Expired Test Kit

[Psionicdragon]

Hey Randy and all,

I am curious about test kits. I wonder happens when test kit reagents expired. Do they just give inaccurate results or something?

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Depends on the type of kit. Some complex ones might start to give unexpected colors, but off readings is certainly likely when are are truly degraded, and not just "expired" by a time stamp.

[Psionicdragon]

thanks randy :D

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

You're welcome.

Happy Reefing. :)

[Nevermind325]

I didnt want to start a new thread, so I'll post here.

I have salifert NH4 NO2 and NO3 kits that are expired, they expired maybe 6 months ago. I am just starting to cycle a 29G biocube now but Im not getting the results I am expecting. How is it possible for these kits to expire anyways,what actually causes them to expire and what will a simple expired kit do? Will the colors not change properly, or not at all?

[bertoni]

[welcome]

That's hard to predict, but the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate test kits I've had fail read non-zero on everything. Other people report higher numbers in general.