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Hi dark siders

I come from the world of planted tanks with a quick question:

What makes a marine phosphate test kit different than a freshwater phosphate test kit? The packaging mentions something about being calibrated for saltwater, but what does that mean?

I ask because I'm looking for a po4 test kit locally and i can only find marine test kits - naturally I'm wondering if these will work or provide acurate results for FW, or if I need to go out of my way to find a FW designated kit.


Anyone care to elaborate?


Thanks!

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Back in the saddle!

Phosphate test kits are really confusing. I dont really understand them myself.

From what I understand, there's one that measures organic...and then there's also in-organic, I guess? Something like that...

I know that we only have a test kit for one of the two types of phosphates...meaning, you can test your water, find it undetectable, and still have phosphate in the water.

My mind is sort of out there right now, I'll look it up later and try to give you some actual valuable information.


-Ferret [img src='/images/forums/halo.gif' border=0]

-Formerly known as the Ferretfish

Thanks ferretfish

It's really not a big deal I guess, not worth doing research over...I just thought maybe someone around here would know off the top of their head. I took a look around on google and couldn't come up with anything really. Thanks for responding though.

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Back in the saddle!

Keep in mind the whole chemistry of freshwater and salt water uh...water is different. It's very possible that some of the chemicals in salt water will react with the reagents in a freshwater kit and give totally different results.

For example, I tried an ammonia test kit that was supposed to be for freshwater and saltwater to test my marine tank...It looked like the droplets congealed into some kind white jelly...But it worked fine in freshwater.