Recommended brands for testing?

ying yang

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Hi all hope all is well.
New to saltwater and tank 4 months old roughly.
Been reading about what different brands of test kits over last couple months since joined r2r so thought i start own thread and get recommendations all in one place.
Im reading all hobby grade test kits are just that ( hobby grade and just give rough estimate) with some being little more accurate/consistent than others.
At present i prefer most soft/lps corals than i do sps so tank for the forseeable future be softie/ lps dominated tank with maybe little of the easier to keep sps if decide like a piece so what brand of test kit for what test ?
Not sure it matters that much but usually most say what in tank .
Current livestock= common fish/cuc
Ywg / tiger pistol shrimp.
2 common clowns.
Gold streaked blennie.
Silver belly wrasse
2 skunk cleaner shrimps.
3 red scarlet hermits,mix of 6 mini hermits.
6 nas snails.
6 trouchus snails
2 conchs.
2 tuxedo urchins.
Will be adding more cuc bit at a time when needed.
I do 10% wc each week with rodi +io salt ,started off with the cheaper salt to cycle and whilst just fish with intention of changing salt if needed different numbers in elements depending upon my corals as i progress.
2 polyps of neon green paly's.
11 polyps of random orange zoa's

I want nice looking tank but cant justify spending £70-£75 ($100-$105) each hanna test kit etc so best of liquid test kits recomendations please.unless certain liquid test kits using colour cards are just completely useless.
Only test kit i bought so far is the api master saltwater test kit which doesnt get good recommendations whatsoever ( well some do say if do test properley get same result as using another test kit) high range ph,amnonia,nitrate,nitrate .

Im thinking first tests to buy would be ....
Nitrate
Ph
Phospate
Alk
Then as get into lps corals then buy.......
Calcium
Magnesium
Thinking as tank is cycled i wont need to buy amnonia or nitrite test kits and if do have large die off or some tank crash then can just use api amnonia to tell me if showing amnonia or not and as nitrite not harmful because of the chloride in salt unless extremely high then no need to buy nitrite test kit apart from any nitrite in the water will make nitrate teat kit reaults be wrong because way some teat kits work out nitraye ?
If missed any parameter out please add.

I understand keeping parameters within certain figures and stability the key and if change then change slowly so not to stress anything and that certain parameters affect how other parameters react and work etc.
As time goes by will have better understanding of what each does and how it works like relationship between alk-calcium and the likes.
Thankyou in advance.
 

lapin

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Hi all hope all is well.
New to saltwater and tank 4 months old roughly.
Been reading about what different brands of test kits over last couple months since joined r2r so thought i start own thread and get recommendations all in one place.
Im thinking first tests to buy would be ....
Nitrate - Red Sea
Ph - Not really needed after 4 months
Phosphate - Hanna ULR easy and accurate
Alk - Hanna easy and accurate
Then as get into lps corals then buy.......
Calcium - Salfert
Magnesium - Salfert
 

PatW

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Ah testing

Nitrate - for testing at the lower levels (sub 5 ppm), I like Red Sea Pro. Salifert is OK and cheaper.

Ph - I have used Red Sea but it has never been an issue and I do not test for it.

Phosphate - Hanna ULR phosphorous gets the nod over the ULR phosphate for being more sensitive. The Hanna ULR tests are the only ones that are sensitive enough to be of much use.

ALK - Hanna is very well liked. But I have found that Red Sea Pro and Salifert are just as good. Both of these are titration tests with a color end point that takes a little getting used to and decent color discrimination. Hanna gives a digital read out which is a plus. A minus is when you go to a new reagent bottle the results can be plus or minus about .2 DKH. Why can’t they standardize this?

Calcium - I use Red Sea Pro. I Bet that Salifert is good also,

Magnesium - I do not get consistent results with Red Sea. I get consistent results with Salifert. I think any test in this area is pretty ball park. The uptake of magnesium by growing hard corals is far lower than the consumption of ALK and Ca. I have an SPS dominant tank with decent coral growth and I dose ALK and Ca. But water changes maintain my magnesium just fine. I measure Magnesium when I do a water change and it never seems to change.
 

dedragon

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Ah testing

Nitrate - for testing at the lower levels (sub 5 ppm), I like Red Sea Pro. Salifert is OK and cheaper.

Ph - I have used Red Sea but it has never been an issue and I do not test for it.

Phosphate - Hanna ULR phosphorous gets the nod over the ULR phosphate for being more sensitive. The Hanna ULR tests are the only ones that are sensitive enough to be of much use.

ALK - Hanna is very well liked. But I have found that Red Sea Pro and Salifert are just as good. Both of these are titration tests with a color end point that takes a little getting used to and decent color discrimination. Hanna gives a digital read out which is a plus. A minus is when you go to a new reagent bottle the results can be plus or minus about .2 DKH. Why can’t they standardize this?

Calcium - I use Red Sea Pro. I Bet that Salifert is good also,

Magnesium - I do not get consistent results with Red Sea. I get consistent results with Salifert. I think any test in this area is pretty ball park. The uptake of magnesium by growing hard corals is far lower than the consumption of ALK and Ca. I have an SPS dominant tank with decent coral growth and I dose ALK and Ca. But water changes maintain my magnesium just fine. I measure Magnesium when I do a water change and it never seems to change.
this^
 
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ying yang

ying yang

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Ok thanks for replys guys,much appreciated will order some these tests in next few days.
 

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