Does My Plan Sound Ok

[MrLiam]

Ok my plan for the next few weeks as I have no school (Fishy is going to love that) im going to be testing tomorrow then if all my params are good then im thinking of ordering a few extra test kits for corals. Then when I have them if all ok then I will be ordering a few coral frags of off the tinternet. Which test kits do you recommend they will be salifert. And the corals that im looking at is sun coral got a nice spot for one of these and I like the candy cane but not sure on there requirements.

So basically I will hopefully have a few corals before I get my next fish does this sound good.


PS done a water change today and will be testing tomorrow.

 

[fishy55599]

do you need extra kits for corals?
sun coral is nice, im gonna get one. But they need feeding everyfew days, and as you have T5's i would put it in a shaded area

 

[MrLiam]

Yeah I don't mind having to feed sun corals and I have a kind of arch/cave so they will be put under there where there isn't much flow either.

The test kits I mean as extra is like phosphate,calcium and magnesium but im not sure which ones are the best and which ones I need.

 

[fishy55599]

oh i think im just gonna get another API

and i still need fish

for more info i would pm sorgan

 

[MrLiam]

Is that the API reef test kit I thought that but lots of people say how much better salifert are.

 

[seffieuk]

Ok my plan for the next few weeks as I have no school (Fishy is going to love that)

Not just fishy me too!

IME salifert are more reliable

 

[fishy55599]

IME salifert are more reliable

and expensive

 

[MrLiam]

But if they save you by having more accurate results then your corals wont die as a result of having bad ones.

Seffie if your still here what test kits should I get?

 

[fishy55599]

yeah, i might get salifet eventually but when first setting up it would be too much

 

[seffieuk]

Salifert

 

[MrLiam]

I think I will get phosphate definitely and a magnesium or calcium either one and then I will get the other one later due to the money side of things. And I should be saving for insurance and driving lessons for next year O well there's plenty of time until I need to.

 

[woody88]

Salifert are top notch kits. You get what you pay for which is why they're more expensive.
I paid around £60 for 8 test kits.

For coral you'll need a min of phosphate, calcium, magnesium and iodine.

Phosphate being the biggy as phos seriously retards coral growth and promotes nuisance algae.

 

[weezawoo]

I have heard salifert is very unreliable for phosphate. Its fine for the rest but not phos!
Im actually going to use tropic marin for my tests as these are meant to be good!
Test kits do cost a lot but they are worth it for the reasurance your water is right! I am getting my water tested for free atm so I wont be getting kits until I have corals in there.

 

[Chris_C]

I used Salifert until recently when i spoke to a scientist who works on testing all different kits and develops them himself. He said Salifert are not worth the extra money and are poor tests basically and half of them don't work. He wasn't trying to sell any other product to me so i see no reason for him to lie.

 

[seffieuk]

I used Salifert until recently when i spoke to a scientist who works on testing all different kits and develops them himself. He said Salifert are #105###e basically and half the tests don't work. He wasn't trying to sell any other product to me so i see no reason for him to lie.

I suspect he would say that if he is using lab grade tests, but we as hobbyists need the best kit for a decent price, imo that's salifert. However am hearing good things about the redsea test kits and I know the D & D kits have a good rep as well, but again it comes down to price and ease of use. I think his comment 'half the tests don't work' is a little strange!