elos or salifert alk, who would you trust?

[BrassMonkey]

ive been using salifert since the beginning , but decided to try elos.

soooooo now that i have both

salifert. .38/ 9.9 dkh

elos 17drops/8.5 dkh.


i think i tested some nsw with elos and it was 8.0 so for nnow im goin to go with elos. when i get some more nsw i will test it with both.

how is the lamotte for alk? i dont like the elos .5 increments.

[dan223]

Hmm it would be sweet to get a sample with a known level and test both to compare, otherwise how do you ever know? I cant believe no one here on reef central has either the know how or access to equipment to create some reference samples and then compare all the major test kits out there.

[bertoni]

Hard to say. I might get a third opinion and hope for some agreement.

[Bryan]

Lamotte alk is a very good kit and very accurate.

[tatuvaaj]

I would trust Salifert, at least you'll know it was designed for seawater. Alkalinity test kits (typically sold as KH test kits) designed for freshwater will give too low results.

[moo0o]

My Elos always agrees with my LaMotte test kit, I would trust the Elos.

Also, save the money and get a LaMotte KH test kit. By far the most precise test kit I've ever used.

[stanlalee]

I'd trust the Elos. this has come up a few times before with the salifert alk test. when it comes up its always the odd ball out.

[Ralph ATL]

personally, I would trust Elos.

reality? no one will know for sure.

[hankclaussen]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15427509#post15427509 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dan223
Hmm it would be sweet to get a sample with a known level and test both to compare, otherwise how do you ever know? I cant believe no one here on reef central has either the know how or access to equipment to create some reference samples and then compare all the major test kits out there.

Make some saturated limewater and do it.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rhf/index.php

Randy wrote:
"Limewater that is saturated with calcium hydroxide has a pH of 12.54 at 25ºC. It is actually recognized as a secondary pH standard. The pH is substantially higher at lower temperature (12.627 at 20ºC and 13.00 at 10ºC), and lower at higher temperature (12.289 at 30ºC; 11.984 at 40ºC). Saturated limewater has a conductivity of about 10.3 mS/cm at 25ºC, and contains about 808 ppm of calcium and 40.8 meq/l of alkalinity. Slightly more calcium and alkalinity dissolve at lower temperatures, and less at higher temperatures. Of interest to chemists, a large fraction of the calcium in saturated limewater is present as the ion CaOH+, with the remainder being Ca++. The CaOH+ will instantly dissociate into Ca++ and OH- upon its addition to aquarium water."


Or, any other controlable solution.

[bertoni]

The Salifert should measure about 10% higher than a kit designed for freshwater use, I think. If the Elos is in the freshwater category, the kits are about dead-on identical.

[elosusa]

We check all batches with an independent sea water lab and I have never seen a .3 difference from our kits against the labs numbers. Hope that helps.

[luther1200]

I got a Elos MAg test kit recently and I also didn't like that it was in 50ppm increments. Thats a bit vauge. Salifert is in 30ppm. Thats about %40 more accurate. But I have no expierience with any others just the Mag kit. I got the Elos kit because they get good reviews, but personaly I think they are over rated, at least the Mag kit is.


How old is the Salifert kit. If its old I would say the Elos is probablt correct, but if it isn't that old I don't know? My new Salifert kit has a reference solution to check, but that isn't %100 either, IMO. I did check it against a batch of Kalk and it measured correct, FWIW.