Red Sea Test Kit

BLANKENSHIP76 · 03/28/2006, 09:05 PM

I know they are not very good, I have almost all salifert test however I am still usinf this kit for the ph and alk test.

I have a question on the alk test how do I convert the red sea findings into dkh, my water test out at 2.15 with that kit right in the middle of the range. What would that roughly be equivilant to????

bertoni · 03/30/2006, 12:54 AM

You need to check the manual to see what the units are. That sounds like it might be meq/L, which would mean your tank is on the low side. 2.5 meq/L is a good minimum. I target 3.5 meq/L.

Of course, I'm only guessing on the units. All in all, I didn't have good luck with my Red Sea test kits and ended up taking them back to the store.

mg426 · 03/30/2006, 01:04 AM

If you have a red sea alk kit I believe that they do not give numeric values, just low, normal, high. I could not make any sense out of them either. Might want to try a Salifert Kit.

XeniaMania · 03/30/2006, 02:08 AM

Yeah...I'm having issues w/ their Calcium test kits. It's been reading between 450-500 (10 drops total of Reagent A) for 2 days in a row. It's either that, or my corals can't absorb calcium.

Dan Thrash · 03/30/2006, 07:00 AM

i have the red sea test kits and i find that the ALK test has an extremely wide accuracy range. off my head, what is it...0-1.7 (low), 1.7-2.5 (good), 2.5-3.5 (high)...or something like that. first off, 3.0 meq/l is not high...second, i'm always just guessing what the value really is. i'm going to get the salifert kit.

now, the other tests in that kit seem fine to me...so far. its just that the ALK is extremely inaccurate.

03/28/2006, 09:05 PM	#1
BLANKENSHIP76 Moved On Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Indianapolis Posts: 827	Red Sea Test Kit I know they are not very good, I have almost all salifert test however I am still usinf this kit for the ph and alk test. I have a question on the alk test how do I convert the red sea findings into dkh, my water test out at 2.15 with that kit right in the middle of the range. What would that roughly be equivilant to????

03/30/2006, 12:54 AM	#2
bertoni RC Mod Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Mountain View, CA, USA Posts: 88,616	You need to check the manual to see what the units are. That sounds like it might be meq/L, which would mean your tank is on the low side. 2.5 meq/L is a good minimum. I target 3.5 meq/L. Of course, I'm only guessing on the units. All in all, I didn't have good luck with my Red Sea test kits and ended up taking them back to the store. __________________ Jonathan Bertoni

03/30/2006, 01:04 AM	#3
mg426 Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: maryland Posts: 6,923	If you have a red sea alk kit I believe that they do not give numeric values, just low, normal, high. I could not make any sense out of them either. Might want to try a Salifert Kit. __________________ I found a way to make a small fortune running a reef tank. Start with a large fortune. Unofficial President of the SEACLONE haters club Current Tank Info: 125 mixed reef 110 lbs LR, 1x250watt XM 20K MH 2x175watt XM 20K MH on Magetics 2X96 watt actinic PC, 220 watt VHO actinic, 30 gallon refugium, closed loop system powered by Sequence Dart MSX 200 skimmer 38 gallon sump, Oceansmotions squirt

03/30/2006, 02:08 AM	#4
XeniaMania Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Orange, CA Posts: 1,627	Yeah...I'm having issues w/ their Calcium test kits. It's been reading between 450-500 (10 drops total of Reagent A) for 2 days in a row. It's either that, or my corals can't absorb calcium.

03/30/2006, 07:00 AM	#5
Dan Thrash Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 578	i have the red sea test kits and i find that the ALK test has an extremely wide accuracy range. off my head, what is it...0-1.7 (low), 1.7-2.5 (good), 2.5-3.5 (high)...or something like that. first off, 3.0 meq/l is not high...second, i'm always just guessing what the value really is. i'm going to get the salifert kit. now, the other tests in that kit seem fine to me...so far. its just that the ALK is extremely inaccurate.