2 replies to this topic

[humbug]

I had a bit of a thought bubble today, and thought it might be worth sharing.

For a long time, when people asked me for recommendations on tests kits, I advised the purchase of a brand of readily available, reasonably priced kit. 
 

It’s only in more recent times, having personally experienced some disturbing results from these kits, that I started to question the accuracy of these products.  A little more digging, and I’m finding more and more retailers who no longer stock these kits because of similar concerns.  And then we see a recurring story on Facebook pages, with hobbyists chasing their tails over tank “problems”, only to find there was no issue once they test their water with an alternative brand of kit.
 

I know some retailers swear by this brand, but I wonder if these issues are masked because their usage is quite different from that of a general hobbyist.  Perhaps the throughput of newly opened bottles in shops used for customer water testing isn’t representative of the same product sitting on a hobbyist’s shelf for an extended period of time and only being used occasionally.  Remember, these products are produced for, and sold to, hobbyists and need to be fit for that purpose.  There is no point in a kit which doesn’t give accurate results!

Thinking about it today, while bored to death pulling a mountain of weeds, I remembered an article I read on the internet some time ago, about a group of reefers testing their kits at a meeting.  Here’s a link to the article.
 

http://www.advanceda...012/6/chemistry
 

I’m wondering if this might be an interesting exercise to conduct at a Society meeting.  Members bring along any kits they have, current or expired.  The data is collected on each kit, and each is used to test a couple of previously prepared water samples, using exactly the procedure you would use when testing at home.  Even swapping kits to get results from multiple users is likely to prove interesting. 
 

It could be a great way to get an idea not only about accuracy of kits, but also about how their use can impact the results they produce.  Would be great to see the results published on the forum as a resource for others!!

[Ageofaquariums]

Calibrating test kits by testing known concentrations is very handy just to check the actual colour against the colour card. I needed to do this to understand the API high range pH card for example. Its very handy for nitrate especially, although I do usually dilute samples and then multiple it. Easier to get an accurate read that way rather than trying to distinguish between red, red, dark red and solid red.......

[Delapool]

That could be interesting for a meeting Lol on the API colour chart.

Edited by Delapool, 01 December 2016 - 12:38 PM.