Testing Kit Nutrafin or API

[WVWade]

Since my guppies are dying and everything else is doing fine, I thought I might try a more advanced water testing kit.

I am looking at Nutrafin Master Kit and API Master Kit.

Does anyone have any experience and knowledge to help me choose the better kit for now and future use?

 

Thanks,

Wade

Edited February 25 by WVWade

[Tony s]

Okay, never heard of that kit before. It should work just fine. Covers twice the parameters than the api. Also twice the price.  But tests for gh/kh, poshates, and calcium. No reason to doubt it’s accuracy. Most people otest for the 3 main , they wouldn’t even know what the rest should be. You’d be way ahead of the game. But do you need it. No…. Up to you 

[face]

Never used them but from what I’ve seen there pretty similar to api the thing is if I was going to spend that much on testing I’d  choose a higher quality kit for a smaller amount of tests personally I’d just do api but if you really want to know all your perimeters it’s not bad 

[Whitecloud09]

Your going in the right direction because test kits usually is better than strips but API is my choice and the other, u could get that as well, your choice 

I also uselly get strips for gh and kh. With the ammonia nitrite and nitrate with the api test kit

[TOtrees]

My biggest issues with the liquid/drops test kits is time. If you have to test multiple tanks, or a single tank multiple times (eg couple times during the day, or even a few - or all - days per week), the time spent drawing the samples, counting the drops, timing the reactions, shaking (and shaking and shaking) the bottles, and repeating for various parameters just isn't worth it. With strips, you swirl, give it 30-60 seconds depending on the brand, and you're done. 

The accuracy might not be as precise as liquid tests, but that doesn't mean they aren't accurate enough. You don't need to know/see the difference between pH of 7.2 vs 7.5, or 0.1 vs 0.2 ammonia or 10 vs 20 nitrite. For monitoring health, you just need to be able to distinguish between zero, low, some and lots. Zero and low (for ammonia and nitrite) means you don't need to do anything, some might mean you need to do something (or maybe just monitor and retest), and lots means you should be doing something to bring that level down. 

I'll also add that of the test results I categorized above, zero, low and some rarely result in fish deaths. Lots can (result in deaths) if it's persistent or critically high. But if you're seeing regular deaths and ammonia or nitrite are low or some, that's probably not the silver bullet you're looking for. It might be a contributor, but there's probably more going on. Not trying to diagnose your issues, just laying a framework for how to proceed. 

Personally, I like and trust the API strips, and the coop brand. I'm sure others have their own brand experiences. 

[Schuyler]

Unpopular opinion: I'm not a fan of liquid test kits

It didn't happen as much on this forum but there are places that get a bit gatekeepy about them.

They are more accurate but so much more work and I'm not convinced that the cost benefit ratio is worth it.

That said, Nutrafin has those other tests and that is really intriguing. It would be cool to know your potassium levels for stuff like Java fern

Is that brand more marine focused?