Professional Grade Nitrate/Phosphate Test Kits?

[mbarber87]

Being newer to the hobby (1-2 years), I have heard a lot of problems with consumer-grade test kits that most of us use. I've even seen some people say that its not even worth using these, as they have such a large margin of error. That being said, what are some professional grade nitrate and phosphate test kits that you recommend?

 

[piranhaman00]

Salifert is plenty accurate enough for hobby use.

 

[Reef.]

Being newer to the hobby (1-2 years), I have heard a lot of problems with consumer-grade test kits that most of us use. I've even seen some people say that its not even worth using these, as they have such a large margin of error. That being said, what are some professional grade nitrate and phosphate test kits that you recommend?

Try a few kits, most tests don’t need to be that accurate, the rest are good enough, PO4 is IMO is the most difficult test to find a good one, even that I would say there is no need for a professional level test, Hanna or Red Sea pro is probably a good place to start.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Being newer to the hobby (1-2 years), I have heard a lot of problems with consumer-grade test kits that most of us use. I've even seen some people say that its not even worth using these, as they have such a large margin of error. That being said, what are some professional grade nitrate and phosphate test kits that you recommend?

Most professional chemists do not use kits for ions like these (they would use instrumental methods such as ion chromatography) unless they want an answer while still in the field.

That said, Hach makes kits intended for water professionals. Doesn't mean they are "better", but they may have better things like quality controls.

www.hach.com

 

[Dan_P]

Being newer to the hobby (1-2 years), I have heard a lot of problems with consumer-grade test kits that most of us use. I've even seen some people say that its not even worth using these, as they have such a large margin of error. That being said, what are some professional grade nitrate and phosphate test kits that you recommend?

As the analyst, you need to first decide how precise and accurate you need measurements to be. Then you go shopping for your analytical method. A large margin of error can be acceptable for some analytes.