A rant
- Thread starter pops
- Start date
The test strips I use, are not generic aquarium type, they are from the Fischer Scientific company, and accurate enough to be used, trusted and quality control tested, for drinking water, and waste water treatment facilities, and the regulations they were required to meet.
Their catalog is available on line.
They may not be at the price many aquarists expect pay to though, because of the regulatory required accuracy. (although some aquarium strips may be manufactured by the same factory, but I'm not familiar which)
The generic strips used for pH are very simple, and should be accurate across the board, as long as expiration dates, and proper storage are adhered to.
While working as a chemist, I had to perform regular quality control comparisons to check these strips against titration reagent standards for accuracy.
Their catalog is available on line.
They may not be at the price many aquarists expect pay to though, because of the regulatory required accuracy. (although some aquarium strips may be manufactured by the same factory, but I'm not familiar which)
The generic strips used for pH are very simple, and should be accurate across the board, as long as expiration dates, and proper storage are adhered to.
While working as a chemist, I had to perform regular quality control comparisons to check these strips against titration reagent standards for accuracy.
While I hate to jump on the complimenting duanes band wagon(don't want his head to get too big 
J/K). Pops you should really look at some of the fish duanes has kept and bred. Fish that don't have exactly easy water requirements to keep never mind breed such as Alcolapia. Now a fish surviving water conditions doesn't mean much because surviving isn't necessarily thriving but getting your fish breeding usually means somethings being done right and to breed the fish duanes has means he's doing something very right.
J/K). Pops you should really look at some of the fish duanes has kept and bred. Fish that don't have exactly easy water requirements to keep never mind breed such as Alcolapia. Now a fish surviving water conditions doesn't mean much because surviving isn't necessarily thriving but getting your fish breeding usually means somethings being done right and to breed the fish duanes has means he's doing something very right.
A pack of 30 lasts a while for me, but yes I know, $40+ is a bit on the high side as far as price goes simply for nitrate testing.
After regular testing for years though, working "for" my water supplier (and becoming very familiar with my make up water), keeping logs, and watching the trends have together provided enough data to to give enough general knowledge about my water conditions to keep testing to the minimum, unless something bizarre happens or changes .
Plenty of water changes are a lot cheaper than testing, and my testing trends have shown that every other day, 30% water changes keep parameters very stable, and where I prefer to have them.
Because my source water is Lake Michigan, it is so large that water from it is very stable, and has great buffering capacity (with an alkalinity of @ 100ppm), low nitrate, and a pH of about 7.5 direct from the tap. So I am lucky, and may not need to test as much as those with river sources that are much more variable, season to season, day to day.
After regular testing for years though, working "for" my water supplier (and becoming very familiar with my make up water), keeping logs, and watching the trends have together provided enough data to to give enough general knowledge about my water conditions to keep testing to the minimum, unless something bizarre happens or changes .
Plenty of water changes are a lot cheaper than testing, and my testing trends have shown that every other day, 30% water changes keep parameters very stable, and where I prefer to have them.
Because my source water is Lake Michigan, it is so large that water from it is very stable, and has great buffering capacity (with an alkalinity of @ 100ppm), low nitrate, and a pH of about 7.5 direct from the tap. So I am lucky, and may not need to test as much as those with river sources that are much more variable, season to season, day to day.
one methods to remove nitrate is floating plants , the plants would consume the nitrate and multiply , then remove some of them ,can be use to feed cyprinids like koi , its a good way to remove nitrogen from the tanks , for smaller tanks , duckweed do fine , for large ones or ponds , water lettuces or hyacinth .
