NO3 testkits accuracy

[tankhho]

Hi there,

Been battling algae in my fowlr recently, so decided to run some tests on the water but the results puzzled me...

I used two diff NO3 testkits to confirm the reading but they yielded totally different results; salifert gave <10mg/L which is good, but sera showed > 80mg/L (deep red color) which is the other extreme. Which is right?

anyone experience this b4? any advice?

thanks!

[aStRoBo|]

by right the most trustworthy testkit is salifert.. but den.. some other testkits will have to divide the results by 4.4.. i also dun quite understand..

[Reefbum]

I used both redsea and aquapharm.Both also show same results in NO3 ions.If you use test kits that show NO3-N,have to divide by 4.4.

[tineng]

Hi there,

Been battling algae in my fowlr recently, so decided to run some tests on the water but the results puzzled me...

I used two diff NO3 testkits to confirm the reading but they yielded totally different results; salifert gave <10mg/L which is good, but sera showed > 80mg/L (deep red color) which is the other extreme. Which is right?

anyone experience this b4? any advice?

thanks!

hummmm... at one stage i also use both Sera and Salifert....while Sera does not give out resolution as fine as Salifert, it does produce results near to salifert and not complete opposite....but there are 1 other thing i notice about sera....they can be quite inconsistant (2 reading take one after the other can be different)

Also test kits have an expiry date and becuase Sera doesn't normally print theirs you might have a batch there is already expired.ie, inaccurate reading....that why i generally avoid buying second hand test kits....

[tankhho]

thanks guys. I retested sera with diluted water (10ml +10), the result is the same. frustrated, I even ran the sera on tapwater just to confirm the thing is working, it does - at least I know my tapwater has zero nitrate. retested with salifert - still showed good readings. Man..., this is first time I have done so many NO3 tests in one sitting.

I cant tell if the testkits has expired - no dates. been happily using salifert all along for all my testkits, only yesterday I bought sera(brand new from lfs) as a confirmation test.

abt this divide-by-4.4, do I need for sera NO3 test results, I read thru the instructions and box labels (whatever that is in english), no mentioning of this anywhere???

[mhermie]

they were mentioning a few times back that only the tetra testkits u need to divide the results by 4.4 if i m not mistaken. currently, i am using sera n salifert.

[Reefbum]

I cant tell if the testkits has expired...

Tropic marin has expiry date.

[AhLoon]

Any of you guys here tried MiniLabor?

I ran a number of tests and the results are always undetectable, yet my algae growth is not dwindling...