Water testing???

I may get flamed for this but here goes...

I used an api liquid test kit when I first started actually testing my water as it was what everyone recommended on any site I looked at online.

However I switched over to Tetra easy strips; l tried a few locally available strips to test which was closest to the liquid kit and the Tetras seemed right on the money with my api kit. Because my job used to require me to work out of town a lot. It made testing easier for my wife if I had to push my water changes and stay out of town longer than planned. Now I don't test often unless I'm setting up a new tank, notice any stress in my fish or monitoring levels to watch changes when adding items like plants, leaves, or driftwood.

(Edit) - I've been using the strips for the past 3 or 4 years now

I don't test my water. Just do your water changes and learn to read your fish. You'll come to know when something is wrong.

shookONES said:

I don't test my water. Just do your water changes and learn to read your fish. You'll come to know when something is wrong.

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That's what I did for the last 45 years. Then one day I lost a fish. Water change. Another fish. Water change....... I had a ph crash. Wouldn't even read it was so low. I test my water now.

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Keman said:

I have several different ways to test, and am finding some wide differences between test methods for the same test..

ie.., API 5 in 1 test strips show PH at 6, No2 and No3 very high. Yet my glass tube style dropper bottle test it shows PH at 6.8, Nitrite at 0-5

Even two different bottles of PH solution give slightly different reads...

SO I guess, What I would really like is to find ONE consistent reliable master test kit...

Recommendations?...

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1) pH change during the day so that isn't always meaningful unless you took readings at the same time

2) N02 = very high and Nitrite = 0-5 would mean the same thing to me. Any nitrite is too much.

Even taking samples from different spots in the tank can give different readings.


If you want to test make sure you don't have any expired tests, be sure to shake any test liquids vigorously, then take the readings at the same time and from the same spot in the tank. Finally take a sample at the same time and take it to your LFS and have them test it.

I'm not saying your results are wrong, but there are some things you want to eliminate as factors when testing.