Which Is The Best/Most Accurate Water Test Kits?

[TaknByD]

Still don't understand why people complain about api's kits. Sure, they're only good for getting you a range, but they are pretty accurate. I know the NO3 kit shows similar values above 10ppm compared to my salifert kit. But, of course anything below that and those 5ppm and 10ppm beige colors are pretty similar.

Well my API kits are all over the place. The PH is just hard to read... Actually most of them are pretty difficult to read unless they are zeroed out. But my API kit for Calcium, forget it... It's showing that my average is above 600 sometimes more than 700... I'm sorry but something is wrong there. I do a lot of tests,and I even test my water before taking it to the LFS to get checked and there is always a huge difference.

[CoryDude]

Don't get me wrong, I agree that api's aren't the best, just not as bad as everyone thinks. Bill's right about the freshness date too. I've used api dhk, ammonia, no2, and no3 with little problem. Maybe your calcium kit is old. I'll generally stay away from an api kit if the the mfg. date is more than 6 months out.

That being said, I'll take a salifert kit over just about anything.

All in all, most test kits out there are hobbyist grade, so there's always going to be some margin of error.

[tony]

ive owned multiple API kits over the years and have never had any issues either. from what i gather they may be temperature sensitive (storage wise)

color me a fan of them, especially for $20ish for the basics. not sure i would use them for anything other than this though (nitrates, nitrites, ph, ammonia)

for stuff that has to be more accurate, salifert!