PSA: Ditch your API test kit

[Timfish]

I couldn't find this file this morning but it's a comparison study DFMAS did a few years ago. I think it's a good demonstration of how subjective testing is for us.

 

[Subonidio]

Hannah checkers aren't the end all. I just ended up doing a series of water changes on my tank about 2 months ago due to faulty readings for my alk on the hannah checker.

I believe the reason had to do something with the reagents. I think over time something happened with the reagent. I like to keep my alk between 8 and 8.5. I did some alk tests and it said I was down in the 7's.

So I increase my dosing. I do this multiple times and just keep adding more and more. It gets to the point where as soon as the soda ash hits the water, it condensates. I'd never seen this happen before, but my parameters appeared way lower than would be needed to do that. In the future, that will be a clue for me, at the time I trusted the hannah test.

My coral started to look unhappy. I did an ICP and had high aluminum, so I thought that might be the issue. So I do a bunch of water changes to help that(I normally do not do water changes).

Doesn't really seem to help. Then I run out of reagent, and go to a new bottle of it. Readings come back with the alk over 13. Turn off my dosing and let it come back down to the 8's over time. Things are much happier now.

Needless to say, that was a bit unnerving and the next time my readings start looking low I'm going to use another test kit to confirm it.

I have done Test with

Hannah.

Salifert

Red Sea

Royal Nature (uk Brand)

API

And those sticks pool looking all in 1 deal

I still own and have them ready just because double guessing my self and the test ....... "reefing paranoia"

My experience is

Hannah to me it's the best .I get a number
I love the high range nitrate Hannah I can keep my Nitrates where I want them for all my acroporas with beautiful colors by the way

My calcium spot on all the time (Kalkwaser stirer)
Check every week with Hannah And salifert always good readings
(Hannah calcium Checker you need lab grade water to do the accurate test . I think that is the difference for fellow reefers they did not read the instructions)


2nd salifert for a friendly easy use very accurate always close to my Hannah checkers

3rd Royal nature 3rd place just because it's hard to come by but super easy to read color changing it's super good

4th red Sea to many steps (I call it the iphone of the test ) you pay more just because they make things a little more complicated

 

[Subonidio]

This is my tank I use Hannah checkers

 

[Subonidio]

And in case you are wondering why the glad is not clean and full of purple calcareous algae is because believe it or not I get coral babies of pocylopras that pop in the glass and if I clean it I will never know if I got baby "Pocys"

If you guys want me to start a post about it and know more let me know !! I will gladly give you All the info and how to spot them

 

[Subonidio]

Glass*

 

[mindme]

I have done Test with

Hannah.

Salifert

Red Sea

Royal Nature (uk Brand)

API

And those sticks pool looking all in 1 deal

I still own and have them ready just because double guessing my self and the test ....... "reefing paranoia"

My experience is

Hannah to me it's the best .I get a number
I love the high range nitrate Hannah I can keep my Nitrates where I want them for all my acroporas with beautiful colors by the way

My calcium spot on all the time (Kalkwaser stirer)
Check every week with Hannah And salifert always good readings
(Hannah calcium Checker you need lab grade water to do the accurate test . I think that is the difference for fellow reefers they did not read the instructions)


2nd salifert for a friendly easy use very accurate always close to my Hannah checkers

3rd Royal nature 3rd place just because it's hard to come by but super easy to read color changing it's super good

4th red Sea to many steps (I call it the iphone of the test ) you pay more just because they make things a little more complicated

Yes, despite the regent problem I still plan to keep using the hannah and have. I'll just in the future be more in touch that the results can get low. Looking back there were many signs I should have noticed, but I didn't because I just kept assuming the test was correct regardless of the other evidence. Live and learn.

2 biggest factors to me with testing is how difficult it is to test and how easy it is to read. For example, I also have the hannah calcium test, but I'm less of a fan of it because it's such a pain to test. The cool thing about the alk tester is it's quick and easy. But I still use the hannah for calcium because I like the number for reading, also I paid for it and want to get my money's worth. If I had to do it over, I probably would go with another brand and if it messes up, I will do that.

That said, I wouldn't spend this kind of money on tests for my 29g anemone tank. The only alk/calcium usage comes from coraline, and that gets depleted quickly(I rarely do water changes). I don't even do tests on it outside salinity, so if I felt I needed a test on it(and didn't have everything for my 180g) I would 100% just go pick up some API tests.

 

[MnFish1]

My point exactly... it shows ammonia when there shouldn't be.

