Tetra 5 In 1 Test Strips

[ebrcknrdg]

50 of the bloody things came today and i have no clue how to use them as the instructons are in foreign. I suppose thats what i get for buying cheap stuff off ebay! £17 for the lot which i dont think is bad but now i havent a clue how to do the tests. Can anyone help? I dont really want to type all the text into a language converter as theres quite a bit!

 

[kewskills]

im at work so cant give you all the instructions just now however

dip the test strip in for 1 second and hold horzontally for 1 minute and then take the readings.

nitrite should be 0
nitrate should be less than 50 (closer to 0 is better)

cant remember what the other 3 do i know its hardness and ph values

hope this helps a little

 

[Rillan]

Have you looked on the internetfor instructions? My friend uses them so when she comes back off dinner i'll ask her about them for ya. What i do know is if you cut them in half (going down) then you can get 100. lol

 

[Miss Wiggle]

just to spoil your day even more, teh test strips are next to useless anyway. you really want a liquid test.

api fresh water master test kit is excellent and usually retails at around £18

 

[ebrcknrdg]

just to spoil your day even more, teh test strips are next to useless anyway. you really want a liquid test.

api fresh water master test kit is excellent and usually retails at around £18

I have ordered the API master test kit for £18.74 with postage. I will be using this for fishless cycling and then use the strips when my tank is mature to save on my budget a bit as i cant afford to buy the master kit again any time soon

 

[GRJ]

Oh dear! I had some test strips and they were a complete waste of bloody time!! The results were all over the place and never consistent. You would do better getting a liquid drop test kit as its more accurate. API do a good one and Nutrafin do a good one. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. That s just the experience i had with them. GRJ

 

[ebrcknrdg]

im at work so cant give you all the instructions just now however

dip the test strip in for 1 second and hold horzontally for 1 minute and then take the readings.

nitrite should be 0
nitrate should be less than 50 (closer to 0 is better)

cant remember what the other 3 do i know its hardness and ph values

hope this helps a little

Yes the other 3 are KH GH (these baffle me a bit) and PH. Ive just written that down so thank you!

Have you looked on the internetfor instructions? My friend uses them so when she comes back off dinner i'll ask her about them for ya. What i do know is if you cut them in half (going down) then you can get 100. lol

No i havent looked yet actually. Thanx for that. Can you really cut them in half or are you taking the piss? lol

 

[Miss Wiggle]

just to spoil your day even more, teh test strips are next to useless anyway. you really want a liquid test.

api fresh water master test kit is excellent and usually retails at around £18

I have ordered the API master test kit for £18.74 with postage. I will be using this for fishless cycling and then use the strips when my tank is mature to save on my budget a bit as i cant afford to buy the master kit again any time soon

you won't need to really, Ian fishless cycled his tank and it took 6 weeks, testing every day with the API kit and only used around half of the kit. we're still using it now, and when a tank is mature it really only needs testing on occasion not weekly or anything IMHO

 

[ebrcknrdg]

Oh dear! I had some test strips and they were a complete waste of bloody time!! The results were all over the place and never consistent. You would do better getting a liquid drop test kit as its more accurate. API do a good one and Nutrafin do a good one. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. That s just the experience i had with them. GRJ

oh dear, thanx lol. i might be best just selling them back on ebay then? Get my money back and buy some plants instead. I have ordered the API master kit so thats a plus point i suppose!

just to spoil your day even more, teh test strips are next to useless anyway. you really want a liquid test.

api fresh water master test kit is excellent and usually retails at around £18

I have ordered the API master test kit for £18.74 with postage. I will be using this for fishless cycling and then use the strips when my tank is mature to save on my budget a bit as i cant afford to buy the master kit again any time soon

you won't need to really, Ian fishless cycled his tank and it took 6 weeks, testing every day with the API kit and only used around half of the kit. we're still using it now, and when a tank is mature it really only needs testing on occasion not weekly or anything IMHO

