Aquarium Water Testing .com

[lhcorals]

I was wandering if any of the members has used this company. The reason i am interested is i was using Instant Ocean Alk test and switched to salifert. The IO gives me a reading of 8 dkh, the Salifert Gives 10 dkh on same sample. 2 point difference every time. Is it worth the time to send off sample or which of these test kits do i trust?

[CHUBAKAH]

The member Lunker aka Ron uses them.

[Highland Reefer]

There have been many threads on RC about this company. The quality of their equipment is not what you would expect from a professional lab. They use meters and not titration methods or otherwise precise methods used in professional labs. One thread that comes to mind, but I could not find, took a sample from one tank and divided it into three different samples. They had three different reefers submit the samples to them. The results were three significantly different readings of water parameters.

[Coral Hind]

I don't think you would get an accurate reading as the water chemistry would change some during shipping.

[Highland Reefer]

The pH could definitely change. The other parameters should be ok, unless they had a precipitaion event going on when they took the samples.

Edited November 9, 2008 by Highland Reefer

[lhcorals]

Thanks for the info. So with the two test kits i'm using and getting two different readings, which one should i trust? Should i bring a third Alk. test kit into the equation?

[gastone]

You could make/purchase an alkalinity standard???

[Highland Reefer]

I would just use the average of the two. A 2 dkH difference is not a big deal. I think that most kits have a +/- of 3 points dkH tolerance as far as accuracy goes. So from that point of view, they are the same. They call it Test noise.