Question 1

How many tests can be run with this kit?

Accepted Answer

About 120.   Problem is that if you use the full set of products daily you will quickly  run out of the ammonia test and the Nitrates tests (each with 2 bottles) because they take 8-10 drops each, compared to the Ph test which only takes 3 drops.  I mainly test ammonia and nitrites so I've had to buy separate ammonia kits twice now because I ran out of fluid, while my high range ph bottle is nearly full.    Also - Prime, AmGuard and other products convert Ammonia into harmless Ammonium however, it will still read as ammonia on your API kit - so it's basically lying to you.  There are kits that will show you active ammonia and harmless ammonium and my API kit reads 8.0 ammonia but the other kit reads it as all harmless ammonium and zero active ammonia.  You have do dose your tank with Prime every 48 hours or less to keep the ammonium from converting back to killer ammonia.  This will keep happening until your tank finally converts the ammonium to nitrites.  My 2 of my 4 well-cycled tanks somehow lost their cycling so that's not happening for those tanks yet.

Question 2

I'm a newbie. I have a betta in 10G tank and I'm told that I need to test the water always.Not sure if I should get this or get cheaper ones instead.

Accepted Answer

Frankly, with a 10G tank you should just be doing weekly water changes of at least 25-30%.  You can't really "let things go" with a tank that size and it's unlikely that you would have ammonia spikes with such frequent water changes.  I have a little 5.5 gallon with a couple of albino cory cats and I use a test strip every once in a blue moon, but the water is always fine because I do weekly changes.  Am looking at this kit for my 125 gallon tank, but would bother for a tiny tank.

Question 3

Would this kit be a good one for my planted aquarium?

Accepted Answer

Yes, this is a good general water testing kit, unless you have plants that are very sensitive to water hardness.  This kit does NOT include a water-hardness tester.

Question 4

Can any of these tests be used for both saltwater and freshwater? I noticed a lot of the individually packaged tests say they can be used for both.

Accepted Answer

Api ammonia, nitrite and nitrate test kits can be used for both salt and fresh water aquariums, the liquid solutions are the same for salt and fresh. BUT the color cards that you use to compare your test to are slightly different. I have both fresh water and marine. The first time I bought these kits, I bought for saltwater and freshwater and never threw away the color cards. Now it doesn't matter if I get freshwater or saltwater test kits because I have both freshwater and saltwater cards.

API Saltwater Master Test Kit 550-Test Saltwater Aquarium Water Test Kit

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