Both of those tests per the instructions on the kit - show zero ammonia

 

[MnFish1]

Ummm used api freahwater and saltwater amnonia test and never got 0.25 reading.
I dont own any hannah checkers as close to double the price of what I see americans say they pay for theres,and started off with api but kept reading not accurate so get at least salifert so I did but on the tests I got same of api and salifert,I pretty much get same reading so if spent £ 430/ just short of $600 for 6 hannah checkers and got same readings as api and salifert I ne doubly annoyed pffft
I not got api phosphate test but read its either 0 or 0.25 and no inbetween so imo that's not good,but the 3 or 4 colours from 0-0.25 on salifert isn't much difference at all so very annoying .
But my personally opinion is I read often on this forum, stability is key so if follow api instructions exactly and get consistent results ( which I do,tested multiply times right after each other) then for me it tells me if I'm in my target range,it's to low,it's to high.

But I'm only 1 year Into reefing and tank not full off corals and doubt I ever get any " high end " very expensive corals as lots of beautiful cheap corals out there,which I'm happy enough with .

I have no proof on this but I think alot of stuff in life in general ,alot just say what others say because that's what majority says so dont want to go against the grain and stand out,rather than just say " alot of people say api isn't very accurate/ reliable,but I have no experience using api and not even sure if true"

And I'm not saying op is saying/ doing this or anyone in this thread ,just my experience in life when questioning people as I'm very curious and go into stuff in depth ( anyone who reads my threads will surely agree I go on and on and on,I bore myself sometimes lol,) just want be clear and no misunderstandings

Aw and to add when cycled my tank with doctor tims amnonian chloride,adding x amount of drops equated to what it stated it should be on the bottle using api amnonia tester so that read exactly what it should

AGREE

 

[MnFish1]

I have done Test with

Hannah.

Salifert

Red Sea

Royal Nature (uk Brand)

API

And those sticks pool looking all in 1 deal

I still own and have them ready just because double guessing my self and the test ....... "reefing paranoia"

My experience is

Hannah to me it's the best .I get a number
I love the high range nitrate Hannah I can keep my Nitrates where I want them for all my acroporas with beautiful colors by the way

My calcium spot on all the time (Kalkwaser stirer)
Check every week with Hannah And salifert always good readings
(Hannah calcium Checker you need lab grade water to do the accurate test . I think that is the difference for fellow reefers they did not read the instructions)


2nd salifert for a friendly easy use very accurate always close to my Hannah checkers

3rd Royal nature 3rd place just because it's hard to come by but super easy to read color changing it's super good

4th red Sea to many steps (I call it the iphone of the test ) you pay more just because they make things a little more complicated

I'm going to play devils advocate. A little You're right - with hanna you get a 'number' and people tend to think that 'number' is somehow sacred. It is not. It is no different than API IMHO. It is a number with a range. API is a number with a range - Frankly - who cares if your Calcium is really 420 or 440? It makes no difference in the reality of the tank. BUT - and I'm not criticizing you personally - the psychology is like looking at a blood test - if one says your white blood count is 10,113, and the second one says your white blood count is between 9900 and 11000 - there is really no difference - and it doesn't matter to you - but the person would gravitate to say 'the NUMBER' is the most accurate - which may be totally false. FWIW - I bought multiple hanna checkers - I got repeated values that made no sense - I sold them all on ebay. Many people have success with them - all good I hate them and their little pouches, etc - again - not against you as a person - just my opinion

 

[MnFish1]

And to me, the color looks like .25

to me that card looks old - and is not the colors on my cards. Second - he said show me a test differentiating between 0.00 and 0.04 (not 0.40). I don't know where or when you got that card - that is not the card that I see for the 'saltwater version'. Second - The color is not designed to be read through a camera, etc - its designed to be read next to the card in a brightly lit/daylight room. No offense - you can google it yourself. There are multiple versions/pictures supposedly - showing colors - most of them have the vials in completely the wrong position or in the wrong light.. If you look at the card itself - I do not see those colors

 

[WVNed]

I found trying to judge color under our new LED lighting is difficult at best. I see a different color under every lamp in the house.
So I went Hanna.
I used API for a very long time. I compared the results to Sailfert and they usually matched. It was obvious when you took the judgement part away. The trick to using API is to simply understand what the colors mean. You dont need to convert the results to numbers.
Without sunlight the Sailfert tests went the way of API (except for MG) last winter. When they get old I will pitch them.

 

[HawkeyeDJ]

when i used api, i am able to 100% confirm that they are inaccurate. how do i know? well, i was able to confirm with 2 additional test kits.
ammonia-always reads .25 where as a red sea kit will read 0, and also confirmed by an LFS.
nitrite- the last time i cycled a new tank, my api kit tested .5. the LFS used an api kit and it tested 0. my red sea kit tested 0.
phosphate-apit kit is horribly inaccurate. reads .25 or more when there is less than .02.
ive also had api kits not even change color with regards to a nitrate test, which is obviously wrong, and was confirmable by doing a red sea test.

they are good starter kits, but if accuracy means anything, for the person using it, the readings should be taken with skepticism

I speak from my own experience and API ammonia does not "always read .25". The weakness in API is not that they are inaccurate so much as they are "imprecise." For example, look at the API color chart for phosphate. The first two color bars are 0.0 (too low) and 0.25 (too high) and if the sample color falls somewhere in between those two, we're expected to eyeball a number? Not good enough.

