Clasification of fresh water test kits (ALL BRANDS)

[kostasonia]

Hi all,

I know that many of you live in the US. I leave in Spain and some brands of WATER TEST KITS are difficult to be found. For example AP and some others can only be found in AMAZON.com as far as I know.

In my LFS i can find the following brands:

SERA 5.0
TETRA 6.0
PRODAC -
DUPLA -
AZOO -


I would like a feedback (give mark from 1 to 10) of as many people possible on these brands. Is it possible?

If someone thinks that a brand is better in one test and an other brand in an other, its also useful to be mentioned.

Also you can add more brands. I´m sure that AP is the favourite of many and a very popular test kit. Please give any info about other brands you have used.

Lets see if something comes out of this..!

 

[src]

AP is a decent kit, but it is mainly popular because it is cheap and widely available. Most liquid reagent test kits should be about the same in quality. Just stay away from the paper strips if at all possible.

 

[coldmachineUK]

*Nods, you're better with liquid test kits.
You should also try to aim for a test kit which uses TWO bottles of liquid for testing ammonia. This is because kits with only one bottle will be testing ammonIUM which is not as harmful, I believe, so it will give you a false reading.

AFAIK I don't think many manufacturers do a 'master test kit' like AP do: you would have to buy lots of individual kits. Have you tried Ebay? I can't buy AP test kits in my LFS either, so I use EBay (limiting to buy-it-now and store owners only so I know what I'm getting is reliable).

 

[Purrbox]

Hagen is the other one that has a Master Test Kit. It's a bit more comprehesive that the AP Master Test Kit. The AP is best suited for those who are just keeping fish since it is less expensive and doesn't contain as many kits while the Hagen is better suited for those venturing into Planted Aquaria since it has all the kits you would need.

 

[majolo]

there's also TetraTest Laborett, which has pH, KH, GH, ammonia, and nitrite (but not nitrate for some odd reason). I have it plus the AP nitrate test.