Why High Quality Test Kits are a Good Investment - And How to Recognise Them

Welcome to Simple Reefs. We are a brand new website designed to take the stress and expense out of starting your very own marine aquarium. We’ve been talking about marine aquarium test kits a lot, as of late. Today, we are going to be talking about why high quality test kits are a good investment. We will also be giving you some tips on recognising high quality test kits.

This article follows on from our prior article on the woes of low quality test kits. I decided to split things up to make the articles a little more manageable as I can get a little wordy. Be sure to check out our previous article if you want to catch up on why you should be avoiding low quality test kits.

Don’t Try to Save Money on Safety!

I really feel like this point is incredibly important so I will reiterate something we discussed previously. We have already talked about the importance of test kits to a marine aquarium. We have also given you a little help on picking which test kits to buy. This is where the subject gets a little bit complicated. Particularly when the website that you have created is designed to help people save money.

We’ve already talked about how much money test kits can save you in the long run. They are the uncrowned champions of your marine aquarium tool-kit, providing you with an early warning when things go wrong. Early detection of potential problems can help you prevent said problems escalating. This can save you a lot of time, effort, and financial burden when it comes to dealing with issues.

The reality is, however, the prospect of spending a lot of money on numerous test kits is rather daunting. Sure, £10 here, £12 there doesn’t sound too bad. But when it is £50 purely on kits that you may feel are surplus to requirements, it can be a tough pill to swallow.

Despite the somewhat frustrating initial expense, high quality test kits are an essential. They are going to make your marine aquarium ownership life a lot easier and save you money in the long run. While it might be tempting to grab that JBL Saltwater Master Set for £30, it might end up costing you in the long run.

Why is a High Quality Test Kit Important?

Let’s kick things off by confronting a very concerning reality when it comes to commercially available marine aquarium test kits. None of them are 100% accurate. It doesn’t matter whether it is a Red Sea kit, an API kit, a Hanna checker, or something equally as expensive. Test kits can only give us a somewhat accurate picture of the levels of elements in our water.

A high quality test kit is important because it can help give you as close to a truly accurate picture of what is happening in your aquarium as possible. As we talked about in prior articles, the issues that can occur in a marine aquarium are, mostly, completely invisible to the naked eye. You won’t know they are occurring until it is too late to stop them.

Your test kits are a window into these problems and the diagnostic tools that give you a leg up in the hobby. It is massively important that these tools are as accurate and precise as possible. With accurate results, you can make a plan of action to deal with the problem knowing that you have a complete picture of what is wrong.

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure“, as they say. If you can prevent a problem from getting worse, you will save yourself a lot of money. Fixing big issues in a marine aquarium is always horribly expensive or horribly time consuming, sometimes it is both. Check out my most recent Mishap Monday’s article to see how my inability to prevent an issue ended up costing me significant amounts of time and money in the long run.

A Marine Aquarium Cheat-Code

I am a bit of a gamer so I like to think of things in gamer terms (yes, I know, it’s pretty sad!). I often describe my own life as being the same as everyone else’s but on a slightly higher difficulty thanks to having bipolar disorder. If I could reduce the difficulty on my life, that would be great. Well, marine aquarium test kits reduce the difficulty on your saltwater ownership experience. They are like a cheat-code or a peek behind the veil that gives you a leg up on getting through each tough section.

Let’s be honest, as well, owning a marine aquarium, or a reef, is a pretty difficult hobby as it is. We need every advantage we can get. With a high quality test kit, you have that advantage just ready and waiting. With a low quality kit, you are turning the difficulty up and making things just that little bit harder.

Remember how we talked about how no commercial test kit is 100% accurate? Imagine how inaccurate a low quality kit can actually be. It’s quite concerning. Spend a little extra and you won’t be chasing your tail due to inaccurate results. You can prevent the problem from getting worse and won’t be left scrambling to fix an issue that is already worse than you initially thought.

I know, Simple Reefs is supposed to be about saving money. Why am I recommending that you spend more? Well, to save you money and hassle in the long run. If I didn’t think it was essential I wouldn’t recommend it. Though it seems counterintuitive, spending a little extra money on a high quality test kit will save you money in the long run through preventing problems.

What Makes a High Quality Test Kit Special?

