The Puffer Forum

If a tank is set up to be brackish at, say, a SG of .008, would that be considered freshwater or Saltwater as far as test kits, medications, etc. go? How about for ich? Thanks!

from what i have heard from the 3 days i have been a memeber. Freshwater's salinity is 1.00 So freshwater

I believe he means 1.008. Up to 1.012, use FW tests & assume it's FW ich.

so for a brackish water tank you woudl use freshwater kits? ok i was wondering this myself becuas ei was considering getting a new test kit becuase i have strips right now but dind't know what to get.

Thanks, that's exactly the answer we needed!

Really?!? I asked the same question before I got my F8s, and everyone told me to use saltwater tests. My SG is 1.005. Will my readings be incorrect for using a saltwater test kit?

I use the API Saltwater Master Kit (liquid).

Honestly, I look at both the freshwater and saltwater color charts for the tests when in brackish, assume splitting the difference would be most accurate. With the API tests, it's the same chemicals, just different color charts.

I forgot the brand we use... but they are test strips and have freshwater chart on one side of the label on the bottle, and the saltwater on the other. It seems to me that the saltwater just has a different range of numbers, but all the colors are the same for the same numbers, so you could compare to either chart.

As for meds, I think we are still going with freshwater since our SG is 1.008.

Test strips aren't very good. The only difference for the FW/SW API tests is the ammonia one. The FW one will get cloudy w/SW.

Can you recommend any digital or electronic tests that are affordable, but accurate? (For ammonia, ph, nitrates, nitrites, alkalinity, and hardness?) If they worked for fresh and saltwater, that would be even better! Although, we are climbing up the scale as far as salinity.

I don't have a test kit for nitrites and ammonia (you shouldn't have any of these).

But you can get a digital PH reader on ebay for like 30 dollars shipped. and a TDS (total disolved sediments) for around the same price... all other digital equipement starts to get expensive... 300+

While I agree with Jeni in absolute terms, the liquid tests being more precise, I'm actually an advocate of test strips.

Here's why: they're cheap and easy to use. A pack of 25 strips costs £9-10 here in England, and you can use a scalpel to slice each strip into two, resulting in 50 tests, or 20 pence per strip. One pack will last almost a year at once test per week.

Using them couldn't be easier, and for most practical purposes they're sufficiently accurate. After all, if the nitrite and ammonia tests are pink not white, it doesn't matter precisely what the nitrite and ammonia levels are -- it's all bad for your fish, and any nitrite or ammonia is a warning something's amiss with the nitrogen cycle. Likewise pH only needs to be either acidic, neutral or basic, depending on your fish, and stability is what matters, not whether the pH is 7.8 or 8.2. Too many newbie aquarists focus on pH without considering general hardness and especially carbonate hardness, the latter essential to pH stability. Dip strips will have at least these five tests all in place, and usually a nitrate test as well, which is good for sensitive species like cichlids.

The bottom line is that test strips encourage people to keep all the tests at hand, and to use them regularly. Telling people to invest in half a dozen test kits (about £50-60 in total) is unrealistic, because most newbie aquarists simply won't spend that kind of money, let alone do six different tests every week!

Cheers, Neale

Pufferpunk wrote:Test strips aren't very good. The only difference for the FW/SW API tests is the ammonia one. The FW one will get cloudy w/SW.

Interesting, at the store where I work, 25 test strips costs 15$, while a liquid test kit set that does over 200 tests for each thing, which can be done separately, costs under 30$, making the cost of strips massively more than the cost of liquid tests.

a bottle of 25 strips costs about $7 and a liquid master kit with i think 120 tests was about $20. the liquid kits is more economical but it is a bit of a pain to do all the individual tests.