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lokii_37
01/12/2013, 11:38 PM
I am going to be buying nitrate and phosphate test kits. The prices seem about the same but is there one that is better than the other?

downbeach
01/13/2013, 05:54 AM
I am going to be buying nitrate and phosphate test kits. The prices seem about the same but is there one that is better than the other?

I've used both the Salifert and Red Sea kits, for NO3, either would be fine. But, you'd be better served to get a Hanna checker for PO4.

msaba
01/13/2013, 06:14 AM
I prefer the salifert test kits. Phosphates can be tough to test for, if there is algae and you have done water changes and other parameters are in check, you can assume it is there despite a negative test reading...Running a phosphate control media or changing out your sand bed can oftem help dramatically

Ghstwolf
01/13/2013, 11:05 AM
I have never used the Salifert kits so I cannot speak about them. The RedSea No3/Po4 combo kit is the one I currently use and I have no problems with it.. It's a good quality built kit and the instruction cards that come with it are easy to use and read.. Each test takes about 10 mins to conduct. (Nitrate is like a 6 min wait and Phospate is like a 9 min wait for results) So not very time consuming, results are easy to read and so far I've had no troubles or compaints about the product.

Spyderturbo007
01/14/2013, 08:43 AM
I use a Red Sea Pro Nitrate test kit and a Hanna checker for phosphates. I can't complain about either. As Ghstwolf said, the Nitrate test kit works great.

fishchef
01/14/2013, 09:53 AM
Salifert can be tricky to read on the nitrate, but its a good kit. Yes, Hanna is the way to go for phosphate. Seems a little pricey at first, but its just a little more than a good test kit. We use GFO and only test for PO4 about once a month. You can get the reagent for about $8.00 on-line. That's about 2 years of tests for us.

Dexters Reef
01/14/2013, 11:15 AM
Save your money and dont buy the salifert phosphate kit. I run mine at double sensitivity and it always shows a 0 reading, despite film algae on the glass and algae in my overflow. Its just not a low range kit like we need.

I use red sea nitrate kits, easy to read and pretty accurate.

I would reccomend red seas alkalinity kit which is very accurate and easy to use, and saliferts calcium and magnesium kits if you ever wanted to pick them up.