Elos KH test kit

[asylumdown]

I'm a giant fan of seachem's reef status test series. The fact that you add your titrant with a 1ml syringe is awesome and makes it super clear how much you've dispensed, they also come with calibration samples.

The alk test kit also tests both borate and carbonate (indirectly) alkalinity and magnesium.

[jimbo222]

I have three different kh kits.
Elos is always 20% too low...i dont like it maybe a bad bach

[DiverDude]

I don't want to hijack this thread and make it a "I like THIS brand" kind of thing but I will say that I recently picked up a few Elos kits and was disappointed that they use a (supposedly calibrated) colour panel to determine the results.

I find it frustrating to try and decide just how blue the liquid is vs the colour chart.

I find titration to be a FAR more accurate process.

[asylumdown]

definitely, when I was counting drops I had to re-do my tests half the time because air bubbles would get in to the fluid and you'd end up dispensing some weird fraction of a normal drop. Wasted a lot of reagent that way, especially when you were near the end of the bottle.

Plus each drop can be a different size depending on how steady your hand is, so one result might give you a way higher result and another test 5 seconds later might give you a totally different result.

[steve fedyk]

the magnesium test kit is a pain for me, I get differrant readings very time. Just can't get the same reading twice in a row.

[lastlight]

Originally Posted by asylumdown

definitely, when I was counting drops I had to re-do my tests half the time because air bubbles would get in to the fluid and you'd end up dispensing some weird fraction of a normal drop. Wasted a lot of reagent that way, especially when you were near the end of the bottle.

I can feel past rage rising inside of me as I read that. Oh how I hate that.

I don't really press hard at all though on my elos bottles. It's almost like a gravity drip with a tiny but constant amount of help. My tests for ca, alk and mg may be wrong but they are always consistent. Whatever my 'real' levels are...they are surely consistent which I think is half the battle.

[mark]

Originally Posted by asylumdown

definitely, when I was counting drops I had to re-do my tests half the time because air bubbles would get in to the fluid and you'd end up dispensing some weird fraction of a normal drop. Wasted a lot of reagent that way, especially when you were near the end of the bottle.

Plus each drop can be a different size depending on how steady your hand is, so one result might give you a way higher result and another test 5 seconds later might give you a totally different result.

and another reason I don't like the drop count type.

how's the colour change though? Is it one colour to another, or change in shade of the same colour.

[asylumdown]

Originally Posted by mark

and another reason I don't like the drop count type.

how's the colour change though? Is it one colour to another, or change in shade of the same colour.

If you're asking about the seachem reef status tests, it's an unmistakeable change. I'm on my second Mg/alk test kit and I've noticed the indicator on the second one isn't as dark as the first, but I've been doing two drops instead of one and I luckily have some left from the first kit. The alk test is the difference between a sky blue and pale, almost colourless yellow, with a fairly dramatic colour change at the end point.

The MG test starts out a dark fuschia and turns dark purple at end point, and the calcium goes from a rose pink to a really pretty blue.

Because you dispense such tiny volumes of reagent with every drop, it's possible to get right up to the end point and not be sure if you've gone over, but in that case you just read the volume on the syringe before you add your second drop.