Test Master Kits

[Blue Ram]

Hi all, I have wasted money buying individual tests as opposed to the master kits, So today I went out and bought a master kit by Nutra fin. It was £19.99 but I have since found that it does not include a test for hardness. I should have asked on here before buying, but does anyone have any knowledge about or used the nutafin kit and is it as reliable as others?

note to self... Don't forget to buy a hardness testing kit

 

[Blue Ram]

bump

 

[OldMan47]

I've never tried it, I always have used the API kit. As long as the chemicals are fairly fresh and the colour charts are clear it should not be a problem. With my kit there are some tests where it is hard to tell what the results mean because the colours are too close to each other. I am sure that is an issue with any kit since the indicator dyes are gradually changing as the concentrations in the tank water changes. The fine shading differences can be hard to see. Very few of the master kits include hardness because its not a real issue with most fish. There is a kit called GH & KH on the label, made by API, that will tell you anything you want to know about hardness but I only got it when I decided to make sure my RO water was not too soft for my fish.

 

[waterdrop]

Hi Steve,

I think I remember BTT (backtotropical) saying he used that Hagen kit. You might try PM'ing him.

My guess is that you are on to "the other" good and generally accepted kit alongside the API one. I'm mostly a beginner like you so that should be verified by the experienced members here. I remember googling the Hagen kit a number of times and seeing the little "suitcase" look combined with I think seeing one of their models that included salt water tests and was over one hundred dollars. Of course that seemed like too much but now I realize I was just confusing the different kit models and their regular kit and even the mini-master would be just fine.

I'm not sure what your situation is but if you are a beginner learning to test for cycling purposes then you may be worrying too much. You probably don't need General Hardness (GH) at all and Carbonate Hardness (KH) is probably only useful if you have quick pH lowerings that make you suspect lack of buffering. (I'm in a discussion of it with Colin in a nearby thread here btw.)

(wait a minute.. I remember your 3ft tank pics with the angels, sorry, you're not really a beginner!) Anyway I use the API Freshwater Master Test Kit and am happy but I think the Hagen Nutrafin Master Test Kit is the other good fully-stocked one - they'd probably be good checks of each other if you had both (probably at least a few hard cores will now tell us they do!) I still think when you google the Hagen kits there is some confusion about what kits are available and what their model numbers are (ie. fresh-only vs fresh&salt.)

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Blue Ram]

Thank you for your replies, after borrowing a friends API kit this afternoon and comparing it to mine, we had almost identical results, so i am happy to carry on using the Hagen kit. As far as GH goes I really do like to use softer water for Angels and more especially for Rams, which is why I mentioned the GH/KH tests.