pbnj Posted August 25, 2011 Share Posted August 25, 2011 Hey, phosphates/nitrates, who's your daddy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted August 25, 2011 Share Posted August 25, 2011 Pretty awesome. I would probably try a different PO4 test if you really need an accurate reading on it. I've never gotten an API PO4 test to read anything above 0. Salifert and Red Sea always show something since they are accurate to .01ppm and .1ppm. I've literally tried 5 different API PO4 tests side by side and all read 0, when there was nearly 1ppm in the water. Tank looks fantastic though, so I don't think I would worry much about it in your case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pbnj Posted August 25, 2011 Author Share Posted August 25, 2011 This same test kit was reading higher phosphate levels (1.0-2.0) a few months ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted August 25, 2011 Share Posted August 25, 2011 Sweet. Congrats PBNJ! I'm running the same process myself and got my nitrates below 1ppm and phosphates down to .035ppm (ultra-low PO4 checker). Happy day! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mcallahan Posted August 26, 2011 Share Posted August 26, 2011 ditto what jestep said. The API kits are the worst, but hey, they are cheap!! Here's my hands on experience with API summed up: A Tale of Two Test Kits Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pbnj Posted August 26, 2011 Author Share Posted August 26, 2011 ditto what jestep said. The API kits are the worst, but hey, they are cheap!! Here's my hands on experience with API summed up: A Tale of Two Test Kits The API kits are my back-ups....I rely primarily on the "eyeball test"! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 ditto what jestep said. The API kits are the worst, but hey, they are cheap!! Here's my hands on experience with API summed up: A Tale of Two Test Kits The API kits are my back-ups....I rely primarily on the "eyeball test"! Pbnj, the eyeball is my favorite too! If one of my tanks fails the eyeball test I'll do a water change first then start checking my parameters. For any newbies who are reading this it's important to do periodic water tests. For one corals will adapt to conditions that will kill new additions. There is also long term tendency for pH, Alk and Calcium is to trend downwards and you need to stay on top of it. My experience has been corals will tell you there's a problem when test kits don't but just because all the corals look good doesn't mean somethings not brewing. My curiosity was aroused when I read other threads the negative comments about API's test kits. I've not used API's kits exclsively but have used them quite a bit over the years and at the very least found them to be self consistent - a kit would show a parameter going down in one tank and the same parameter going up in another and would show a change in the expected direction when remedial action was taken. My own comparison with API's alkalinity kit vs Salifert's kit with Salifert's provided standard showed only a 1/2 dKH lower reading for API's kit. For someone keeping their alkalinity at the margin I can see that would be an issue but as I prefer a buffer between what my tank is at and what the acceptable "minimum" reading is that 1/2 degree isn't an issue for me and API's kit is faster to use. I also found it interesting to read DFWMAS tests that ROB in Austin posted ( http://dfwmas.org/files/TestKitAnalysis.pdf ) in another thread that looked at multiple tests with multiple test kits and in conclusion said "What really surprised us was how well API Kits did, these are some of the most economical Kits around and they did reasonably well against the more expensive ones." Callahan, I've looked at your blog "A Tale of Two Test Kits" and I am confused how you decided the test kit used by the LFS was correct and APIs were not? I did not see any mention of a standard used and in the case of the Nitrate tests you gave only three data points, in the others you gave only two data points for each test, one for API and one for the LFS. That just seems to me to be a very small data set to use for a conclusion without the use of a standard to compare them against. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pbnj Posted August 27, 2011 Author Share Posted August 27, 2011 Yeah, I'm fine with the API test kits. I hardly ever test for anything, other than calcium & alk. It's just that I went so long without doing a water-change that I started to feel guilty. I was just pleasantly surprised with the test results, thus this thread. The acceptable ranges for most of these test results is so broad, why pay so much more (some of the test kits are really expensive) for "accuracy"? I mean, proper pH is important, but there's not much you can really do there anyway. I figure if my alk is good, so is my pH. I haven't even set-up my pH probe from when I bought my Apex controller. Oh, and my old swing-arm hydrometer is just fine, thank you. I know, I know, this is reef blasphemy. What can I say, I'm a rebel without a refractometer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 I have a refractometer and use it religiously every Easter and Christmas . Rest of the year I'm with you, swing arm hydrometer is cheap, fast and easy. Maybe it's just years of habit but I still like looking at pH as well as Alk and Calcium. Admittedly if both Calcium and Alk are going down it's got to be a really screwy scenario for the pH to stay acceptable or high. But hey! the API pH is cheap and easy too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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