagent powder spoons...
I have an inexpensive digital pH but I never use it anymore, just use Apex and calibrate it if I feel its off base.

I do Triton ICP every 3 months and do home testing at the same time/same water so I can compare accuracy of my home testing

 

[BluTang85]

Salinity- Milwaukee digital refractometer
Alk-Hanna
Cal-salifert
Mag-salifert
NO4-red Sea pro
PO3-Hanna ULR

 

[PhreeByrd]

Salinity: Pinpoint Salinity Monitor, with a refractometer as backup
Alkalinity: Red Sea Pro (more accurate than I need) or Instant Ocean (super fast and easy)
Ca: Red Sea Pro
Mg: Red Sea Pro
Nitrate: Red Sea Pro or Salifert
Phosphate: Hanna #HI 93713

I have more consistent results with the Red Sea kits than any other test kits I've used over the years, particularly the titration kits.

 

[GonçaloS]

Salinity: Refractometer
TDS: Hanna HI98308 PWT
Temperature: Traceable Long Stem Calibration Thermometer
Alk, Ca, Mg: Salifert or Aquaforest
Nitrate: Salifert
Phosphate: Hanna checker HI-713
Potassium: Red Sea Pro

Triton ICP-OES test for other parameters

 

[Greybeard]

Amazing how similar everyone's list is

Refractometer
Apex temp and pH probes, calibrated quarterly.
Hanna Alk and Phosphate checkers
Red Sea Calc/Mg
Nyos Nitrate
Triton - Quarterly, unless I'm trying to track down a problem.

 

[MPS]

My tests kits are very similar to everyone else's but I have a question for the group. I have an Apex with PH probe and a digital PH probe from Vantakool (cheapo from Amazon). Even after several re-calibrations of both, they never read anywhere similar. Right now for instance, The Apex reads 8.15 while the digital pocket meter reads 8.45. I did a 30% water change two days ago.
I'm considering buying a third. What brands do you trust or do you have any insight on the wacko readings i'm getting here.