How accurate are liquid drop test kits?

C

chinnp

In denial of MTS
Mar 24, 2005
540
3
0
I bought a ph controller for my tank. After calibrating it I got a reading of 7.2. This struck me as highly inaccurate as I've measured my water before with a liquid drop test kit. When I've used a test kit I've got consistent readings of 7.6. Nerd that I am I went online and pulled up the water quality report. I couldn't find one more current than 2008. It showed a ph of 7.2 and a report from a neighboring city (who buys water from us) shows a ph of 7.8.

In my confusion I contacted the vendor to see if I was calibrating it wrong. They are telling me that drop test kits are horribly unreliable and show an error of up to .5. Is this true? I know strip tests are wildly inaccurate. I thought drop kits were more accurate.

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Liquids are more reliable then the dip strips, but some liquid tests are better then others. API can definently be off by a couple tenths sometimes, good enough for most freshwater fish though.
 
Off by .5 though? I'm basically needing to determine if the guy telling me this is blowing smoke at me because his product isn't working or if he's 100% correct.

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You can buy calibrated water samples to use on your equipment...


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They sent a couple with the unit. They also suggested some things I could test with to confirm. I just have trust issues.

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Milwaukee. I've had good luck with some of their other stuff.

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I've a couple Milwaukee instruments they're pretty good, some Hanna stuff as well which some are good some not so good.
 
In my opinion I think what you were told was half correct. I think the guy was way off the mark when he said liquid tests are unreliable since most aquarists will tell you to get a liquid test over anything else (obviously some manufacturers are better than others though). At the same time I wouldn't put it past a test to be off up to 0.5. I doubt it happens very often but drops can end up being different sizes, the age of the product can come into play, and other factors can contribute.

Hope that helps. I wouldn't let this worry you too much
 
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