What do you use for Test Kits?

BiGGiePauls33

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Just like the title says. I was wondering what brand test kits people use. I've had API, and currently use Red Sea Pro kits. Been looking at the Hanna checkers for ease of use.
 
Salifert for Mg, Calcium, phosphate. Finally just pulled the trigger on Hanna alkalinity checker - used it twice so far.
 
Salinity, dKH, and Po4 - Hannah
Calcium/Nitrate/Magnesium - Red Sea Pro

I didn't have any trust in the Hanna kit until I ordered a standard 7.5 dKH solution. Salifert produced results in the 8's, RSP high 7's and Hanna gave me 7.5 +/- .1 dkh each time. Trust it now
 
Salinity - Orion 105A+ lab grade probe. You'd be amazed at how far off some refractometers and the Milwaukee are. That doesn't mean you can't use them though, you just have to know the correction.

pH - Any hobby grade probe is fine, you just have to calibrate it properly
temp - same as for pH

Alk - Hanna
Calc - Salifert
Mag - Salifert
Phos - Hanna
Nitrate - Salifert
Copper (for QT) - Hanna - the best advancement for QT success in a LONG time

All that being said, for all of the bashing API kits get - Alk specifically - I've always found it to be pretty accurate. I just use the Hanna because it's accurate, repeatable, and easy.
 
Salinity with a refractometer.

Phosphate and nitrate I generally don't bother with.

I also like the Salifert for Mg. I used to make kind of a homemade version with a HACH kit (super cheap per test), but I test for Mg so rarely it's not really worth it as the reagents would get old.

I really like the Hanna kit for Ca. But you of course need good lab technique. I also don't test very often for Ca. Maybe once every few months.

For alkalinity (which I test for about every 3 days or so) I've made my own reagent using Bromophenol blue and some sodium hydroxide and HCl.

Here's the receipe. You can make gallons for very low $.

Alkalinity test kit reagent recipe:

0.2 g Bromophenol blue (Sigma sells it, other chemical supply companies also, might be able to get it online somewhere)

0.2 ml of 5 Molar NaOH to help dissolve the Bromophenol blue

800 ml DI water

4.15 ml concentrated HCl (lab grade HCl is 36%, you could also use muriatic acid from the hardware store, but you’d have to use a bit more)

Use 15 ml of tank water and add the reagent dropwise. The color will initially be blue, then change to a yellowish/orangish tint when the titration is complete. Depending on the drop size you get out of your dropper bottle I usually find one drop equals 0.2 meq/l. I usually add it from a 1 mL syringe. You of course can test your reagent against a standard test kit like the Fastest kits.
 
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