We will get into this a little more in depth in just a second. We can quickly summarise what makes a high quality test kit special by saying accuracy, ease of use, and precision. A high quality test kit will give you readings that are more accurate, they will be more precise down to minimal levels, and they will be easier to both use and to read.

The more sensitive and delicate your miniature eco-system becomes, the more accurate your tools need to be. A high quality test kit can help you to narrow parameters down to the lowest possible number. Alkalinity is a great example. A high quality test kit will allow you to measure right down to the level of 0.1dKH. Cheap test kits will only allow you to round up to whole numbers.

Remember the Salifert Nitrate test I talked about in my last article? I suggested using them over cheaper kits like JBL and API. You can narrow that down to 1PPM nitrates by looking through the side and doing some simple calculations.

These more precise and more accurate results are particularly important when you are dosing elements into your aquarium’s water. They allow you to dial your dosing in to very precise numbers, Do you really want to be working with rounded up amounts when your precious reef is at risk?

There is very little room for error in marine aquarium reef keeping and high quality tests will help you avoid mismanagement.

What Constitutes a High Quality Test Kit?

There are a few things that I think are very important when it comes to test kits and a few things that are indicators of a high quality kit. Let’s take a look at those things.

• Accuracy: I have already pointed out how no commercially available marine aquarium test kit is truly accurate. High quality test kits, however, are going to get that accuracy as close as possible.
• Ease of Use: I think it is very important that the test kit you buy is easy to use. The instructions should be straight forward, the method of adding reagents as simple as possible, the opportunity for user induced variables to be minimal, and the steps very clearly laid out with no ambiguity.
• Ease of Reading: This is a tough one because even high quality kits can be tough to read. Certain colours are hard to differentiate, particularly for people who have issues seeing colour. A high quality test kit should be as easy to read as possible.
• Precision: Precision is extremely important. Being able to take the reading down to the lowest number possible is a huge advantage when it comes to accurately measuring parameters. Salifert Nitrate kits, for example, allow you to view the result through a magnified section on the side to gain accurate results down to the single digits. This is particularly important with things like Alkalinity.
• Reliable and Consistent: When you get a new test kit, perform three or four tests on the same aquarium one after another. Did the result come out the same each time? Consistency and reliability are incredibly important to creating a picture of your aquarium that is accurate. When you have an accurate picture, you can plan accordingly and be ready to spot any changes as soon as they happen.

You really want a test kit that is reliable, very consistent in its results, precise down to low numbers, easy to use, smartly designed, easy to read, and with detailed instructions. Anything less and you are going to be stabbing in the dark when it comes to recognising and fixing problems in your aquarium.

What are Some High Quality Test Kit Manufacturers?

On a scale of least to most expensive. I would say that the most affordable, yet reliable, test kits are those made by Salifert. These tend to cost around £10-13 per kit. Naturally, some of their tests are not as reliable as others but they tend to be very good. Salifert have a very good range of coverage when it comes to tests, from basics like Nitrate right up to things like Silicates and Copper.

Moving up in price a little, Red Sea test kits tend to be very well regarded. Red Sea’s Marine Care Multi Test Kit is a great starting point. It comes with Nitrite, Ammonia, Nitrate, pH, and Alkalinity so you have great test coverage from the get go. Aquaforest’s test kits are very good quality but, also, quite expensive. They can be hard to find in the UK, as well.

Digital checkers are even more reliable. These take the guess work out by shining a light into the test vial and producing a digital readout of the current level of the element being tested.

Hanna Digital Checkers are very well regarded. I have a few and I really like them though the reagent sachets are a huge pain in the arse. Digital checkers are very expensive, though. The unit costs around £70+ and the tests work out to about £1 per test.

Some Hanna checkers are noted for inaccuracy, as well, particularly the Ultra Low Range Nitrate tests. Their calcium checker is a huge pain, as well, leaving you feeling like a scientist working in a lab thanks to all the steps.

For me, I think Salifert strike a nice balance between affordability, reliability, and quality. They can be very precise, the tests are easy and quick, the charts aren’t too bad to read, and they are cheap. You can build your very own, personalised, test lab as you go along.

In Short

A high quality test kit might be a little more expensive at first. In the long run, however, it will save you money by helping you to paint an accurate picture of what your aquarium’s water chemistry is doing. That accurate picture will help you to document changes and spot them before they become a problem. Preventing an issue is much cheaper than fixing an issue. Thanks for reading and spending your time at Simple Reefs.