API Master Test Kit VS API Aquarium Test Strips Side by Side Comparison!

[@davidlee8406]

One way you can test to see if the nitrate stip working correctly is by doing a 50% water change and test again to see if the result show 50% reduction in the concentration of nitrate.

[@jlmm3968]

I use both test kit and strips never had a strip show nitrate that high. You need to make sure you shake your nitrate number 2 bottle for a minute to mix. Your tank looks like it is stocked with a good amount of fish . Nice set ups you have.

[@camillamoen7530]

I agree, no way that strip picked up non-existing nitrate… and that’s a lot of fish with some java ferns that will in no way absorb all the nitrate… it could be that he does a lot of WC, but that evaporation line makes me doubt it! 😂

[@RoswellCrash]

No no no no, 7.6 P.H isn’t perfect, it means it’s as high as that test goes, you need to now check the high P.H range 🤦‍♂️

[@teddydunn3513]

lol

[@pups55555]

Haha!! He meant PERFECT for him bc the livebearers like the ph at 7 to 7½ & it was a perfect color match so he really didn't need to test high PH..Personally, out of curiosity & just as a double check, I would have probably tested high ph but he did have the correct match!

[@pups55555]

Tht is an excellent ph for guppies

[@nickadams7080]

Nah man you’re wrong lol

[@shahshank]

So the issue I had is my ph reading dropped after while. Then I realized it's because I live in a humid area. The natural air around it just ruin the strips as soon as it's exposed.

[@danielalt7508]

We cannot know if the liquid or the strips are the one that are inaccurate. We would need to compare them to a result from a lab.

[@xxpixie.nightxx3161]

Thanks for this video it helped me out along because i was having the exact same problem with my saltwater tank, but just couldn't figure out why the test strips were so inaccurate compared to the liquid test. So after watching this video and seeing that im not the only one having this problem i decided to just stick with the master kit.

[@TobiasHolenstein]

Glad to hear it helped! Just a heads up, incase you didn't see my pinned comment, I didn't perform the nitrates test correctly in this video, so just make sure you do that correctly, as it is a bit different from the other tests, and you should be good to go with the Master test kit!

[@mattm9087]

Same. I heard they were inaccurate but my test strips say my dkh is 2.2 soooo everything would be dead lol.

[@madisonk7916]

I feel like if it’s been a while since you’ve changed the water and you have been feeding them they would be creating waste and there should defiantly be SOME nitrates. You must not have shaken the second bottle for the nitrates test well enough.

[@loadsotroubleforyou]

A heavily planted tank can def have 0 nitrates 🤷🏻

[@GiovanaSimmer]

@@loadsotroubleforyou Except for the fact that his was not a "heavily planted" tank (and later he admitted he didn't follow the instructions properly, as Madison Krug pointed out).

[@pups55555]

I have 4 tanks & 2 of them have 0 nitrates, its fine. They are healthy tanks

[@peanutube]

How do you know it's the strip that's giving you the off reading and not the liquid test?? 🤔

[@TobiasHolenstein]

Looking back, I admit I didn't do the best job with this experiment (I'm not sure if you saw my pinned comment) 😅 but over time I've used the test strips several more times, and the problem that I've seen is that there will sometimes be faulty test strips. I've used two test strips back to back before and on one of them, one of the parameters will be completely different than on the other test strip. For example, one will say 0 nitrates, and the other might say a high number. I've had this happen to me before

[@tcarroll311]

Excellent video!

[@tomsmith5456]

You should have immediately done a one third water change , and two days later another one third ..And change at least one quarter to a third of the water every week ..All filters by default are nitrate factories, you must get rid of some of that nitrate by water changes ...40 ppm is maximum for Nitrate ...The filter will take care of ammonia and nitrite but you must take care of nitrates by partial water changes .

[@TobiasHolenstein]

Hi Tom, do you think if my nitrates are still getting high after I do a water change it's because my tank might be overstocked? This just occurred to me recently, because the guppies keep breeding and I was thinking of starting a second tank. Maybe the nitrates won't spike so fast.

