salifer test kit?
 

Dr Randy,
Do you know if Salifer kit or test kit in general have expiration date, the last time I test my water was about 4 years ago to monitor the performance of Ca reactor. But today I used the same old kit that have been collecting dust to test the water the KH was way low 3 dKH. What should I do to further validate the result or should I just get a new kit instead, I mean do they ever go bad after a certain period of time. Thanks.
-A

In general, I expect that 4 years is not too old for an alkalinity test if the fluids have been tightly sealed, because there is not much that can really go wrong. Since you got an unexpected answer, however, I'd confirm it with a new kit before acting on it.

FWIW, the owner of Salifert (Habib Sekha) frequents this forum and will likely give you a clearer answer on expiration dates.

I still have some 10 year old alkalinity test kits and they still are perfect.

If the reagents have not been tightly sealed and has been sitting like that for several years then deviations are very likely.
But if the value is actually 6 dKH and you get 3 dKH then a LOT of reagent must have been evaporated.

Perhaps it might be worthwile to double check if you have followed the procedure correctly since it has been several years ago that you have used this kit.

A few things that come up in my mind are.

- correct sample volume

- did you read the [B]remaining[/B] volume?

- is it dKH or is it meq/L

If you did every thing correct and the value you obtain is 3 dKH then you had to dose only approx 0.2 ml (0.8 ml remaining).
Is this the amount you had to dose to obtain a color change?

Thanks guys,
I tested the newly made Sea water, and the dKH is 8 so I guess my tank water is problematic. But its also good to know that the test kit would last this long or longer.
Spencer

Salifert contact info
 

Habib,

Can you post a contact site for Salifert Test
kits? I had a couple of questions.

Thanks,
Darrell

Darell,

[B]Can you post a contact site for Salifert Test? I had a couple of questions. [/B]

You can pm me or send an e-mail: [email]habib@wxs.nl[/email]