Red Sea Marine Care Test Kit - High Accuracy Water Tests for Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, pH & Alkalinity - Essential for Saltwater Aquarium Health

Wish I would have bought this kit before the API Marine kit when I first started cycling my tank. This kit is way easier to read and is more accurate. Don’t waste ur money on API, get this!

Easy to follow instructions. Tests are accurate. Great value considering inaccurate tests kill livestock.

Great test for salt water

I get consistent readings with this kit and it is easier to read than API's color charts. It has sample jars instead of vials, so you are less likely to knock them over when performing the tests. The individual tests use a reference sample and color wheel (test jar goes in the center over a pure white background, reference jar has the same volume of water and the colored circles that correspond to different concentrations are rotated under the jar and the two are compared), with this kit you place the jar over one of two blank circles and compare to the colors around it to determine the concentrations. Some can be difficult, but moving the jar back and fourth between the two circles helps in determining which color is closer. There is far more color difference than with the API kits.With any colorimetric test, make sure you are in good lighting. I was originally checking under one brand of 6,500K CFL bulb and my tank kept registering ammonia. I tested freshly made salt water and I was getting the same results (using RO water, which was testing 0 on everything, including TDS). Checked the sample under a different 6,500K bulb and read 0.

I really can't say enough good things about this test kit. I was formerly using the API Saltwater Master Test Kit. This is my first saltwater tank and I was new to the cycling process. The API test kits did not help in that regard. The results were always ambiguous and I could never tell with any certainty what my levels were. The instructions on the API kits are also not incredibly clear when it comes to how you are supposed to read the colors. Do I look through the tubes? Hold them towards the light? Place them in front of the card in an upright position? In front of the card laying on a table? Depending on how you hold the tube when you interpret the color you can get a variety of readings. I always thought my tank had detectable ammonia. It never seemed to go down. I was really starting to stress about this especially after I added in my first two fish. Then I decided to order the Red Sea Marine Care Test Kit.This kit is amazing. First, it comes with an extra test (KH) that the API test kit doesn't include so that is great. Reading these tests is also fool-proof. You place your vial in a white circle with the color values surrounding your sample. It is plain as day the angle at which you read your sample. I tested my tank with API and Red Sea when I first got this kit in the mail. API seemed to indicate that I had 0.5ppm ammonia, 0 nitrite, and 10ppm nitrate. Red Sea showed I had 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and between 2-5ppm nitrate. For me, that is a big difference and a huge relief. I had been doing small water changes daily but still thought I had ammonia based on the API kit.So now I am a convert to Red Sea. Their tests are more accurate because reading them is less ambiguous. The box this kit comes in is hard plastic like other Red Sea kits and I think it will hold up better in the long run compared to the cheap plastic and boxboard that API uses.I am also a former clinical laboratory scientist and the Red Sea kits seem like more thorough and accurate tests because of the multiple reagents they use and the additional time they take compared to the API kit. Tests that are read in just a few minutes and with the addition of a few drops of one liquid seem like they would be less precise. But that is just my opinion considering my background. I would need more data regarding specificity and level of detection etc. to support my claim.

Make sure you strictly follow the instructions to get great results

Clearly a used kit. Liquid mess everywhere. Broken seals on bottles and liquid in glass vials. Cards stained and instructions saturated. Also seeing several other same complaints.

I was looking for a bit more accurate test kit than my standard API Master set that I have been using for over a year. The API is hard to compare to the standard where as the Red Sea test kit makes the decision process on the reading a bit more discernible. There are a few more steps and directions for the individual tests, including the use of powders in lieu of all liquids, not that big a deal and the test can be conducted in a timely manner. Great test kit. Only con is that the directions are written in a very small fount and my eyes even with glasses had trouble.