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AJE

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Posts posted by AJE

    Which test kit is correct?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    On 6/28/2021 at 12:02 PM, Cory said:

    I’m not sure yet. Honestly I had a busy weekend and the manufacturers labs aren’t open over the weekend so not much progress has been made yet. At the very least we can refund or send another kit to you. However I do t have an answer for you yet on why it’s happening.

    Ok. I can wait, no hurry. Thanks

    Different colored Pygmy corys

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I have had a school of 9 Pygmy corys and added three more recently, I noticed that the new ones are a more gray color compared to the old ones that are a more yellow color. Could it be the food that I’ve been feeding them that caused the color difference? Idk how to fix the upside down issue CA719353-CDCA-470D-8DF3-5BD71586B282.jpeg.5e887da2addc86d0436389331f797349.jpeg

    • Like 1

    Which test kit is correct?

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by AJE

    On 6/21/2021 at 1:38 PM, Cory said:

    What is the hardness of your water @AJE From the April picture, and these pictures it looks like it may have changed. Manufacturer says in either super high or super low hardness can have an effect on the test. This also assumes you're taking the pics at 60 seconds etc.

    Around 161 according to api test kit. And I have been setting a timer and watching it the whole time keep an eye on the color changes.

    • Like 1

    Which test kit is correct?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    On 6/20/2021 at 6:01 PM, CT_ said:

    @Cory  I got some time to test my hypothesis and I think I figured it out.  I've spent a LOT of time in the last moth thinking about this and trying to figure it out.

     

    Acidic soft water can be bad for pipes so some water districts add sodium hydroxide, a strong base to up the PH. 

     

    If its the ph indicator I think it is in the strip then its also an acid.  Since almost all of the NaOH dissociates when dissolved into water it doesn't have much buffering capacity.  This means a relatively weak acid like the ph indicator can bring ph down.  Liquid tests, use much more water (100x) and probably less indicator (and also different indicator) so they don't change the pH as much. 

     

    To test this I mixed distilled water with two tiny granules of sodium hydroxide and measured the ph with both my meter(>11) and the strips (<7).  Since 11 is out of range I thought maybe the test results could be invalid (though my understanding of the chemistry is that it should max out the red color if the sample ph remained at 11 on the strip).  So I diluted it down until the ph was stable around 8 (I hit something like 7.8 which is close enough), and tried again, same result strips show <7.

     

    Here's some photos of my experiment:

    just distilled water freshly opened.  says 6.7 but there's nothing in it right now.  Just to illustrate sane results with just water on my probe.

    image.png.0ca48a23b9e9d60443ed83be7f8351cb.png

    two granules of lye + lots of stirring and waiting for measurement to settle down:

    image.png.f9cf0ffda48616248a4eada686c58176.png

    I moved 1-2 teaspoons of the ph 11 water into fresh distilled water until i got a stable reading close to 8.

    image.png.01439cc364cc298a9e943d734a66e067.png

    Interesting. So does this mean just the ph is inaccurate? Can I trust the other parameters? 

    Which test kit is correct?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Here is a picture of a test I took April. The ph is still wrong but the chlorine showed up but the test I just took shows that I don’t have any chlorine. Maybe they have lowered how much chlorine they are putting in since then and it is low enough to where it doesn’t register. I don’t know, weirdFA941E36-DAAB-495C-A733-8C6E0A0D901E.jpeg.27fb45db6907b6015924002a327c0942.jpeg

    Which test kit is correct?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    On 6/20/2021 at 5:07 PM, Cory said:

    I don't think crushed coral would do anything to our test specifically. Can you do a test with your tap water with our strip and another test to eliminate possibly any factor from the aquarium? If that test works, then we know, ok something is reacting with a chemical in that tank. It's really strange to me so far. I'd like to get it figured out.

    I got the same results out of the tapA91D304B-B516-4479-915D-B39B5CE58313.jpeg.0935970cabe8605bbd7b7797dd616520.jpeg7DEE3B1D-EA6C-4999-B2BD-0A29793490D7.jpeg.596d5389df6d2ec313b5453c3ab12804.jpeg

    Which test kit is correct?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    On 6/20/2021 at 4:58 PM, Cory said:

    I'm not sure what's causing your results. Are you on tap water? well water etc? I did a video of testing pH with a calibrated solution. Added in nitrates and hardness to the test as well.

     

    I am on city water but all three of the tests were done on water from my fish tank. I do have crushed coral in the tank, could that be the issue?

    Which test kit is correct?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I just got back from the pet store, they tested the water for me and they say my water is around 7.8. So 2 against aquarium co-op test kit. This is pretty disappointing, I really wanted the test kit to work but it looks like it doesn't. Could there be an another reason to this @Cory?

    Which test kit is correct?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    On 6/16/2021 at 1:35 PM, ARMYVET said:

    I can tell you that I have a digital PH pen that Is calibrated regularly.  The Co-Op multitest strip matches up very very close to my pen.

    I can say that for me it also matched up with my API kit.  May I ask what dechlorinator you are using....some dont react well with certain test kits whether it is liquid or test strip. 

    I can also say that my TDS meter lines up with the GH pad on the multitest strip as well.  My tds Meter shows 0 coming out of my R/O filter so I know it is reading correctly.

    This is just what I have experienced.  

    I am using the fritz dechlorinator.

    Which test kit is correct?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    On 6/12/2021 at 2:30 PM, Patrick_G said:

    I’ve tested one of my Coop strips against a known PH solution and it was accurate. I think it’s key to make your reading is made exactly one min after you swirl it in the water. 
    You can buy calibration solution on Amazon if you want double check accuracy yourself. 

    Yeah I took the picture right at the 1 minute mark 

    Which test kit is correct?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    On 6/12/2021 at 1:48 PM, CosmicAshhole said:

    This is why I don't trust strips. 

    I keep trying, but they keep giving me weird readings.  Maybe I'm crazy.

    Yeah both the api and these strips give me these readings so one of them is consistently wrong. I don’t know which. Maybe I’ll take some of my water to an lfs and which ever they test closer to is the one that is trustworthy 

    Popular States

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    37 minutes ago, Ryan F said:

    I think I'm the lone rep from Indiana. There is one LFS store but their focus is saltwater despite having a respectable freshwater section. Unfortunately it's the only LFS in central Indiana. I do most of my shopping online or at petco. I don't know anyone else who keeps fish. 

    I just moved from Indiana. I know that around the Indianapolis area there are a few fish stores

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