Aquarium Water Testing.com

[wes]

Has anyone used Aquarium Water Testing.com or know if they are reliable?

 

[spieszak]

I haven't. what are you expecting them to find? just curious ..

 

[wes]

Not sure. They just say they test at least 13 different parameters and I was intrigued. Just thought it would be fun to see the results.

 

[spieszak]

cool. i asked mostly because i'd be more likely to lay money on something like that if i were expecting them to find something.
if you do it, i'd be interested to hear what the numbers look like, especially if you ran your own tests on the same sample water. hobby grade kits are just that, hobby grade. be interesting to see how far apart the numbers are...

 

[wes]

Yeah that's true.

 

[spieszak]

Maybe someone more knowledgable can speak up, but i don't know how well params hold through temp changes, and it looks like those guys are in Ohio. Way hot in the summer, way cold in the winter.

 

[wes]

That's a good point.

 

[Aquanaut]

Don't forget our local aquarium stores. Still less expensive to pay for the tests onsite with fresh agents than buying Elos and have chem expire before the last test. Best money is to have meter probes longterm and let a apex alert you if something changes dramatically. Its fun to watch the rhythm of a tank over the course of a day/week/month between the water changes or dosing top-ups. Do keep Alk and calcium kits on hand since those swing the most in a short period of time. For the uninitiated if Alk is 8-10 then PH will remain at safe levels. Also if calcium is 450+ then my Alk drops along with drop in Mag less than 1300

Just my findings.

 

[kpiotrowski]

Maybe someone more knowledgable can speak up, but i don't know how well params hold through temp changes, and it looks like those guys are in Ohio. Way hot in the summer, way cold in the winter.

and water continues to "break down" so to speak. nitrogenous wastes would increase all respective levels and alk would be lower. so it would not reflect your actual perameteres at the time of sampling.