dip strips for water conditions opinion

[Doug fir]

I use strips for testing water conditions is this acceptable to stay out of trouble.
If not what are other suggestion for testing, and which condtion of the water are most critical .

thanks for any feedback

[Ardan]

Hi ,
Dip strips can give an indication of a problem
Most important are ammonia, nitrite, and stable ph IMO.

hth
Ardan

[Tres]

I had tried dip strips, but found them to be worse than useless actually. They are so innacurate to be dangerous I would have to say, after comparing their results against those from normal tests. Stick with standard test kits.

[sdrexler078]

I had dip strips and tested with water I brought the water up to 9ppm of ammonia before the strip showed anything so I won't use them. Of course this was just one test and wasn't done in a lab or anything. the nitrate was more accurate but still off the liquid tests are much better

[jbecklin]

Kind of related here... I know my water is hard but I dont know how hard. How do I test it?

[John_Nicholson]

Unless you are breeding then the hardness really does not matter much. Most people would do better if they would test their water less and change their water more.

-john

[jbecklin]

Thanks John. But I would love to get an actual number of hardness as well as other info. Are freshwater test kits available most anywhere and if so will they give me a hardness number?

[oliverk]

API makes a general hardness test kit (Freshwater GH and KH about $10 on ebay inc shipping) - it is a liquid and meant for aquarium usage. It works like all of the API test kits.

For my discus tank I bought the freshwater master test kit by API , which includes regular and high ph which I seldom use. I test ammonia very frequently and nitrate and nitrite frequently Those are the tests in the kit about 23-30 on ebay. (My tank since putting plants in the filtration read aquaponics - which I am increasing - more filtration more plants - has never tested above 0 in nitrate or nitrite). I run PH occasionally and the hardness tests very occasionally - mostly to test performance of my RO or RODI.

I have some dip test strips for various things around. They have a reputation of being unreliable, I have tested the same thing in both the API and the test strip and always got very similar results. (The no nitrate and nitrite is a little odd in many aquariums) but both kits read the same. I know many pet stores who do free water testing use the test strips.... but they are in the business of selling fish so.....

Hope this helps.