[@mattm9087]

@@TobiasHolenstein try live plants. They soak up nitrates well. Get some easy ones and it'll help

[@stevenheinje181]

I’m a chemist, but to buy a set of real equipment I once had access to, ion-selective-electrodes, would get me into around 1000’s on the cheap ones, and a lab might have 3500 dollars or more worth of meters and electrodes. But I don’t want to make this my day job. So I’m going test strips and I hope to make standards. pH is easy, already have it, carbonate too and I think nitrate will be shelf stable. Since I do plants I’m also going for a pottasium standard and phosphate. My strips also say they have iron. If you get NPK and Fe along w carbonate you got a pretty good plant fertilizer protocol. I plan to keep phosphate low for algae reasons and hope plant tabs do it. Also always test tap and look for change, the delta. Some cities have nitrate problems in some locations in a neighborhood - ask a health conscious mother, she might know about the city water as they also buy test kits.

[@leigh161269]

now you know that you did the nitrate test wrong will you be taking this down and re making the tests? it should have been clear that to have zero ammonia and zero nitrite in a tank with that many fish the nitrates would never be zero without a very efficient anoxic filter.

[@gk9417]

Do they make a test kit that will can test everything Why to do have to buy two or three different kits to test everything 🤷🏼‍♂️✌️🇨🇦

[@akart520]

You didn't shake bottle #2 of the nitrate like it lists in the directions= your results aren't accurate

[@calparker1796]

it's sped up, but I dont see any shaking either... on the first shaking step, i see the second shaking step was done. that def would have ruined things

[@TobiasHolenstein]

Hey thanks for bringing this to my attention! You're totally right, I didn't follow the directions correctly. I'll have to redo this video, there is a chance that those test strips are actually accurate

[@m0rce1]

@@TobiasHolenstein hi, did you re do the video?

[@GiovanaSimmer]

Exactly... He had to shake Bottle #2 for 30 seconds, and then shake the test tube for a whole minute in order to get accurate results.

[@timadams306]

Did you shake the nitrate bottle 2 for 30 sec and the vile for 1 min? Says in the book. No way you have that many fish and 0 nitrate.

[@joanfergusonsgirl4774]

Waw $22 for the master kit that’s soooo cheap. Here in Australia they are $75 so I opted for the 25 strip kit which was about $35AUD but I might have to splurge for the $75 kit if that’s the one that works properly.

[@TobiasHolenstein]

Wow thats so expensive! But yeah I was also using the test strips before and everyone was telling me that they were inaccurate so I had to compare the two

[@joanfergusonsgirl4774]

Tobias Holenstein I ended up biting the bullet yesterday and bought the master kit from my local pet store, they were $80 there 😳 but if they do the job properly then it’s worth the spend. I also bought the GH and KH drop kit too, god were they a brain scatter just trying to find out what ppm water hardness had to be as it didn’t exactly say in the instructions, just that I had to keep adding more drops till the water changed the required colour 🤦🏻‍♀️ I have guppies and tetra, do you do KH and GH tests? If so do you know what the ppm harness of the water should generally be for them?

[@cazd5398]

This is only API, the tetra test strips are really good!! I’m in Aus too

[@adoreyou7449]

Next time get it on Amazon, it’s only $55 Aud

[@margaret796]

My local aquarium shop in Australia doesn’t have any kits for less than $100 AUS so I was using the test strips cause they’re way cheaper. But now I’m thinking i need to get the kit 😓

[@mrsaraf3459]

won't the test results also depend on the water you picked up from the tank? Like at one corner of the tank the readings would be different than the other since we cannot expect the concentration to be uniform all around.

[@TobiasHolenstein]

Hey everyone! It has been brought to my attention that I did not follow the directions correctly when testing the nitrates, using the API Freshwater Master Test Kit. There is a high chance that the API test strips are actually accurate. I'm going to have to do this comparison again. Edit 7/15/20: I did this experiment again. This time I followed the directions correctly when testing the nitrates. This time the liquid test kit showed my nitrates to be between 40-80ppm. Then I tired the test strip and it showed my nitrates to be 0ppm! Which is impossible because I was due a water change. So I still believe the test strips are inaccurate.

