Brackish Water Tests?

[PRW1988]

I test my own water at home, and it just occured to me, once my brackish tank is set up, how exactly do I do a water test for it? Do I use my freshwater masterkit set? Or should I go buy a reef master or saltwater master test kit?

 

[nmonks]

Ideally, you want to use brands safe in both fresh and salt water.

But your freshwater kit will probably be fine for the time being. Most of the chemical tests work fine in both salt and fresh water; the issue isn't whether they work or not, but whether the range of results is helpful. The pH in a marine tank is a narrow range around 8.0-8.5 or so, whereas a freshwater tank could be anything from 5.0 to 8.0. So you'd have different test kits to be useful across those different ranges.

Cheers, Neale

I test my own water at home, and it just occured to me, once my brackish tank is set up, how exactly do I do a water test for it? Do I use my freshwater masterkit set? Or should I go buy a reef master or saltwater master test kit?

 

[PRW1988]

Perfect! My freshwater master test kit comes with a high range PH test, so that should work hopfully thanks Neale

 

[andywg]

Ont thing to beware of is ammonia. You use the phrase "Master" which makes me think you have an API (Aquarium Pharmaceutical Inc) test kit. If this is so then the Ammonia test may not work.

The FW ammonia test is a single bottle for 5 drops with the chart gradually going Yellow, whereas the SW version is a two part test with 8 drops from each bottle and the test gradually turning green.

Other than that, the pH, nitrite and nitrate tests are identical between their FW and SW kits (though I have little to no faith in their nitrate test kit).

 

[nmonks]

AndyWG may well be right there. I have to confess that I never use ammonia test kits -- if there's an ammonia problem, it's pretty obvious from the unhappy-looking fish!

I would have to assume that since the ammonia to ammonium equilibrium depends on pH, then a test kit designed for a high pH (in a marine tank) may well be inaccurate at a lower pH (in a freshwater tank).

Nitrite and nitrate test kits certainly seem to work equally well in brackish or freshwater tanks, and I'm pretty sure the last nitrite test kit I bought worked in marine tanks too.

Cheers, Neale

 

[PRW1988]

hm interesting... Well the ammonia test kit that comes with this is 2 bottles of 8 drops each, turning green... but it's designed for freshwater tanks... odd, I guess since it has a high range PH in it, it's designed for tanks with a high PH such as marine and african cichlids(which is what I use it for- africans)

 

[dilbert]

The Ammonia test from API that I have uses also two bottles with 8 drops each but has one colour card for freshwater and one for saltwater.

As I got now SG 1.005 in my tank, I presume that the correlation is linear and so I look with 75% at the FW colour card and with 25% at the SW colour card.

BTW, this is a combined NH3/NH4+ figure anyhow so I need a table with temperature and ph value or a Javascript driven calculator. The Web has both, fortunately.