Anyone Used Nutrafin Mini Master Kit

[Dan-CR4]

has anyone here used the nutrafin mini master test kit. I bought one as the online store i got my fluval 205 only had nutrafin kits. the kit is shown here test kit

the only thing is, the booklets dont show the results as ppm, anyone got some tips on using this kit, i would of preferred to get the api kit but as said they did not stock it.

 

[Davo86]

Are you sure? I'd say they may just call it something else but it is till the same measurement

 

[waterdrop]

mg/l (milligrams per liter) is the same thing as ppm in our aquarium water world. That's probably what you're seeing.

[Just as a technical aside: mg/l is actually more correct than the ppm we usually use - I'll probably say something wrong here but I'll give it a try. milligrams are a measure of mass we usually use with solids and liters are a measure of volume we use with liquids. Most of these things we're measuring with our kit tests are solids dissolved in liquids. ppm stands for parts per million and is technically used to compare parts of substances that are both in the same state (two solids or two liquids for instance) [for instance, if the childrens play pit at a fast food restaurant had 1 red ball and 1 million green balls then we could say the red-ball measurement was 1ppm (like per like)] In the ways we use these particular measures, mg/l and ppm are really equivalent but in other physical circumstances they might not be. We in the hobby are all quite used to using ppm in most all our discussions, so I doubt you'd ever get many to change!]

[Also fun to think what our quarks are doing while all this water chemistry is going on.. but ya'll probably don't want to hear that do ya! ]

In answer to your question, lots of members here do use the Nutrafin Mini-Master Test Kit and accuracy-wise I think its very similar to the API one we talk about more. It'll work fine for you in the hobby. Both these kits are less accurate than the Salifert tests which come only in individual tests. The Salifert ones also use tablets in some cases, making their use a little more fussy, but keeping the chemicals less prone to degradation over time I believe.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[OldMan47]

I almost agree with WD but must make a distinction. Ppm is normally a mass ratio, which with water works out to the same number as mg/L. If you are using a volume based measurement, it is often denoted by using a lower case v to indicate that ratio is in terms of volume rather than the more traditional mass. A percent sign is frequently used in ratios with a w for mass ratios or a v for volume ratios. At the ppm level, it is very unusual to use volume ratios at all. They are just too hard to measure.


Trivial digression: If you want a real weird ratio, try looking into alcohol proof numbers where the ratio is given in terms of alcohol volume to total volume. The "proof" is twice the number of the ratio so a 40% ratio is called 80 proof. Since alcohol and water do not mix and retain the sum of the volumes, the total is always less than the total of the separate volumes before they are mixed, the proof is not easily determined from the simple numerical ratio. If I mix 800 ml of alcohol to produce 2 litres of alcohol/water solution, it is called 80 proof but far more than 1200 ml of water is used to create the mix.

 

[waterdrop]

Wait, I need to get a beer while I think about that.

 

[Dan-CR4]

thanks for the replies, my broadband has been down since i started this thread. i understand it a bit more now and glad that i still have a kit that works. was worried i bought something that was useless

 

[Defiance]

Hiya,

Easiest way to use the ammonia test is if it's anything but clear then do water change, in a cycled tank you shouldn't register any yellow hint of colour at all

Nitrite in these tests, you want barely a hint of the pink colour, clear is great (barely a hint means you have to strain your eyes looking at the test-tube into natural light, and then only be able to see as i say a hint of offish clear)

Nitrate in these tests, lower the pinky colour the better, if it's at or under the top colour then in my testings your "golden"

PH is pretty obvious with the colour chart

Still test my moms large tank daily as she insists on it, readings earlier were 0 ammonia and nitrite showed the smallest hint of a off clear colour, nitrate was well under the lightest colour on the chart, to achieve the so low nitrate i had planted some fast growing plants and they are growing like stink so using a fair amount of nitrate as a fert

Hope that helps

Tony