Salifert Tests

[Pufferpunk]

Now that Salifert has gone down the tubes, what are you using? I see their forum here has even been deleted.

[saleenpwr88]

Elos

[Engine 7]

I have been using the Tropic Marin kit for alk and love it. It is the easiest I have found. I still have Salifert kits left for everything else.

[Aquaticman74]

I've always used IO's Alk and Ca kits. I'll probably use seachem's Mg kit.

[Evolley1]

I second Elos kits

[jmick]

Other then the past issues with the Alk tests and the lack of availibility of the Mag tests what is so bad about Salifert? I have had very good results with their test kits and IMO they are as good or better then any other test kit.

[Engine 7]

People dont seem to trust their quality after the alk test kit problem. They did seem to ignore the problem for a long time.

[jmick]

What, they had an issue with an batch or two and because of that they are down the tubes? I don't get it, isn't the problem resolved now? Has anyone had problems with any other tests? I have been using their product for years with no problems.

[saleenpwr88]

FYI, I bought a Mg test at Advanced Aquatics not to long ago if anyone was looking. I did pay a lot, $28, when their website says around $17. Don't know why the price was so different but they did have them available

[Engine 7]

Same here Jmick. I love their stuff but when the alk tests were found to be bad they were very slow to take responsibility and then didnt really hurry to respond to the problem, at least here on RC in their forum. At the same time myself and a bunch of others bought mag kits with a different box being used and a mag sticker placed on the box which may have scared off some loyal users. I dont plan to switch test kits although the Tropic Marin alk test is nice.

[saleenpwr88]

I have also used the Seachem tests that they sell at Sea Schor and those have been working for me as well.

[icenine2005]

I've just tried the seachem reef status kits for calcium and mag/alk. I liked the idea of a reference to go along with the tests.
However, what I wound up with was not so likeable.

The seachem calcium kit I got from Marine Depot was bad... leaking when I opened it and some stringy black foreign substance in the reference on top of just not working period. (unless of course my calcium is something over 1000, which I'm gonna say it's not even if my salifert kit was off)
The seachem mag/alk kit is a bit of a hassle to use imo but OK in the end.... I guess.

[rant]
Not to mention Marine Depot customer service is frankly, pathetic. Which made the whole experience with seachem all the worse. Getting MD to take the faulty kit back is like pulling teeth. I still have not been refunded actually. Last time I'll ever order anything from them.

[/rant]

I really liked the salifert kits... I trust what's left in the ones I've been using for calcium and alk but honestly I am a bit hesitant about buying new ones hence the trial of seachem. Though, as noted above I've already had bad experiences anyway... maybe that will learn me to not pay too much attention to the forums.

[kimoy]

been using API

[Pufferpunk]

Yes, for a while Salifert was standing by their good name, replacing those bad test kits. Months ago, they totally stopped responding to requests for exchanges. My Ca test is now off...

[Bebo77]

elos and lamotte

[Pufferpunk]

1) Are these tests as easy to use & read as the Salifert?
2) Where are you purchasing these tests?

[jmick]

Originally posted by icenine2005 I really liked the salifert kits... I trust what's left in the ones I've been using for calcium and alk but honestly I am a bit hesitant about buying new ones hence the trial of seachem. Though, as noted above I've already had bad experiences anyway... maybe that will learn me to not pay too much attention to the forums.
[/B]

Why don't you get new Salifert kits and compare the results of the new kits to the ones you have atm, since you trust the results?

[mksalt]

I recently bought Salifert kits for Alk and CA. The results match up to my Instant Ocean kits for whatever that’s worth.

[Sara B]

I'm testing out the Sera test kits.

[sellout007]

Originally posted by Pufferpunk
Yes, for a while Salifert was standing by their good name, replacing those bad test kits. Months ago, they totally stopped responding to requests for exchanges. My Ca test is now off...

I would tend to think that if the CA test was testing fine, then *is now off* it would be a contamination issue rather then a problem with Saliferts quality control. No?

[ostrow]

Agreed entirely sellout007.

To suggest Habib "did nothing" or "didn't care" because he failed to respond to every post on RC that said the same thing, about a problem he both knew about and had responded about, is unfair. Particularly since posts were made all over explaining when he was ill.

And during that time they fixed the problem. Some people expect instantaneous fixes. Not reasonable. Given the long history of high quality, they first had to figure out not just that the kits were off -- they had every right to verify this independently, but then they had to figure out why they were off, and then figure out what to do about it and test the replacements sufficiently to have high confidence that the new kits would work.

I have a hard time believing anyone would contact Salifert and get a negative response on replacement though I suppose anything is possible. It is easy enough to get email and phone information if one wants, and if, say, kits were bought at a place like Premium I believe they can handle the replacements too, though I could be wrong on that last part.

Anyway, the fixed the alk kit issues and I have heard of no lingering issues.

Their calcium kits have not in recent memory, at least that I have heard, been found to be anything but excellent.

I use Lamotte for alkalinity because in the interim I needed a kit I knew was reliable and I like it. Every time I use my old salifert kit to see how it stacks up, it is within .1meq/l of the Lamotte reading. So my Salifert alk kit was never bad in the first place.

I still use Salifert for Calcium and Magnesium tests and see absolutely no reason in the world to change.

[rickyb]

Originally posted by Sara B
I'm testing out the Sera test kits.

Where are you getting those if you don't mind me asking.
I'm currently using Marieland for Dkh, and Salifer for CA and Elo's for Mg.

[Sara B]

Originally posted by rickyb
Where are you getting those if you don't mind me asking.
I'm currently using Marieland for Dkh, and Salifer for CA and Elo's for Mg.

I met the Sera rep at a show and he has sent me a full test kit to try out. So far I really like it!

[Pufferpunk]

Originally posted by sellout007
I would tend to think that if the CA test was testing fine, then *is now off* it would be a contamination issue rather then a problem with Saliferts quality control. No?

OK, I apologize about my Ca test, I was adding only 4 drops of the Ca-2, instead of 8. Works fine now. My KH test has always worked fine.

I have a hard time believing anyone would contact Salifert and get a negative response on replacement though I suppose anything is possible.

It's just that I was reading on their forum here (where did it go BTW?) about how the owner was sick & I understand that but it doesn't mean he can't find someone else to communicate with his customers, even if it's just to tell us to hold on, the owner is really, really sick. It seems that they were responding to emails & PMs for a while but stopped copmpletely, several months ago. I tried to look on their forum to find out if anything has been done about this lately & it's gone. There were several stock #s mentioned but then there were many other tests out of the range of those numbers that were coming up bad. It seems odd to me that such a reliable company, whom we have trusted to cary some of the best test kits around for years, would just let things slide for so long.