[@kanine44]

You really need to be more responsible & informed before you rate a product. It seems like you have several readers following your advice !

[@TobiasHolenstein]

@@kanine44 Well you see Kathy, my original review still stands as the test strips being inaccurate. I did this test again. This time testing the nitrates correctly using the API master test kit. This time my results were reversed. The liquid test kit showed my nitrates to be between 40-80ppm. Then I did the test strip test again. This time the test strip showed my nitrates to be 0ppm! Which is impossible because I was due for a water change. So I believe the test strips are inaccurate.

[@kanine44]

I totally agree. The API Fresh waterTest kit is hands down much better & more accurate, reliable results. My point is you should really prepare better & carefully read the directions before rolling the camera & posting. There are too many people out there that blindly follow advice just because it comes from what they assume a knowledgeable source. It also places doubt on subsequent reviews... hmmm

[@darthwizzywizard]

@@kanine44 it’s up to people to use there brains.

[@m0rce1]

@@darthwizzywizard that's far-fetched these days. Watching a short video is soon much easier. Common sense is becoming extinct.

[@dee2089]

How do you know the master test is wrong and strips are right?? Your fish are acting weird.

[@TobiasHolenstein]

No I was saying the opposite that the strips are wrong and the master test kit is right

[@davidlee8406]

@@TobiasHolenstein So how do you know that the strips are wrong and the master test kit is right? You did not have a gold standard for comparison.

[@yrizel1620]

What’s the difference between KH, total alkalinity and carbonate?

[@harshadpatel3179]

This test kits so difrnt . ant strips so difrants. Wat test right?

[@jeffhurckes190]

You need to bring your KH up. Luckily that is easy to do. If you can get food grade Sodium Carbonate, use that; if you can't, take baking soda and bake it at 200c for an hour.

[@TobiasHolenstein]

Thanks, I'll look into that. I'm just starting to learn about the importance of KH

[@hakman239]

A lot of people say the api master test kit ammonia is not accurate I’m going for the nt labs

[@TobiasHolenstein]

Interesting, I'll have to check those out, I've never tried them before

[@hakman239]

@@TobiasHolenstein the nt labs tests for kh and gh as well nt is also cheaper

[@TobiasHolenstein]

@@hakman239 Nice that would be really useful to have those all in the one kit

[@camillamoen7530]

Did you shake up the bottles before using them? If you don’t shake them, they will be inaccurate. I’d trust a standardized strip more than the regular human to use the liquid kits correctly:p No way the test strip would pick up nitrate if there wasn’t any

[@Fyyt]

I buy the liquid kind bc of how many tests you get!

[@TobiasHolenstein]

That's a good point! I still have the same test kit and it hasn't run out yet. It's getting close though haha

[@luckie4103]

The goldfish needs a mate. Thanks for the information.

[@TobiasHolenstein]

I have him in my pond now with my other fish 😄 and no problem!

[@Nebuladust1018]

Awesome work tobias I usually go to my petsmart to test my water from the betta cups and they said my water Is good but u are doing a good job tobias

[@TobiasHolenstein]

Awesome! I've taken my water to Petsmart for them to test a few times too. Thanks Mika!

[@kanine44]

Go back and read the comments. He did not do the test correctly for the liquid test kit. It is very accurate.

[@chezlerq4478]

Do you know that when the ph shows a "max" reading that it means that your water's ph is At Least that high since that is all the higher it can read??? You need a test kit or strip that can read up to at least 9 and down to at least 5. You need to know if your water is over 8 or under 6. Your kit only tests to 7.6, so if your water ph is actually 9, you would think it is 7.6,...works the same on the acid side too. I retired as a quality manager in a factory where we had to test water and different chemicals used in different processes. We Always used test strips because they are fast, convenient, and accurate. You need to buy high quality tools and know how to use them. Your results show that you need to get another brand of test kit and test each kit against each other for accuracy. You don't know which one of yours is correct. You are making an assumption. The liquid kit may be wrong as well as the strips.

