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  #1  
Old 12/26/2007, 12:24 PM
bobt2 bobt2 is offline
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mg test kits?

other than salifert, who makes a test kit for mg thats any good? i,ve given up on salifert!
  #2  
Old 12/26/2007, 01:08 PM
Boomer Boomer is offline
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Try an API
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  #3  
Old 12/26/2007, 01:48 PM
bobt2 bobt2 is offline
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who is api?
  #4  
Old 12/26/2007, 02:04 PM
Boomer Boomer is offline
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Aquarium Pharmaceutical Inc

http://aquariumpharm.com/
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An explosion can be defined as a loud noise, accompanied by the sudden going away of things, from a place where they use to be.
  #5  
Old 12/26/2007, 05:54 PM
bobt2 bobt2 is offline
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thats what i thought, they don't have a mag test kit.
  #6  
Old 12/26/2007, 07:47 PM
flinka flinka is offline
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I use a Tropic Marin combo Calcium/Magnesium test kit. Easy to use but I do not have any data points on its accuracy vs. other kits.
  #7  
Old 12/26/2007, 07:47 PM
bertoni bertoni is offline
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The Elos kit has gotten some good reviews, but I've only used the Salifert.
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  #8  
Old 12/26/2007, 08:09 PM
Boomer Boomer is offline
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thats what i thought, they don't have a mag test kit.

Me too, did not even go look
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  #9  
Old 12/26/2007, 08:21 PM
oct2274 oct2274 is offline
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i've had good luck with the seachem reefstatus mag kit. It has a reference solution with it as well. Sorta a pain to use, but you shouldn't need to check mag levels more then once a week.

it's on sale now!
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...94&pcatid=4394
  #10  
Old 12/26/2007, 09:08 PM
bobt2 bobt2 is offline
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ordered, thanks!
  #11  
Old 12/27/2007, 10:53 AM
Ty1e Ty1e is offline
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i've used elos, real easy to use.
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  #12  
Old 12/27/2007, 11:37 AM
PSam PSam is offline
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Salifert, SeaChem, ELOS

I use all 3 and all are always in line with each other.
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  #13  
Old 12/27/2007, 03:11 PM
packer packer is offline
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I hated the seachem one and have had good luck with Salifert. Why are you giving up on Salifert? Am I missing something??
  #14  
Old 12/27/2007, 03:19 PM
oct2274 oct2274 is offline
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i didn't want to give up on salifert but i got one of the bad alk kits from them, which was replaced by habib. and i also got a bad mag kit from them that i didn't even put the effort into getting replaced. I verified that my mag kit was bad too by having two local stores test against it and testing against it with my seachem reefstatus kit. I really liked the ease of use of salifert and I hope they get everything figured out, just seems like lately there has been some quality issues.
  #15  
Old 01/02/2008, 09:52 PM
bobt2 bobt2 is offline
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well, i got the seachem kit. the viles seam a little small for my big hands and it took a few min. to run but i liked the final results. and having a reference sample is a comfort. all in all worth the money. it also proved what i thought, my new salifert kit was way off.glad i didn't make any rash water changes
  #16  
Old 01/02/2008, 10:15 PM
dailydriven911 dailydriven911 is offline
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I'm very happy w/ all my Elos kits!
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  #17  
Old 01/03/2008, 12:27 AM
oct2274 oct2274 is offline
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glad you liked the seachem. like i said, it's not super user friendly, but the end result is good and that is all that matters
  #18  
Old 01/03/2008, 03:29 AM
Billybeau1 Billybeau1 is offline
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I must have missed something.

I too had a bad Mag kit from Salifert about a year ago, but the new ones are spot on.

I threw my Seachem Mag kit in the trash.

If you want to believe the numbers, thats ok with me. I found the kit extremely difficult to get consistent results and very cumbersome. And the reference solution is bunk IMO.

It's bad enough mag is difficult to test for in the first place as there is a lot of test noise in all hobby grade magnesium test kits.

I haven't found a hobby grade mag kit yet to match Saliferts in accuracy and ease of use.

I have not tried any Elos kits yet, but plan on doing some testing with them soon.
  #19  
Old 01/03/2008, 07:32 AM
bobt2 bobt2 is offline
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i,m not here to trash salifert, but the readings i got were way off.it showed 1350 mg in io fresh mix and over 1650 in my tanks. the readings i just got with the seachem are where my head said they should be. after a few years of doing this hobby you get a feel for whats what
  #20  
Old 01/03/2008, 08:10 AM
Big E Big E is offline
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I've had it with Salifert......You can't even find the Mag kit anywhere in stock for months. I don't know about accuracy of the latest kits, but it would be nice to buy a kit when I need one.

Then there's the whole past issue with alk kits. There's too many other manufactures out there to deal with this kind of garbage.

I see Salifert no longer has a sponsered thread page........makes me wonder why??

I swithched to Lamotte for alk & am looking for new mag kit.
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  #21  
Old 01/03/2008, 09:25 AM
Randy Holmes-Farley Randy Holmes-Farley is offline
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I've used and like the Hach magnesium and calcium kit (#1457-01). The units need some conversion to reef type units.
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  #22  
Old 01/03/2008, 11:08 AM
prideprops prideprops is offline
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The Salifert forum here no longer exists as of today. I guess since there have been so many problems lately with Salifert and no response to everyone's complaints, it was shut down. And this forum seemed to be the only way anyone could at least "try" to get some customer service since there doesn't seem to be any other way.

There have been so many guesses as to what is happening with Salifert it would be nice if someone would just come out with a straight answer. Alot of reefers are still trying to use these kits with inaccurate results.

I like API and they have customer service here is the U.S. Unfortunately they do not make a Mg test.
  #23  
Old 01/03/2008, 11:33 AM
kfick kfick is offline
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Randy,

I checked out Hach's website for that kit and it lists it as this: "Hardness (Total & Calcium) Test Kit, Model HA-4P MG-L, Drop Count Titration, 20-400 mg/L, 100 tests"

I'm guessing it will work fine above 400 mg/L (ppm) but just take a ton of drops and lower the number of tests. What do you think Randy? It probably wont be fun adding 65 drops and swirling.

Not a bad deal at $65 for both mag and calcium even if you do get way less than 100 tests.
  #24  
Old 01/03/2008, 12:57 PM
Randy Holmes-Farley Randy Holmes-Farley is offline
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Yes, that is the kit. It seems to work fine for seawater, but does take a lot of drops, especially for magnesium. In that case, I'd dilute it with RO/DI water.
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  #25  
Old 01/03/2008, 01:30 PM
oct2274 oct2274 is offline
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like i said, the seachem has been good for me. i have no issues getting the same exact reading multiple times in a row, but it is more time consuming then some kits. I really wish salifert could get it together because their tests had good grainularity and were fairly easy to use. Typically API kits are pretty good too, but i have not tried the api mag kit yet - have used the calcium and alk and they were great. I plan on replacing all my salifert kits with elos in the future. I hope habib gets things ironed out someday so I can make my way back to salifert.

Last edited by oct2274; 01/03/2008 at 01:45 PM.
 

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