Gruntking;4988960; said:
Ding! Ding! Ding!
I've worked there for almost 4 years now and they use the test strips. Better than nothing or not knowing, but not accurate either.
PH help needed A.S.A.P
- Thread starter Garrett.turbo
- Start date
Ding! Ding! Ding!
I've worked there for almost 4 years now and they use the test strips. Better than nothing or not knowing, but not accurate either.
Most LFS use test strips for customers water. It simply takes too long to test 5 or 6 different chems with the liquid tester. Plus, if you test everyone's water for free, no one is going to buy test kits
^^^
I fully understand why they use test strips. I wouldn't want to shake a damn test bottle for a minute! lol
I fully understand why they use test strips. I wouldn't want to shake a damn test bottle for a minute! lol
SimonL;4989051; said:
OK, might have missed something, so if I did then sorry (read through twice), but OP said he set the tank up on Monday, it's only Wednesday now, no way is he gonna have any bio-filter in two days (unless media was taken from a fully cycled tank). I'm pretty sure the 'testers' that hang inside the tank take a good 24 hours to 'settle' before a reading can be taken and even then they are not accurate at all.
Sounds to me like the tank is just begining to cycle, in which case Ammonia is going to go up to dangerous levels very quickly so something like Prime is needed to protect the fish right now. Add Stability as well every day (follow instructions on bottle) to try and move the cycle along quickly or there could be some dead fish.
Like I said, if I misse something then sorry, but better safe than sorry!
He moved an established tank and re-set it up, it's not new. Sorry, this thread is a continuation of the other one, I get the confusion.
albyoscar;4988946; said:
Taking your water to Petsmart for a water test is just as useless as the plastic thing. They use those garbage strip test that are totally inaccurate. All those things are good for is maybe acknowledging that bacteria is present if that.
I think it goes without saying here if you have an aquarium you should have a chem test kit. Heck, they're always on sale at bigal's. http://www.bigalsonline.com/Fish_Wa...er-Master-Test-Kit_8435713_82.html?tc=default
"Totally inaccurate" is a bit of a stretch. They're accurate to some degree, just less so then a liquid chemical test. In the same way, a liquid test is substantially less accurate than an electronic ph meter...
If you're using the seachem brand indicators that sit in your tank, I've actually found them to be quite accurate. Everyone thinks their liquid API tests are great, but they're really not THAT accurate either IMO (having used some pretty sophisticated equipment at my old job). Luckily we don't actually need an exact reading on parameters, if there's any ammonia or nitrite in the tank there's a problem...
SimonL;4990033; said:
I guess so. Like I said earlier though, I would trust the strips to tell me that a bacteria is present and nothing more.
They'll give you a "range" to work with. The same way those thermometers that stick on your tank are less accurate than a mercury bead thermometer, which is less accurate than a digital probe.
