Salifert Nitrate (No3) Test Kit

I ordered this because I wanted a back up for my API kit when I was getting readings off the scale (and hoped it was the kit, and not my water. Nope. Water. Major water changes and it got on the scale. Work in progress.) So, this kit gave a similar result as the API, but so much quicker and easier! Only 2 steps, easy swirling for 30 seconds, instead of shaking vial with a leaky cap getting chemicals all over your hand like the API does. the flat bottom set on the card makes reading the color much more definitive than the round tube and guessing at the distance and light direction. Yes, there is a good bit of interpolation in the high range where I am currently around 70, but the obvious color intensity and tone is much better than others. The difference between 60 and 80 is not really a critical bit of info, as those are both "too high". The ranges get closer together in the lower ranges where target levels are more specific.Laminating the color card would be my one suggestion. I am sure I will douse it with salt water soon.(Unfortunately, before ordering this Salifert kit, I paid a fortune for a Hagen kit at my LFS. It is useless. The color of the resulting solution for the Hagen is a bright magenta, matching nothing on their scale of rosy pink on the flimsy paper booklet. I noted that the color of that solution was in the tone of the Salifert scale. I poured approximately 1 ml into the salifert vial and compared to the chart, and got a very similar result! Conclusion: the Hagen vial shape and paper chart are inferior, although the chemistry may be consistent and accurate. It is impossible to read.)

Decent test kit accurate

I purchased this kit after being frustrated with the API nitrate test due to how long it took to do that one correctly then getting results that I could barely tell the difference between.Well after using both side by side for a few months I definitely think there are pros and cons to both brands, and I have learned to just deal with the cons and you will have to as well.My takeaway from this product is that the test is quicker and easier to do, easier to read results, but i’m not confident that it is any more accurate than API. In my experience, there is more room for human error with this kit - particularly with the spoon and powder.Both brands can show you when your nitrates are too high: red for API and bright pink for Salifert. And that’s all you really need to know. If API figured out their color card printer, I would always choose that brand over this one.

IMO Salifert is the most reliable test kits on the market. What I absolutely hate about them is trying to cipher the color change in the solution, especially at lower ppm readings.

Efectivo

I believe this to be the best of the low-priced nitrate test kits and is more than sufficient for our aquarium purposes. I have calibrated this Salifert kit at 5, 10, 25 and 50 ppm levels and found it to be accurate. The next step up is the highly regarded LaMotte kit which is four times the price of the Salifert kit.The difficulty with these low-priced tests is in reading the results. While this Salifert test kit can be a little tricky to read, it is far better than the Seachem and API test kits (API does make a good phosphate test kit, though), plus it's easier to use (4 drops of this and one scoop of that ...and you're done). I was surprised at the poor quality of the Seachem kit - it's not like Seachem to do anything badly. This Salifert kit uses only 1 ml of water and it would be much better if they designed it to use at least double that in order to make the results easier to read (I'm not sure that doubling the water, then doubling the additives would work).

Have used these before, works great. Too bad Amazon divert crushed the packe and broke everything inside.

We do not use it for testing aquarium water. We live in a rural area where no public water is available. Our private well needed to be replaced. The county requires the water from newly drilled wells to be tested. Nitrates was one of the tests and ours tested too high. The county tests cost quite a bit. I wanted to monitor the water myself, being concerned for our health. That is why I bought this kit. I tested our water twice, at the same times that the county did the official test at the professional lab. Both times my tests had virtually the same as theirs. This gave me confidence in the accuracy of the kit. Long after the county has given us the OK, I have continued to test our water and have seen the ups and downs of nitrate levels (which change according to season, rain-fall, fertilizer use by our neighbors etc.)It is simple to use. The instructions are clear. The reading is done by comparing the color of the water to a chart. This is somewhat tricky - takes some getting used to. (I don't know how any other test might be done.)