[@mattm9087]

Just used a test strip for my reef tank... says I have soft water lol. Everything would be dead. 20 bucks down the drain I guess.

[@TobiasHolenstein]

Yeah I've gotten totally different readings with test strips back to back 😂 not the most reliable things lol

[@b.sathurshan3090]

Finally which is the correct answer API strips best or bad.

[@TobiasHolenstein]

Since they gave me an inaccurate nitrate reading, I would say go with the liquid test kit

[@deangregoric4735]

tetra strips are much cheaper and much better.

[@egyptianstylez]

I'm confused how you can have so many fish but ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are 0. Shouldn't it be going through a natural biological cycle while the fish are in the tank? How can the tank be 0, or in other words sterile. Did they stop pooping? The test strips gave me some confidence however, at least that gave you some reading on nitrate. I feel the two tests are exactly the same in reliability. After all, the costs are basically the same. Every other liquid test kit for water is over $100. If they really are much more reliable than test strips, then why is API the only company who makes a liquid test kit this dirt cheap? Sounds like a marketing gimmick to me. Just my opinion though. Not biased on one or the other just looking at it logically.

[@TobiasHolenstein]

Hi, so you may have seen it already, but I posted an updated comment and pretty much I did the Nitrate test wrong. However, for Ammonia and Nitrite, those are always at 0 in my tanks. Sometimes I get a slight ammonia reading, but never over .25 ppm. Later on I did the nitrate test again (correctly) with the liquid kit and I did get a nitrate reading. Then I did the test strip and it gave me a nitrate reading of 0 lol. So I still think the test strips are inaccurate.

[@usersadsf]

Next time read the book. Thats why they gave you the book instead of just the directions on the bottle

[@LOSADM02]

Please remove this video. If you perform the test the wrong way your are misleading people and drawing the wrong conclusions. Not everyone will go to the comments and read an edit.

[@TobiasHolenstein]

I did the test again and followed the instructions correctly with the API Master Test Kit and this time the testing strips showed my nitrates to be 0 (which is impossible because I was due a water change) So I stand by my original assessment which is that the test strips are not accurate

[@pungr]

Tetra easy test strips don't work particularly for nitrate.

[@TobiasHolenstein]

Interesting, I didn't know that

[@kanine44]

Esp if the test not done correctly. He did not do the test correctly!

[@pups55555]

@@TobiasHolenstein wow 👏lmao. KAREN is very upset!🤣😂

[@deangregoric4735]

just to be clear when you said about quality test strips please don't mention API, because they are terrible compared to tetra strips

[@TobiasHolenstein]

I'll have to check those out, I've never tried them

[@ryansmith616]

Alright guys...

[@pups55555]

And i might add that i am currently cycling my 4th tank & my stript test DO NOT PICK UP AMMONIA AT all!! Not even CRAZY HIGH DANGEROUS LEVELS!! PPL should r always b ashamed..I BEEN ROBBED!

[@Nebuladust1018]

My ph is good from the indian almond leaves

[@TobiasHolenstein]

Nice! I've also heard driftwood can lower ph too, if the ph is too high

[@GiovanaSimmer]

Well, there's no such things as "GOOD pH"... It all depends on the species you're keeping. Indian Almond leaves tend to make the water more acidic. Mollys, Guppies or Platys would definitely not consider that "good". Good for Hatchetfish would be 5.5-6.5, good for African Rift Lake Cichlids would be 8.0-9.0. If you're keeping bettas, I'm sure they love it!

[@hoidoei8650]

It would be a better test if you also sent a water sample to a laboratory then you can compare the quality of both

[@TobiasHolenstein]

That's a good idea, I didn't know you could send water samples to laboratories

[@pups55555]

BTW GUYS THE LIQUID TEST IS NOT 22 DOLLARS ANYMORE. ITS 33!! WOW 10 BUCKS In one year! GREEDY GREEDY

[@TobiasHolenstein]

Oh yeah wow!

[@nia5119]

2 months later n its 50 dollars :(((

[@mattMcLovinisbae]

nice big guppy family

[@TobiasHolenstein]

Thanks for watching Matt!