how long are test kits good for?

[marlinmero]

how long are the Aquarium Pharmaceuticals test kits good for? its been over a year since ive done a test on either one of my tanks. and i recently set my calcium reactor back up and getting ready to set up another tank. so i might need to do a test. lol

 

[senji]

if useing for a calcium reactor deffinatly buy a good test kit from elos or a hanna checker. u want to be accurate and api are garbage tests even when new.

 

[marlinmero]

are the api decent enough for ph nitrites and nitrates and simple stuff?

 

[senji]

ive used api untill i hent all hanna and red sea and found even fairly new api kits wernt very accurate. the ph and nitrates kits are so vague and trying to match colors. but if i were to use them again it would be only to test if anything is measureing.(nitates ammonia nitrites.)so i guess would be just fine to see where a cycle is. but to accuratly measure i wouldant trust them. and belive it or not hanna is cheaper in the long run only replaceing reagents not intire kit. and range from 30 to 50 dollars ea and include 25 tests.and reagents are cheap when tat is gone. look into it especially for calcium and i use red sea for magnesium.

 

[marlinmero]

alright thanks, i was just on there website and i like the digital display. i had a hell of a time in the past trying to figure out what color my test results were. most of the time it didnt match. lol it was inbetween kinda. use to irritate me. probably why i quit doing tests.

 

[Boomer]

Granted some kits are hard to read but based on what that a digital is more accurate than x ,y or z kit. Hanna has shown to be waayyyyyyyyyyyyyy of for example on Alk. You need a known std to know what is what period. I do like the Elos and new Red Sea. I had Jesse from Elos send all theirs to ENC Labs and all tested good.

 

[kpiotrowski]

I have no problem with api for quick testing and for alk and calcium they match my red sea and elos kits. api is great for cycling a tank also cuz they give you the ball park and are cheap and fast so you can feel good about testing daily, but other kits will detect more miniscule levels.

in hindsight I would be ok with just api kits and regret spending the hundereds on other brands. I mean who cares if your nitrates are 1..or...2 as long as an api kits pretty much is saying zero...... OK oK, I do care and thats why I have elos, seachem and salifert brands BUT, you can definately do without them in general.

 

[Derbird]

The test kits should have a experation date on them, gives you an idea of how old they really are.

I think any test kit can give a bad reading. I like to have a different tesk kit avalible in case you get a weird reading. Either have another on hand or have a friend in the area that would let you use there kits That being said I have yet to have a problem with my red sea tests. They are easier to read then the old API kits.