Red Sea freshwater test kits

[Sahabo]

Anyone familiar with Red Sea freshwater liquid test kits?

http://www.northcoastmarines.com/pics/pics_on_site/rs_ammonia.jpg

RedSeaFish

Aquarium Water Testing: Red Sea Ammonia, Nitrate, and Nitrite Test Kits

Just looking for a possible alternative to API that has an easier color chart to read. They claim that, "[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The wide color graduations of the tests have been developed for easy determination of the result."

Or these Salifert tests: Aquarium Water Testing: Salifert Ammonia Test Kit for Freshwater & Marine Aquariums

These seem kinda pricey though...
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[Ziggy953]

I use a combination of all of the above. I like salifert best, they tend to be more accurate. Pricey yes but worth it when compaired to the amount of money in my tank.

 

[tamra&steven]

salifert is very good. api isnt good at all you should get rid of that kit very inacurate.
salifert is very easy to use and read. you cant go wrong with instant ocean either for some tests. it uses little packets instead of droping liquid. also easy to read

 

[Sahabo]

Hmm...aren't Instant Ocean products for saltwater? I'm just dealing with a very small freshwater tank here, 5.5 gallons, nothing complicated.

I'm surprised about the API comment, I though most people here like those test kits.

The Salifert looks good, but it says it only starts measuring at .5ppm, unless you get the pro kit, which is even more expensive.

I've been reading about the red sea tests, and apparently they are easy to read but people feel the results aren't consistently accurate.

Just trying to cycle my little tank and use a test that's accurate and easy to read...and I'm on a pretty tight budget.

Do others feel the same way as tamara&steven about the API tests?

 

[CatatonicBug]

Though the API kit can tend to be a little tricky to read, I don't really agree with that negative asessment. All you're relly looking for out of the tests is a reading of 0 on ammonia and nitrites, and a level of nitrates that is not super high. In my opinion, it's really easy to read a 0 reading from the API kit on any of the tests. I don't think it's necessary to get a reading as precice as .25ppm on any of those things.

 

[Sahabo]

Though the API kit can tend to be a little tricky to read, I don't really agree with that negative asessment. All you're relly looking for out of the tests is a reading of 0 on ammonia and nitrites, and a level of nitrates that is not super high. In my opinion, it's really easy to read a 0 reading from the API kit on any of the tests. I don't think it's necessary to get a reading as precice as .25ppm on any of those things.

I guess the tricky part is that I want to be able to decipher ammonia and nitrites up to .5ppm. I've been trying to cycle my tank (fish-in) since 3/13, and have recently discovered that I was going overboard with the pwc's and effectively preventing the tank from cycling. So I was advised (by AA members) to monitor the ammonia and nitrites and do pwc's just to keep it under .5ppm (I'm also hunting for bio-spira to help).

 

[Fishyfanatic]

I disagree that API is unreliable. It is the most commonly recommended test kit for FW on this site.

You definitely need to monitor Ammonia and Nitrites in the tank while it is cycling but with a 5.5 gal tank and only 1 Betta, your bioload probably won't be high enough to notice much of a reading if you are doing water changes on a regular basis.