Ah i see! I think i will get rid of the Tetra 5 in 1s then. I thought they were meant to be good as ive been recommended them.....nevermind! Maybe ill make a profit on them lol

 

[GRJ]

Well, i did the same as you, got test strips for this and then some for that and they were completely wrong. It said my PH was 7.4 when it was really 8!!! It said i didnt have ammonia when i had 0.25ppm! They are rank, they really are. You have done the best thing by getting the liquid drop test kits. I know that i have learned from it. Its just a shame it has cost us all so much collectively.GRJ

 

[ebrcknrdg]

Well, i did the same as you, got test strips for this and then some for that and they were completely wrong. It said my PH was 7.4 when it was really 8!!! It said i didnt have ammonia when i had 0.25ppm! They are rank, they really are. You have done the best thing by getting the liquid drop test kits. I know that i have learned from it. Its just a shame it has cost us all so much collectively.GRJ

Someone should inlude a step by step manual of things to buy (gettin them cheap) and how to set up and maintain your tank. I know there are separate ones but having it all in one place would have saved me money and time oh and stress! Actually I think im going to do this!! Ive learnt so much in the space of a week my head is going to explode lol

 

[GRJ]

Well, i did the same as you, got test strips for this and then some for that and they were completely wrong. It said my PH was 7.4 when it was really 8!!! It said i didnt have ammonia when i had 0.25ppm! They are rank, they really are. You have done the best thing by getting the liquid drop test kits. I know that i have learned from it. Its just a shame it has cost us all so much collectively.GRJ

Someone should inlude a step by step manual of things to buy (gettin them cheap) and how to set up and maintain your tank. I know there are separate ones but having it all in one place would have saved me money and time oh and stress! Actually I think im going to do this!! Ive learnt so much in the space of a week my head is going to explode lol

Tell me about it! I didnt get any sense from my lfs at all. The information i found out is all from this forum andi am so glad that i foud it. Its an invluable resource. I have only had my tank set up 4 week and i am currently cycling(or attempting to!!) with a few platys as i didnt know about fishless cycling untill it was too late. I am learning day by day, but at least we all have somewhere we can go for help. As for stress, yep, i know all about that too. I wish you luck with setting up a step by step manual. All the best, GRJ

 

[rdd1952]

just to spoil your day even more, teh test strips are next to useless anyway. you really want a liquid test.

api fresh water master test kit is excellent and usually retails at around £18

I have ordered the API master test kit for £18.74 with postage. I will be using this for fishless cycling and then use the strips when my tank is mature to save on my budget a bit as i cant afford to buy the master kit again any time soon

First off, if you want to save money, never buy strips. The API kit shouldn't have cost you much more than the 50 strips did and will probably do 200 tests. You would need to buy 3 more packs of the strips to do that many. Second, one of the most important things you need to test for, ammonia, isn't on the 5 in 1 strips so using them after you have finished cycling still doesn't help you. As Miss Wiggle said, they are pretty much useless.

 

[ebrcknrdg]

just to spoil your day even more, teh test strips are next to useless anyway. you really want a liquid test.

api fresh water master test kit is excellent and usually retails at around £18

I have ordered the API master test kit for £18.74 with postage. I will be using this for fishless cycling and then use the strips when my tank is mature to save on my budget a bit as i cant afford to buy the master kit again any time soon

First off, if you want to save money, never buy strips. The API kit shouldn't have cost you much more than the 50 strips did and will probably do 200 tests. You would need to buy 3 more packs of the strips to do that many. Second, one of the most important things you need to test for, ammonia, isn't on the 5 in 1 strips so using them after you have finished cycling still doesn't help you. As Miss Wiggle said, they are pretty much useless.

Thanx for further emphasising that point, i have the message loud and clear now i have purchased an API master test kit and am waiting for it to arrive before cycling. Meanwhile my tetra strips are on ebay for a tenner