Digital test kits

[W1thr0w]

I have a 75g and 125g reef tank… looking for suggestions on the best digital test kits to make water testing easier, faster and more accurate? Also any suggestions on test I should be doing that’s not in your standard master reef test tube kit?

 

[Spare time]

This is what I recommend.

Alk: Hanna or non digital red sea pro
Calcium: Non digital red sea pro or hanna (USE DISTILLED WATER IN THE TEST as otherwise it will be innacurate like a lot of threads complain)
Magnesium: Non digital red sea pro or salifert, or hanna
Nitrate: Hanna HR
Phosphate: Hanna ULR phosphorus

For salinity I just used an IO hydrometer + (calibrated everytime) refractometer. You can get a digital one but the time difference between the two is negligible.

For pH, I don't have a really good answer.

There are of course Milwaukee tests but I don't think the money is worth it.

 

[Gtinnel]

Alk: Hanna or non digital red sea pro
Calcium: Non digital red sea pro or hanna (USE DISTILLED WATER IN THE TEST as otherwise it will be innacurate like a lot of threads complain)
Magnesium: Non digital red sea pro or salifert, or hanna
Nitrate: Hanna HR
Phosphate: Hanna ULR phosphorus

I couldn’t agree more with these recommendations and other than I use the Hanna ULR Phosphate these are the exact same manual tests I use on my tank.

For salinity I absolutely love my Milwaukee digital refractometer, but still keep an optical refractometer as a backup to verify results if needed.

I also rely heavily on my trident, which is about as easy as it gets for testing. I find the longer I am in the hobby the lazier I am with manually testing the tank.

 

[gbroadbridge]

I have a 75g and 125g reef tank… looking for suggestions on the best digital test kits to make water testing easier, faster and more accurate? Also any suggestions on test I should be doing that’s not in your standard master reef test tube kit?

Okay, firstly Digital test kits are no more accurate than any other test. They are still hobby grade kits.
They simply are easier to read if you have problems discerning slight changes in color tints.

In some cases digital tests are more time consuming then the equivalent non-digital test.
For example ,the Salifert and Hanna Nitrate tests are equally accurate, however in terms of testing method and cleanup,
the Salifert beats the Hanna digital kit hands down.

In terms of which tests, in order of importance Salinity and Alk are most important.
Then Calcium, Nitrate, Phosphate and Magnesium.

Anything else is best left to an ICP test.

 

[Akreefnewguy]

This is what I recommend.

Alk: Hanna or non digital red sea pro
Calcium: Non digital red sea pro or hanna (USE DISTILLED WATER IN THE TEST as otherwise it will be innacurate like a lot of threads complain)
Magnesium: Non digital red sea pro or salifert, or hanna
Nitrate: Hanna HR
Phosphate: Hanna ULR phosphorus

For salinity I just used an IO hydrometer + (calibrated everytime) refractometer. You can get a digital one but the time difference between the two is negligible.

For pH, I don't have a really good answer.

There are of course Milwaukee tests but I don't think the money is worth it.

Agree except hanna nitrate. He said quick lol that's almost a 15 min test. 10 when you really no what your doing

 

[Spare time]

Agree except hanna nitrate. He said quick lol that's almost a 15 min test. 10 when you really no what your doing

Eh true but you can just set a timer and walk away for the 7 mins needed.

 

[Gtinnel]

Eh true but you can just set a timer and walk away for the 7 mins needed.

I just start the nitrate test first then while it’s counting down I do the phosphate and then alkalinity. It works out about right for me.

 

[gbroadbridge]

I just start the nitrate test first then while it’s counting down I do the phosphate and then alkalinity. It works out about right for me.

Exactly what I do

 

[peterhos]

Morning All. Recently I decided that I cannot interpret the colours on some of the Red Sea tests, so I bought Salifert tests for calcium, magnesium and dKH. These 3 work well. Then I bought the easy to use Hanna nitrate and ULR phosphate digital checkers. . Great little gadgets - but remember to buy some extra reagent sachets when you buy the digital checker.

 

[olonmv]

Eh true but you can just set a timer and walk away for the 7 mins needed.

Or, if you sequence it correctly you can run several tests in that 15 minute time frame. I can do 7 tests in under 20 minutes.

 

[Spare time]

Or, if you sequence it correctly you can run several tests in that 15 minute time frame. I can do 7 tests in under 20 minutes.

Thats what I do. I'll test phosphate and something else while the hanna hr nitrate is counting down.

 

[AV corals]

I use hanna for Calc, Alk, Mag, Phos & Nitrate and no complaints whatsoever. As long as you follow instructions you're golden.

 

[W1thr0w]

I couldn’t agree more with these recommendations and other than I use the Hanna ULR Phosphate these are the exact same manual tests I use on my tank.

For salinity I absolutely love my Milwaukee digital refractometer, but still keep an optical refractometer as a backup to verify results if needed.

I also rely heavily on my trident, which is about as easy as it gets for testing. I find the longer I am in the hobby the lazier I am with manually testing the tank.

I haven’t been in hobby long but trying to do research on corals/fish/copepods/phyto, having more than 1 tank I’m going to be testing and living a life with kids I need the simplest/fastest and most accurate or this hobby is going to be more time consuming than necessary

 

[W1thr0w]

Okay, firstly Digital test kits are no more accurate than any other test. They are still hobby grade kits.
They simply are easier to read if you have problems discerning slight changes in color tints.

In some cases digital tests are more time consuming then the equivalent non-digital test.
For example ,the Salifert and Hanna Nitrate tests are equally accurate, however in terms of testing method and cleanup,
the Salifert beats the Hanna digital kit hands down.

In terms of which tests, in order of importance Salinity and Alk are most important.
Then Calcium, Nitrate, Phosphate and Magnesium.

Anything else is best left to an ICP test.

I guess accurate is the better word, less room for mistakes counting drops/time/color matching ect… definitely looking for the necessity testing recommended for a reef tank and the simplified more accurate test recommended. Easier/faster is always a plus if it’s accurate to number spelled out for me. Lol