[Jasonanatal]

Which Liquid Test Kits Are Most Accurate?

Well I must confess that with over 2 years in the hobby and great equipment from reputable manufacturers such as Tunze and Precision Marine I regret to inform everyone that I was tempted by the low prices of the Aquarium [SIZE=3][FONT=Calibri]Pharmaceuticals Liquid Test Kits. (Yes I know sham on me). Well it almost 2008 and I've stepped up almost every other aspect of my Reef Keeping Hobby and now it time to do so again. My question is this. Despite the price which liquid test kit for various chemicals such as Calcium, Magnesium, phosphates, etc do you consider the most efficient and the most accurate? I've been considering such liquid test kits from LaMotte and Elos but would love to get everyone elses thoughts on this matter.[/FONT][/SIZE]

[RyanG]

I prefer Elos test kits...they don't use nasty chemicals unlike salifert and they have been spot on 99% of the time.

[pogodzib]

I've never used Elos, but have used plenty of other brands. The Salifert kits have always given consistent results and they always appear to be accurate. I would definitely recommend staying away from American Pharmaceuticals, American System and Red Sea.

[RyanG]

Originally Posted by pogodzib

I've never used Elos, but have used plenty of other brands. The Salifert kits have always given consistent results and they always appear to be accurate. I would definitely recommend staying away from American Pharmaceuticals, American System and Red Sea.

I 2nd staying away from Red Sea, American System, and American Pharmaceuticals

[Amphibious]

I have used Aquarium Pharmaceuticals test kits for years with good results. I also have Salifert for Magnesium and Phosphate, they are easy and accurate. But for those that want the best, in my humble opinion, LaMotte would get my nod. That's why I voted for them. They are a bit pricey and that's why they are not used by casual hobbyists. LaMotte is the brand I prefer.

Dick

[e_baer]

I have salifert. i think it is fairly accurate, every oncce in a while a result may come out all wacky, but then I just have to redo the whole test.

[Amphibious]

We are working with extremely small water samples and potent chemicals. An error the size of one drop will give false/inaccurate readings. That's why it's critical to be exact in our testing.

Dick

[cokipoint]

I am new to the hobby. I bought the Red Sea master kit. The only part I do not like is having to match the colors, but I assume that is the same with all test kits. Can anyone tell me what is so bad about the Red Sea kits.

[Ganrin]

I use the Aquarium Systems kit that used to be called FasTest years ago, foil packets of dry powder reagents. I also use API liquid tests for calcium and phosphate, and Elos mg kit.

I have had very consistent test results over the last 3 months, to the point I was wondering if my kits were accurate. I took a water sample with me to the store yesterday and he got exactly the same results with Elos kits as I had been getting with AS and API.

[sundaybum]

Does anyone have an opinion on Tetratest kits? They seem to be the only one avalible at my local stores. It seems to be a good test kit, but I have yet to hear anything about it...

[Amphibious]

My advice is to go on-line to Drs Foster and Smith and get better test kits than Tetra. As you can see above we favor Salifert test kits. There is a reason for that.

[tomc1980]

I use the Aquarium Systems tests to ganrin love em easy to use and accurate.

[lazy reef guy]

This Was A Couple Of Years Ago But I Used To Use Dry Tab And There Was No Way To Mess Them Up All You Did Was Put A Little Pill In The Vial Of Water And Crush It Up . But Havent Been Able To Find Them Any More.