question about a test kit ?

by **nicholas542** » Fri Sep 10, 2010 5:48 am

I have a API test kit for my salt water reef tank that crashed a year ago. Can I use the test kits Amonnia , Nitrate, Nitrite, and PH testing equipment for my planted tank?

by **yasherkoach** » Fri Sep 10, 2010 6:58 am

I am sure you can, you are only testing the water. Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and ph test kits can be applied to btoh freshwater and saltwater. Hopefully you have liquid test kits (more accurate).

So yes you can

by **nicholas542** » Fri Sep 10, 2010 7:21 am

yep it's a liquid i don't trust test strips. I might be kind of new to planted, but i would have never used test strips in my salt reef. My tank crashed because my local water supply had a spike in copper which kills coral instantly. Lost about 2grand in corals in 3 days.

by **yasherkoach** » Fri Sep 10, 2010 7:52 am

wow that is you-know-what up...thing about saltwater, absolutely thrilling visually, but if something messes up, thousands are literally flushed down the drain

I worked with a girl that bought a saltwater tank for about $5000. It was a gift for her new house, a heart-warming present. Anyway, she bought another $2,500 worth of assorted fish. She also purchased a $500 eel...not knowing it was electric (again, salespeople made much off her with awfully bad advice). So she has everything set up, she goes to bed, next morning she wakes up, goes to the tank, turns on the light and guess what: every single fish was swallowed up by the electric eel. $2,500 worth of fish, gone, poof!

so I certainly can understand from second-hand experience.

by **nicholas542** » Fri Sep 10, 2010 7:59 am

yeah i got pretty much all my info when i was into saltwater from snowboss, puffedupseagulls, and a few others. I made a stupid mistake and topped off my tank without using RO water, and poof reef tank gone. I had freshwater tanks before salt so I reverted back to something i knew. I am trying planted as a newbie, and battleing algae (winning).

by **yasherkoach** » Fri Sep 10, 2010 8:21 am

winning is good, shows you are doing something right...unless it's cladophora, I grow this algae naturally in the tank, as long as it is pruned once a week, it is a wonderful algae

so identify the algae, go from there

by **nicholas542** » Fri Sep 10, 2010 8:32 am

it's hair algae. I have been overdosing with Flourish Excel for a little while now. I have been manually removing it from the tank/plants during water changes. I seem to be winning the battle it's pretty much all dying off.

by **yasherkoach** » Fri Sep 10, 2010 10:21 am

cool, you identified it...yes in time, if you manage to get rid of it, it will just die back to the point of non-existence

by **ThisFish884484** » Sat Sep 11, 2010 3:42 am

There is a Freshwater color chart and a saltwater color chart, make sure to use the right one or Ph reading will be off.

by **yasherkoach** » Sat Sep 11, 2010 7:43 am

that is true ThisFish, each kit comes with 2 test charts. But I assume nicholas is using the freshwater (crosses fingers)

question about a test kit ?

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