Api Master Test Kits

[stanleo]

I just did a little experiment. I have 3 tanks. 10g FW, 29g FW, and a 55g SW. I did the nitrate test on all 3 at the same time with API master. the 10g shows 5 ppm. the 29g shows 40ppm, and the 55g shows 10ppm (that could be wrong cause I only have a freshwater chart so I'm going by the one on the screen in the previous reply). My instructions say to shake bottle #2 vigorously for 30sec and the test tube for 1 minute so that's what I did. I have been testing the 29g every day cause I heard that they are not all that accurate so I want an average to compare and that result is constant. The 10g is the same as it was on Thursday, the last time I tested it. I never used this one for the SW and I have been out of the nitrate test for SW so I haven't tested that in a while. I shook it vigorously so I am pretty confident that the readings are accurate.

Although I am not a chemist and I am still a newby at all this so I could bet talking out my full point of contact!

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I know I keep posting this vid- but it really does illustrate some interesting things about aquarium test kits vs a better one, The Hach kit he uses is either the Nitrite/Nitrate one (Nitrate-Nitrite Test Kit, Model NI-12) they sell for $126 or the nitrite-n one (Nitrogen, Nitrite Test Kit, Model NI-15) they sell for $76.15 (100 tests). It looks like the 2nd one to me.
 
I can get an API nitrite kit for $5 (180 tests) or a Salifert for $17 (60 tests).
 
[media]http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPiDRid_Km8[/media]

 

[stanleo]

So does that mean even though my API kit measures 0 ppm on nitrites I may have higher than that? That's kinda scary. How do you get accurate results if you can't afford 170 bucks to test your water?

 

[TwoTankAmin]

No Stan, what it means is in addition to the issues with the shaking of the #2 bottle on the nitrate kit, you need to understand how it works to make the best use of it.
 
What that vid shows us is there are times when hobby tests kit results are more trustworthy than others. For the tests we use regarding cycling issues, the probems mostly occur at the ends of the scale- that is for very low readings or very high ones.
 
If we know what the possible shortcomings of the test kits are, we can deal with them. For example, a persistent low level ammonia reading in the absence of an ensuing persistent low level nitrite reading should give us a clue that maybe the ammonia isn't there and something else is causing a false reading.
 
We learn that during a cycle, when we expect to see nitrite (and maybe lots of it), that using the nitrate test will not be accurate unless we first test for nitrite. Sometimes we should not even bother. Besides, if we are not running a high tech planted tank, instead of worrying about nitrate, we just do the regular weekly water changes. After all, when something goes wrong in a tank, I think most of us reach for the ammonia kit, not the nitrate one.
 
We learn that when we get readings for ammonia, nitrite or nitrate that are either off the scale or way too low when we are expecting very high, that there are ways to alter the test process to compensate.
 
Hobby test kits can serve our purposes quite well at a price most of us can afford. And they are certainly a lot more useful than no tests at all by a very large amount.

 

[JohnofBothwell]

I started by using the Colombo Testlab Professional. However after consistently getting zero ammonia results after adding 3ppm ammonia daily for about five days, I realised that the results must be rubbish, so bought a JBL Ammonia test kit, and guess what - the results were off the scale, 95% water change later, and I held the ammonia on the JBL test kit at 3ppm for about a week. Nitrite on the Colombo kit showing 0ppm . After about a week, the ammonia started falling, and the Nitrite started rising. This made sense so I added ammonia daily to restore 3ppm, and it cycled back to 0ppm after 24hours. Nitrite and Nitrate went through the roof. (>100ppm Nitrate from tapwater of 0ppm). Two conclusions. 1. Don't trust a single test kit - some are rubbish. 2. Ignore the numbers except 0ppm, and watch for trends. Ask yourself 'does this result make sense?'. The graphs for the rise and fall of ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate in fishless cycling are pretty well known, and your test trends should tell you where you are in the cycle.