The Best Test Money Can Buy

[matchstickman47]

what in your opinion is the most accurate test kit that is affordable?

or a reasonably acurate one for cheap ?

 

[Davo86]

most test kits (that include ph, ammonia, nitrate and nitrite) can be brought for about £19.99
The API master kit is generally preferred, but IME the Hagen mini master and Nutrifin master kit are just as good

 

[arobinson1984]

The API freshwater master kit

About £18 on ebay, some fish stores charge as much as £30 for it

Andy

Edit: you beat me to it Davo

 

[Geoff1991]

API master kit

P@H by me sell it for £27.99

I get mine for £15 off ebay

 

[pippoodle]

i found the api and nutrafin test kits excellent

 

[matchstickman47]

i got a tetra 6 in one strip for free with some aqua safe a few weeks ago, is this any good when i saw the one on the shelf it was 9 pounds

do you use strips or the liquid tests?

 

[bagu]

liquid tests are alot more accurate than strips

 

[pippoodle]

agreed liquid test kits are a lot more accurate
Strips are hard to read the the colours as there isnt much difference between the colour differences

 

[Bobtastic]

The general concensus is that the strips aren't a good as the liqiud based ones. I personally have never tried them, but I do use the Nutrafin Mini Master Test kit and find it pretty good. U do get the usual "is it this colour or is it the other colour" but I'm lead to believe u have the same with the API kit too.

 

[timmystood]

API is my first choice and is used by most Maidenhead stores for in-store testing.

 

[PDB-89]

API is my first choice to! i get mine form my LFS £30.89 i didn't no about Egay!!!!!!

 

[arobinson1984]

API is my first choice to! i get mine form my LFS £30.89 i didn't no about Egay!!!!!!

Charterhouse-aquatics.co.uk also sell it for about £18

Andy

 

[PDB-89]

Ta very much!

 

[saz326]

Hey - dont be lured into a false sence of security tho people. They may be precise, but we have no idea if they are accurate!

You need to be able to compare against true values in order to determine accuracy. i.e. take a pH5 solution and if the tesk kit says pH5 - then spot on. Accurate and precise. If the test kit says pH5.5 then its still precise - but not accurate.

I use tetra liquid test kits, no idea how accurate they are.

Would like to test the tests aginst a set of "standard solutions" of known value to see whether they do actually work, or if they simply work well enough for us fishkeepers.

 

[arobinson1984]

I would imagine as the tests are manufactured that they would be tested against known valued sources to prevent any legal issues

Andy