Kit Test
What is the best test kit for a salt water aquarium?
The one I have now is just a high range pH test kit, I bought it when I started up my tank a year ago not knowing that I would need to be testing for much more than pH. I need to know the best, reasonably priced test kit out there for all variable testing... and how often should I be testing.
Red Sea makes some nice and fairly accurate but easy test kits.
Nitrate is probably the most important to test for and watch. I usually do once or twice a week, more on newer tanks. A test before a water change and one after a water change will help you determine if your water changes are adequate to control the nitrates. If you only ever test for one thing, Nitrate would be that one thing!
If you have stony corals (ones with a skeleton) then calcium and magnesium start to be more important and should be regularly tested, maybe twice a month or more, with more testing along with frequent pH testing and alkalinity testing if you are dosing for calcium, alkalinity or carbonate hardness, or magnesium. Never just blindly dose and always test for the other elements that would be impacted from your dosing, not just what you are treating the tank with. Test before dosing anything and again a few hours to the day after dosing to make sure the levels are responding to your dosing.
If you are doing more soft corals, calcium is still important but not as important and lower values like in the low to mid 300s are acceptable. Iodine is something that is good to test for softs and inverts.
If you are treating with copper for a fish only tank, testing copper is a must.
If you have a lot of SPS coral, or are having algae problems, a phosphate test kit is great.
But the bare minimum: nitrate
better minimum: nitrate, pH, alkalinity
and up from there depending on your coral setup.
SeaChem makes some nice test kits, but they tend to be complicated and involved. Red Sea or API are nice for quick but still fairly accurate tests.
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