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Iron test kits are notoriuosly unreliable. Almost all are a complete waste of time.

The only one worth while is the LaMotte but that's pretty pricey.

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Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

Ouch - that sucks. $20 I could have spent on livestock wasted on that test.

So I bought a SeaChem iron test kit a few weeks ago, used it once, and now it no longer works. Before, it tested my home water at about 0.1 and my tank at about 0.2, but it does not change color for either now. Is there anything I could have done to screw up this test kit? Is there a better Iron test kit out there?

coffeeman,

I have the same kit than you do. Mine seems to work though, but I have to say that distinguishing the colors is not easy (and much of a guess work).

Did you let the solution sit for about 40min to see if you have any chelated (sp) iron?

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

I have the Hagen (Nutrafin) iron test kit, it seems to do ok, but now I rarely use it, I look at the plants, if I see yellowing, fading away, I dose iron/potassium, I have found the plants are doing better and I don't have to wait for the test to tell me what I already know. My water has virtually no iron or potassium in it and the plants either use it all up or it comes out of solution due to the alkaline pH. I usually have to dose iron every 3 days, potassium once a week.

"If you're afraid you'll make a mistake, you won't make anything."
-Family Circus

Yep, Uncle Ben pretty much laid the groundwork for not testing. It took a while for me to accept it, but the only thing I test is ph and kh once in a while and nothing else.

As luvmykrib said look at the plants and fish. Thing about it if your dumping 50% of the water each week anyway what's really the differenc, just dump in by EI guides and if you see deficiany just add alittle more each dosage and look at the results.

They can take those test kits and

My Scapes

Yep, Uncle Ben pretty much laid the groundwork for not testing.

Yep and have you tried my rice ?

I'd be all for testing if the kits were trustworthy. But they're not and so cause more problems then they solve. Watch the plants and fish, far more reliable.

Agree with tetra though, pH and KH is important to keep an eye on, make sure the CO2 is where you want it, pH can be a bit inaccurate , but close enough, KH is usually easy even with a cheap kit.

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Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

Yep and have you tried my rice

No, but I'm sure it's quite good Uncle Ben

My Scapes

I guess I'll skip the Iron testing then.

Re: PH/KH/CO2, I've only recently started adding CO2 and fertilizing. My KH is way on the low side (2 degrees) and I'm thinking of buffering with coral gravel or osmething like that in the filter. I'm not a big fan of adding buffers at a water change because it's something easy to forget to do. My PH is only 6.8.

based on what I've read about the relationship between KH, PH and CO2, that puts my CO2 at just shy of 10 PPM at most which is too low for my taste.

Currently, I'm homebrewing my CO2 so I may try adding a 4th bottle to my system (currently have 2x1 liter and 1x2 liter bottles) or upgrading to all 2 liter bottles or something.

If that fails to impove it, I may invest in a decent reactor rather than just running the gas through my filter (I've got an interesting approach to that which serves as a bubble counter of sorts as well).

Buying an expensive system is a last resort.

coffeeman,

I don't know if that coral gravle (crushed coral) is a good idea. This would raise your ph and GH, but I am not sure what impact it has on KH (and that is the one you want). Furthermore, you cannot fine tune the leaking process and end up with quite some swings during the days between water changes, and it gets worse when the coral ages and has less to give.

I cannot imagine that it would be so hard to add Baking Soda during a water change to raise the KH. If you forget this then I have no idea how you handle at least bi-daily fertilizer additions.

I don't know, doesn't sound solid to

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

My PH is only 6.8.

Coffeeman, what is your ph out of the tap?

My Scapes

Out of the tap, my PH is about 7.6 and my KH is somewhere between 3 and 4. Interestingly enough, both of these numbers drop almost instantly in my tank, even when doing large-ish (40-50%) water changes.