WARNING to anybody relying on strips to test their water

[Jeremy180]

I checked the Amazon page for this product after seeing what looked like anomalous test results for a member cycling thier tank.
The number of bad reviews complaining of inaccurate or plain ruined test strips here is very alarming to me, especially since a lot of the budget priced items tend to be purchased more often by beginners, who are less likely to catch things like this.

EDIT: It seems that I was incorrect in singling out one company, it appears that test strips in general suffer from this issue.
The other company's test strips page is much the same, with near identical numbers of complaints for inaccuracies, about 18-22%, by my guess.
Meanwhile the liquid test strips show only about a third of the number of negative rereviews with most of them related do damage in shipping, and I am guessing offhand less than 10% as many complaints of bad tests.

 

[NickAu]

Test strips are not as accurate as the liquid tests, It why we never recommend them on this site.

 

[FishGuest5123]

I agree. Test strips need to be trashed. They look so much cheaper in price but in the long run they cost more. The liquid test kit lasts longer and no comparison in accuracy. Test strips of any brand are a total waste of money. I think newbies can be intimated by the test tubes and all but the liquid test kits are really very easy to use.

 

[seangee]

I won't disagree that liquid tests are more accurate or reliable. But as we do have a lot of younger members who can't neccessarily afford to go out and buy master liquid kits it is worth pointing out the other side of the coin.

1. If you look after the strips they are good enough for most hobbyists. (As the OP points out it is possible to get a bad batch - but quite unusual)
2. The only nitrite vaues you care about are zero and non zero. I have never found strips that can't manage this.
3. The actual pH doesn't really matter. You need to know if your water is acidic or basic, and if it is extreme in either case. Beyond that you need only worry that it is stable.
4. Hardness is something most people will only test once - and its available on your water company's website. For most hobbyists the actual value doesn't matter as long as you know hard or soft - and its unlikely to change.
5. If you use a water conditioner at the recommended dose there is no need to test for chlorine.

I personally do have liquid tests for ammonia and nitrate. I only bought the ammonia test for cycling a new tank. Now that my tanks are established I don't ever test for ammonia. I do test for nitrates every week because I filter these as my tap water has very high nitrates. I only test the source water so that I know if my filter needs replacing. Testing nitrate with liquid tests is quite tedious (and often error prone). In my case I am only interested in non zero readings so I use the strips.

Since I use the strips weekly already I usually wave one in each tank every week and 60 seconds later I have an instant health check. I am only looking to see if everything is as I expect it. If I were to use liquid tests I would hardly ever bother - and for good reason. I have a consistent water change routine and the water parameters never change.

SO unless you have a specific issue that you are trying to fix or are trying to achieve a specific goal there is no need to throw out the strips and spend more because your fish don't care what you use to test the water. Rather spend the money on quality food.

 

[NickAu]

But as we do have a lot of younger members who can't neccessarily afford to go out and buy master liquid kits it is worth pointing out the other side of the coin.

The kits are cheap, and as necessary as a heater or filter.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/API-Freshw...165572&hash=item2cde44a749:g:5CIAAOSw7z1aKqw8

I tried the test strips and found them to be to inaccurate, nitrate of 10 on the liquid kit did not register on the strips.

 

[FishGuest5123]

I agree with above. As I said in my post above, the liquid comes out cheaper in the long run. I also have found the test strips seriously inaccurate.

 

[Jeremy180]

As I said acted in my post above, the liquid comes out cheaper in the long run. I also have found the test strips seriously inaccurate.

I Just checked the api 5 in 1 test strips, according to the reviews, this seems to be the case, there seem to be about the same number of complaints of inaccuracy with them.
Maybe a bit less, but not significantly so at all.

Meanwhile, Only about a third as many negative reviews on the Api Liquid test kit, and while a few complain of inaccurate results, The vast Majority of of them appear to be related to the kit being damaged during shipping.

Seems I was a bit too quick to Isolate one company.

 

[NickAu]

The biggest problem with the API kit is that it cant tell the difference between ammonia and ammonium.

 

[Colin_T]

The biggest problem with the API kit is that it cant tell the difference between ammonia and ammonium.

I don't know of any ammonia test kits that can differentiate between ammonia and ammonium.
It depends on what the pH of the water is as to whether you have ammonia or ammonium in the water and test kits will read both as the same thing.

The same deal with nitrate test kits. They read nitrite as nitrate and can't differentiate between the two.

 

[Jeremy180]

Well, since it seems I unfairly singled Out Tetra, I Have edited the title and original post to a warning about test strips in general.
Nearest guess, the strips get between 15 and 20% complaints of inaccuracy, spread out fairly evenly between the two top brands and a third brand that got about 20-25% inaccuracy, based on the products I looked at, spanning about 3000 reviews total.

When I was in high school, bringing home a report card with a 75 or 80% average was usually cause for concern.

Just saying.

 

[Colin_T]

When I was in high school, bringing home a report card with a 75 or 80% average was usually cause for concern.

That's right. Now stop playing with your fish and go to your room and study. I want to see betta grades next time, or it's no more computer

 

[NickAu]

I don't know of any ammonia test kits that can differentiate between ammonia and ammonium.

Seachem Multitest kit

This kit measures total (NH3 and NH4+) and free ammonia (NH3 only) down to less than 0.05 mg/L and is virtually interference free in marine and fresh water.

Free ammonia is the toxic form of ammonia (vs. ionized Ammonia NH4+ which is non-toxic) and thus it is much more important to keep an eye on the level of free ammonia in your system.

https://www.thetechden.com.au/Seachem_Ammonia_Multi_Test_Kit_p/sc95006.htm

 

[Jeremy180]

Lol,

That's right. Now stop playing with your fish and go to your room and study. I want to see betta grades next time, or it's no more computer

XD

On topic, in the interest of accuracy, (and because I am a huge nerd, lol)
I did an actual count of the reviews under 4 stars that mentioned significantly inaccurate test results for api liquid test kit, and there were 49, out of a total of
3,323 reviews, which is about 1.47%

Rounding up to 1.5% that is an average of 98.5%

Now THAT'S a good report card!

EDIT :
Thinking seriously about going super nerd and counting all the reviews mentioning low accuracy for the strips. As well as nutrafin, the only other liquid test kit to have over ten reviews.

After all I only guessed them earlier, and the API kit has three times less reviews mentioning inaccurate results than I had guessed.

 

[AbbeysDad]

And then once you have a few stable tanks and a time tested maintenance routine, you rarely test at all because there's just no need!

 

[AquaticJ87]

I find that Tetra strips are pretty accurate, just store them somewhere with little moisture like a medicine cabinet, and don’t reach in there with wet fingers.

I’m curious as to how everyone knows that it’s the strips that are the inaccurate one, for all we know the liquid test kit could be wrong. I mean, nobody even mentions how the leaking caps all over your hands might be effecting the outcome.

I have 12 tanks, I simply don’t have the energy to do all the unnecessary shaking for the nitrate test. Also, differentiating the colors is nearly impossible for a lot of the tests.