Test Equipment and Testing Water for the Freshwater Aquarium

[Dkarc@Aol.com]

Hi Ardan

Could you add the following your sticky.

Electronic Test Meters for:

1. Ammonia

2. Nitrite

3. Nitrate

4. Oxygen

Thanks

Stew

Hi Stew,
The only electronic meters available to test for ammonia/nitrite/nitrate are spectrophotometers. They have the ability to test several hundred different parameters and are extremely precise (nitrite readings to the thousandths for example). Unfortunitely, they are super expensive and honestly only help when you have to do water quality testing for a lot of systems, or require EXACT readings (no guessing on the color shade, it tells you what it is). We use the YSI DR2800 on the farm and it makes water quality much faster. Instead of taking 3+ hours doing the whole farm, it only takes 2. Also, they arent built to be handheld...desktop only you could say.

There are also a lot of different oxygen meters available. Some are better than most, but for a GOOD quality DO meter (dissolve oxygen) expect to pay no less than $400+ for a basic model. One that I recommend highly is the YSI 85 meter. It measures DO, Temp, Conductivity, and salinity. We use it several times a day in our greenhouse. It's not cheap either, but I can guarantee it will last for a LONG time.

-Ryan

[Imperialdiscus]

I have one of these, good meters.

cool. Then I'll go ahead and order it.

I'm also getting a Hanna Multiparameter bench tester that does amonnia, nitrite, nitrate and a bunch of other tests, seems to me it was a 14 test unit for 209.00

[nc0gnet0]

Hi Stew,
The only electronic meters available to test for ammonia/nitrite/nitrate are spectrophotometers. They have the ability to test several hundred different parameters and are extremely precise (nitrite readings to the thousandths for example). Unfortunitely, they are super expensive and honestly only help when you have to do water quality testing for a lot of systems, or require EXACT readings (no guessing on the color shade, it tells you what it is). We use the YSI DR2800 on the farm and it makes water quality much faster. Instead of taking 3+ hours doing the whole farm, it only takes 2. Also, they arent built to be handheld...desktop only you could say.

Not sure if that is exactly true, depends on your definition of "extremly expensive"....such a device has existed in the koi world for a bit now and can be had for $225.00 if you shop around. It is called the EZ meter and is extremly accurate. It can also measure PP doses in PPM with the correct test strips. Nice device and eliminates alot of the meters shown here, but you will still need a tds meter......

http://www.sensafe.com/micro7+/order.php#AquariumKit

[joeGargas]

Not sure if that is exactly true, depends on your definition of "extremly expensive"....such a device has existed in the koi world for a bit now and can be had for $225.00 if you shop around. It is called the EZ meter and is extremly accurate. It can also measure PP doses in PPM with the correct test strips. Nice device and eliminates alot of the meters shown here, but you will still need a tds meter......

http://www.sensafe.com/micro7+/order.php#AquariumKit

I usually do not get involved in forums that much with the exception of the local club I belong to which is the Tampa Bay Aquarium Society. My background is water chemistry and there is so much bad information in the the tropical fish hobby/industry that it makes enginers like myself and people with science backgrounds heads spin. Every now and then I make an exception and throw in my expierence to help hobbyist achieve a better understanding of water testing and water treatment. Below I will cover a few points. First of all I must apologize a head of time for comming across dogmatic but I have been doing this for many many years.

1. There is no such thing as a TDS meter! TDS is a gravametric measurement that is done by weight. A TDS meter is actually a conductivity meter with a messed up calibration of 50% sodium chloride.

Here is a real in depth link in which I went into depth explaining the differences and why a meter that reads TDS came into the market place.

http://tbas1.wiredtron.com/index.php?topic=163.0

2. Hardness can not be measured by a conductivity meter it can only be measured by titration.

you must shoot for a hardness of 15-36 mg/l by mixing raw tap with R/O or DI water once you reach that hardness level then take a conductivity reading. A conductivity meter should read in MicroSiemens record your conductivity then you will know what the parameters should be. If your water is stable you will only need to test for total hardness periodically.

I hope I shed some light on this matter.

Thanks
joeGargas
www.aquaresearchcenter.com

[fullmonti]

I am in the process of converting my 180g reef tank to a planted Discus tank. I just tested my tap water for the first time with a Elos GH & Tropic Marin KH kits. GH came out to be 6 & KH 4. This seems pretty low, could it be right & OK? I have a little inline TDS meter on my ORDI system, it reads around 105. What do you think?

Jim

[jimg]

I am in the process of converting my 180g reef tank to a planted Discus tank. I just tested my tap water for the first time with a Elos GH & Tropic Marin KH kits. GH came out to be 6 & KH 4. This seems pretty low, could it be right & OK? I have a little inline TDS meter on my ORDI system, it reads around 105. What do you think?

Jim

could be right with gh and kh but tds seems a little low it all depends on what's in water.

[fullmonti]

I just talked to a friend in Atlanta & he said his waters numbers are all lower than mine. I was wondering if I would need to use some ORDI water, but looks like my tap water will work.

Thanks
Jim

[madam]

Yes my heve mini aqua..

[PaytonGrant]

Has anyone tried Seneye the computer that send you reports and information of chemical trends?

[aabreu1101]

I know this post is old but, i wish i would have seen this when i started! It would have save my father and me a lot of headaches.

[RogueDiscus]

OK, I've been unsure for a while, so I have to ask. I have very hard well water that I cut with RO. I'm still using a Nutrafin KH/GH test kit and doing titrations for gh and kh. I'm not sure I'm interpreting the results correctly. The test instructions say to multiply drops by 20 for gh. So 3 drops means a gh of 60, or kh of 30 (different tests) Does this really mean 1074 ppm or 1980 micro siemens, and I want less than 100 for breeding?
Steve

[RogueDiscus]

Just to add, the test says 10 times the number of drops for kh. My well water takes 15 drops for each of the KH and GH tests, 150 kh, 300 gh (So I've been cutting it 2 or 3 to 1, RO/WW). The test card says the multiplied numbers represent mg/L, which is also ppm, so I though I was putting it in a reasonable range. This would seem to disagree with the numbers in the original post of this thread
"1GH = 17.9 ppm = 33 micro siemens". Thanks for any feedback.
Steve

[Sergey]

Hi Steve,

I'm not seeing a disagreement. Your test measures in mg/L or ppm, and you can divide that by 17.9 and get German degrees of hardness. You aren't confusing your test kit with the API's where you count drops and each drop equals to a German degree of harness?

Regards,
Sergey.

[RogueDiscus]

Thanks Sergey,
I was sure I was mixing up the units somehow.
S

[dirtyplants]

Hi,
Just thought I would share my experience recently with the Hanna Combo. I bought one and it leaked shorting the electronics.
I returned it for another and it was all over the board no matter how many and often I calibrated it. Followed the instructions to the tee. So became very frustrated with this company, I have heard that the older ones work well. The units I had were so slow they would shut off before calibration was completed. Bought a cheap Milwaukee hand held for 20.00 and found it needed to be calibrated often but was closer then the Hanna. I asked the store where I bought the Hanna at what they were using for pH, they showed me the Myron L Company Ultrapen PT2. It calibrated perfectly and was simple to use. Took a minute to get use to the flashing lights, but was a joy to use. Has a sponge in a soft rubber cap to hold buffering solution. The sponge keeps the sensor moist.
I am sure there are differing experiences with these units but after two tries I was unwilling to buy another Hanna combo.