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what are the best water quality test kits (most accurate)? i find the ones we have quite hard to read on the colour comparisons.

I think they're all hard to read. I take them out in the other room under natural sunlight and have my sister read them Under my room lights the browns and reds turn kind of purple... I can see yellows, greens, orange, and blue just fine but for some reason I can't determine reds and browns at all. One reason I keep my nitrates low is after they go over 15ppm it all looks the same to me on the test kit. They could be 20 or 50 for all I know. For accuracy of the test liquid is much better than strips and I also found the strips color even harder to match. The most common test kit I hear is aquarium pharmaceuticals master kit. I started with that then was buying tetra kits locally when the others ran out. I found tetra to be harder for me to read and order aquarium pharm kits online now.

its the tetra ammonia kit i am really struggling with, the yellowy greens
i have found the strips are inaccurate, either that of my nitrates have dropped back to 0

Test strips are notorius for being hard to read.

I use aquarium pharmiceuticals master test kit, but the individually packaged ammonia (seems to be more specific). Testing under a good light can be very important, and what I do sometimes is turn the card upside down and cover the numbers. Just so I know I'm not trying to push the results one way or the other.

^_^

[hr width='40%']"Put your soul in the water,
And join me for a swim tonight"

I use aquarium pharmaceuticals test kits. I find them fairly easy to read, you just need good light. test kits are usually much cheaper if you order them online vs. the store. i got the gh kh test kit online for 4,49 but at the store they are selling for around 12.99

If it's just the ammonia test your looking for then definitely aquarium pharm. It's much easier than the tetra test and probably the easiest one to match of all the tests. Even in poor lighting I'm certain of the numbers. The only tetra test I'd prefer is the nitrate one. The shading is alot farther apart than the aquarium pharm one and it's more accurate. The tetra nitrate test uses zinc powder along with 2 liquid bottles. It takes alot more time to test but you get more accurate results.

Aquarium Pharmacuticals master test kit, with pH, Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate tests. Follow instructions esp with the nitrates and DO use good lighting, makes it much easier to compare colors

I also use the aquarium pharm master test kit. It comes with 6 cards to read. Including ph and high ph test kits. Different cards different colors. This is the most impressive one I have ever seen on the market thus far.

Freeblaze

I'v never had a problem with Aquarium Pharmeceuticals. Other than the fact that my NitrAtes always seem low... (but that's not a bad thing) But you definately want to read them in bright lights, since some of the higher range colors can sort of blend together. The thing I love the most is that you can order a whole box of test tubes... really really handy with multiple tanks and tests.

aqua pharmaceuticals