Test Kits

[bambo]

OK folks. Noobie question. What are the best test kits to use and why? Some of these things are really expensive.

 

[skiergd011013]

I have hanna alk, calcium, and mag checkers. I prefer the digital readout, rather than trying to guess on color changes with other kits

 

[Fish & Coral Store]

i like hanna as well

 

[Tahoe61]

Salifert. I absolutely hate Hanna's little reagent packs. It doesn't take me any longer to use a Salifert than Hanna.

 

[twentyleagues]

Hannah alk, phos, nitrate, are expensive but worth it IMO, the calcium checker on the other hand no thanks ill use redsea or salifert.
I also use api and have no issues for an off hand or cross check against the hannah its not as accurate especially with the fact its color change for the most part. example my alk hovers near 8.5 hannah says 8.5, 8-9 drops on api gets the color change same with redsea. Could it be 8.2 or 8.8? yes. Does it matter that much? no. I used only api from 1999 until 2008 besides salifert thats about all we had or was readily available.

 

[Koty]

I use Hanna KH PO4 NO3 Ca and Mg. The last two are not great. Mg is real crap as the tips do not hold and are not sealed well leading to inherent inaccuracy

 

[bambo]

So looks like Hanna test kits. what are the must haves? Alk, Pho, Ca?

 

[Koty]

Alk is always important to test. PO4 and NO3 become less significant as your tank matures. You will see that your corals could not care less as long as they are not real zero.

 

[rishma]

I have used Hanna Alk and Hanna phosphorous ULR since they first came out. Those two are are my most frequent tests and when they eventually die I’ll buy them again.

Nitrate test is my 3rd most used and I have a Red Sea pro kit. Works good enough for me and I’ll likely not change because I am so familiar with it. Regents are about empty and I’ll replace them soon.

Like many reefers here, I don’t test magnesium and there is no kit I would recommend. Inaccuracy seems more common than reliability in magnesium test kits. Look up Randy’s Magnesium Method.

I rarely test calcium and think Salifert or Red Sea are fine. When my regents expire I am sure I won’t replace it. 2x per year ICP is frequent enough calcium test for me.

I have not had any other kits for many years.

 

[twentyleagues]

So looks like Hanna test kits. what are the must haves? Alk, Pho, Ca?

If you could only get one get the alk. Forget the calcium hannah test. It requires you to pretty much use lab grade pure water for the test. Distilled may be ok but I heard that even distilled could still have some calcium in it so that will throw off a test on a test that is easily messed up or fairly inaccurate in the first place same goes for mag as @rishma said. Get a cheaper test kit for those I recommend redsea pro great little test kit that will test alk, calc, and mag my calc and mag seemed pretty spot on to icp test from those. Once on a dosing solution the corals use a specific amount of the major three so your alk testing should cover the majority of scenarios. I test calc once a month and mag when I feel like it probably every 3 months. I like to check my nitrate and phos weekly so I use the hannahs as they give me an easy to read number not some maybe the color is this or that or did it shift with x or y drops. But I still go for my api kit when I am feeling cheap. Gives a good enough idea.

 

[hugopapi24]

Hanna checkers but they are pretty expensive

 

[rishma]

Once on a dosing solution the corals use a specific amount of the major three so your alk testing should cover the majority of scenarios.

I want to emphasize this point. Once you’re dosing calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium for corals, you can use the nearly fixed ratio these are consumed in to dose what you need to based on alkalinity. This is the reason I rarely test calcium, never test magnesium, and dose all three based on alkalinity consumption. An occasional calcium check is probably sensible, but I take occasionally to mean semi-annually :)

 

[Uncle99]

So looks like Hanna test kits. what are the must haves? Alk, Pho, Ca?

Alk cause it’s fast and easy and I do that test daily.
UL phosphorus in PPB, cause it’s the only test I’ve ever found that can discern below .2ppm consistently.
CA and MG Hanna is garbage and inaccurate as the sample size is too small for consistency. Salifert and Aquaforest for CA and MG work great as the colour change is easy to discern by eye.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Hanna, Salifert or RedSea are the ones I usually recommend to people

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

So looks like Hanna test kits. what are the must haves? Alk, Pho, Ca?

Not in my opinion. The Hanna calcium is not a good design and gives many folks issues. I would recommend Salifert for calcium.

I do not recommend testing magnesium.

The Hanna alk is OK, but so is a diy using a pH meter and a standard acid.

 

[BriDroid]

I have switched over to Hanna for everything that I test. One thing that I did do, and it seems to give me more consistent results, I don't use their measuring devices. I bought some pipettes from Amazon and I use those instead. That way I'm always getting 10ml consistently or adding the exact amount of liquid reagents. My numbers got way more consistent once I started using my own pipettes. They are also pretty easy to calibrate with a scale and RODI water.