API is just fine for starting out to get the feel for testing and to cycle a tank.

 

[melonheadorion]

I speak from my own experience and API ammonia does not "always read .25". The weakness in API is not that they are inaccurate so much as they are "imprecise." For example, look at the API color chart for phosphate. The first two color bars are 0.0 (too low) and 0.25 (too high) and if the sample color falls somewhere in between those two, we're expected to eyeball a number? Not good enough.

API is just fine for starting out to get the feel for testing and to cycle a tank.

i think you are taking what i said, out of context. the .25 reading is the reading that "I" always get, so its so imprecise for me. but, not only just me. if you search these boards, you will find post after post of a .25 reading. i also have the phosphate test kit. and can also confirm that for "me/i", it is even further off than a quality kit, but again, it doesnt get you an ability to confirm a huge spread of 0-0.25, which just doesnt work if you have corals at all. so, in essence, you may as well just ditch that phosphate kit unless youre simply trying to confirm a high phosphate level over.25

so, although its good for someone starting out, we cant discount the fact that they are innacurate often.

 

[Garf]

i think you are taking what i said, out of context. the .25 reading is the reading that "I" always get, so its so imprecise for me. but, not only just me. if you search these boards, you will find post after post of a .25 reading. i also have the phosphate test kit. and can also confirm that for "me/i", it is even further off than a quality kit, but again, it doesnt get you an ability to confirm a huge spread of 0-0.25, which just doesnt work if you have corals at all. so, in essence, you may as well just ditch that phosphate kit unless youre simply trying to confirm a high phosphate level over.25

so, although its good for someone starting out, we cant discount the fact that they are innacurate often.

Are you mixing the reagents by sticking your finger over the end of the tube?

 

[melonheadorion]

Are you mixing the reagents by sticking your finger over the end of the tube?

no

 

[Garf]

no

Dosing Aminos or Prime? Do you test straight after feeding or blasting the rocks or sand cleaning? No matter, as a tiny reading like that is actually within levels detected at some areas in the sea, so could actually be correct. Try testing new saltwater, I’m guessing you’ll get a zero.

Edit, for ammonia, that is

 

[melonheadorion]

also, if they are only imprecise, then you would have to explain a reading that i get for something simple, and im just going to use my example here (even though generally dont need to test for it), of nitrite. why would my kit read .5, but the LFS's API kit shows 0 using the same water on the same day. 10 minutes part. there is a difference between imprecise, and inaccurate in that instance. it is verified that one of the test kits, and doesnt even matter which one, but one of them is absolutely wrong, and its not even a matter of being imprecise. i can even double check these numbers to a non-api kit, that i would trust more, and be able to see that they are so far off that is not imprecise.
so, if you want to use API, go ahead. im not going to knock ya for doing it, but at least recognize that their readings can be completely wrong, and is verifiable as being wrong. ive had my first api kit be pretty accurate, but my second isnt. so, take it for what its worth, but at least acknowledge that its can be innacurate a little, or completely incorrect

 

[melonheadorion]

Dosing Aminos or Prime? Do you test straight after feeding or blasting the rocks or sand cleaning? No matter, as a tiny reading like that is actually within levels detected at some areas in the sea, so could actually be correct. Try testing new saltwater, I’m guessing you’ll get a zero.

Edit, for ammonia, that is

perhaps you didnt read my initial post. i can confirm, testing with two seperate api kits, and confirming numbers with my red sea kit, that the api is innacurate. if i take a test between a red sea kit and an api kit at the same time, regardless of what is being dosed, cleaned, whatever excuse you want to use, they should have the same reading. they simply dont. ammonia is the best example i can use. my red sea kit will read 0, whereas api is .25

 

[melonheadorion]

And I'm going to prove this, because you don't seem to want to accept reality of wha the experience is.i just started this test 5 minutes ago. The starting color, vs 4 minutes. You can see it isn't 0.

 

[melonheadorion]

in 9 minutes, i will show you what a red sea kit reads. So now it is complete. Here is the starting color and the end color

for sake of showing color compared to the chart, i had to put it in a smaller bottle and hold next to it, otherwise refraction and light makes the larger bottles' color shadow too much. as you will see, there is no change in the color. i even gave the API kit less time than it requires to come up with its color, and its noticeable that its not reading 0 like the red sea kit.

these water samples used the same dropper, taken out of the same spot in the tank, minutes apart