Randy Holmes-Farley
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My Tank Thread
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While its not a reef tank, I recently used a commercial "mail away" kit to test a pond, and since it's pretty chemistry intensive, I thought I'd post my experience in case others may be interested.
I was testing a spring fed, man made pond on my property. The pond itself is about 1/10th acre and is 70 years old, but the house and property have been around for 220 years and was often used as a farm. Hence, there was concern about all sorts of things that might have been used on the property since 1800.
The SafeHome Ultimate kit tests for 200 different chemicals and properties, including more than 150 different pesticides and other organic compounds using EPA methods. It is intended for tap and well water, but I used it on the pond.
I got it from amazon for $399. Very expensive compared to reef water ICP testing, but many more tests are involved.
It comes with several collection bottles of different types, some with preservatives in them, that you fill and send back to them in a prepaid shipping ice chest in a box. There was no need to use ice packs since the temp was not higher than their suggested limit for simple shipping in their box. I sent it back via a local UPS store.
It also includes a bacteria test that you do yourself. I haven't used that test since I'm sure the pond is loaded with natural bacteria. Hundreds of wood frogs had a mating frenzy in the pond a couple of weeks before I sampled (when the pond was still partly ice covered) and now the water is filled with thousands of pollywogs.
I got the results back about 3 weeks after I sent it in. The pdf report is attached and folks can see what was tested for and how they show results.
From the report, it appears (to me) that the water is in great shape and is even drinkable (after boiling to sterilize) in case of serious natural or man made emergencies that disrupt the local water supply. No detection of any of the organics evaluated. All of the inorganics meet EPA requirements for drinking water except slightly high iron and manganese just above the upper limit of EPA guidelines.
I'm happy with both the results and the testing experience.
I was testing a spring fed, man made pond on my property. The pond itself is about 1/10th acre and is 70 years old, but the house and property have been around for 220 years and was often used as a farm. Hence, there was concern about all sorts of things that might have been used on the property since 1800.
The SafeHome Ultimate kit tests for 200 different chemicals and properties, including more than 150 different pesticides and other organic compounds using EPA methods. It is intended for tap and well water, but I used it on the pond.
I got it from amazon for $399. Very expensive compared to reef water ICP testing, but many more tests are involved.
It comes with several collection bottles of different types, some with preservatives in them, that you fill and send back to them in a prepaid shipping ice chest in a box. There was no need to use ice packs since the temp was not higher than their suggested limit for simple shipping in their box. I sent it back via a local UPS store.
It also includes a bacteria test that you do yourself. I haven't used that test since I'm sure the pond is loaded with natural bacteria. Hundreds of wood frogs had a mating frenzy in the pond a couple of weeks before I sampled (when the pond was still partly ice covered) and now the water is filled with thousands of pollywogs.
I got the results back about 3 weeks after I sent it in. The pdf report is attached and folks can see what was tested for and how they show results.
From the report, it appears (to me) that the water is in great shape and is even drinkable (after boiling to sterilize) in case of serious natural or man made emergencies that disrupt the local water supply. No detection of any of the organics evaluated. All of the inorganics meet EPA requirements for drinking water except slightly high iron and manganese just above the upper limit of EPA guidelines.
I'm happy with both the results and the testing experience.