Which Liquid Test Kits Are Most Accurate?

[Jasonanatal]

Which Liquid Test Kits Are Most Accurate?

Well I must confess that with over 2 years in the hobby and great equipment from reputable manufacturers such as Tunze and Precision Marine I regret to inform everyone that I was tempted by the low prices of the Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Liquid Test Kits. (Yes I know sham on me). Well it almost 2008 and I've stepped up almost every other aspect of my Reef Keeping Hobby and now it time to do so again. My question is this. Despite the price which liquid test kit for various chemicals such as Calcium, Magnesium, phosphates, etc do you consider the most efficient and the most accurate? I've been considering such liquid test kits from LaMotte and Elos but would love to get everyone elses thoughts on this matter.

[a2fire2i]

I just switched over to ELOS after the Salifert issue and loved them. I must admit that when tested against each other, they were close enough to call them even. I however, was lucky and had the old batches of Salifert ALK which had no issues.

[mfp1016]

I advocate pinpoint monitors.

[oct2274]

i've switched to seachem for my magnesium, and api for my alk and calcium for right now because of some of the issues salifert kits have been having. I got a bad alk and mag kit from salifert and that pushed me away for the time being. I plan on going with elos for my next set of kits.

[old salty]

Without any comparison to a known level or standard, it's rather difficult to say which is more accurate. I would also be curious as to whether or not the accuracy of any test kit would be throughout a range, or peak at a given number. In other words, is the Calcium test kit of brand A accurate at 200, 250, 300, 350, 400, and 450 ppm or is it accurate at 400ppm and tapers off as this number is higher or lower.

[mcneilwh]

Without a doubt I would go with API. A while back I had my water tested at an independent lab by ICP for Ca, Mg, Sr, and the results were very surprising. Best $60 that I every spent.

mg/L Ca Mg Sr
Lab 450 1650 27

API 450 ---- ---

Salifert 380 1350 8

The Salifert Phosphorus is better than the Red Sea, both in possible interference and sensitivity.

[daniloronchi]

I did many measurement with salifert, but I wasn't satisfied, because my eyes saw tank differently from the evidence of tests.
So I tried Elos Test kits and finally my eyes was in accordance with tests kit.

You can see my measurement on my site: http://www.danireef.com/category/approfondimenti/test-per-acquario

only the last posts are translated into english, sorry for that.

[Nanz]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11466005#post11466005 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mcneilwh
Without a doubt I would go with API. A while back I had my water tested at an independent lab by ICP for Ca, Mg, Sr, and the results were very surprising. Best $60 that I every spent.

mg/L Ca Mg Sr
Lab 450 1650 27

API 450 ---- ---

Salifert 380 1350 8

The Salifert Phosphorus is better than the Red Sea, both in possible interference and sensitivity.

I did the same thing with my tests but I happen to work at a soil lab so the test was free :)

My conclusion was that Salifert had the most accurate results for Ca and Mg. But with the pending problem of test kits not reading accurate I am waiting before I buy another Salifert.

API has good test kits for the price. The accuracy is not as good as Salifert but its also 1/4 the price.. I have not tried Elos but their detection range is lower than API yet their cost is similar to Salifert which IMO is a waste of money. Why should Elos cost more if their detection range is lower? But then API does not make a Mg test kit so your stuck with that one.