(upbeat music)
- Hey. It's Thomas here.
And today we're gonna be taking a look
at Salifert's alkalinity test kit.
We'll go over what you get in the box,
what might make this a good test kit for you,
and I'll show you how to perform this titration-based test.
If you're new to reefing, testing for alkalinity,
also known as carbonate hardness or KH for short,
is important because corals with calcium carbonate skeletons
require a certain amount of carbonate
to be available to them at all times in order to thrive.
They will consume carbonate to build their skeletons
as they grow, which lowers the amount
of carbonate available in the water.
Dosing an alkalinity supplement without knowing
how much carbonate is already available in the water
can lead to not adding enough carbonate back to the tank
and levels continuing to fall
or adding too much and causing elevated levels of carbonate,
which can also cause serious issues.
Maintaining the correct level of alkalinity
and keeping it stable is one of the most important factors
to maintaining a healthy and thriving reef aquarium.
And testing is a key component
of maintaining that stability.
Salifert's alkalinity test kit is inexpensive
and easy to perform
and has been trusted by successful reefers for decades.
It can read alkalinity in 0.3 dKH increments
and has no ceiling since you can continue to titrate
until you reach the end color.
So whether your alkalinity is low,
right within the range it's supposed to be,
or wildly too high,
this test kit is gonna be able to read it.
In the box, you'll find reagent KH-IND,
reagent KH, which is the titration solution,
a one-milliliter syringe with pink collection tip,
a five-milliliter syringe, the test vial,
and instructions with a quick reference guide.
To perform the test, first collect four milliliters
of sample water from the aquarium
using the five-milliliter syringe
and add it to the test vial.
Next, add four drops of reagent KH-IND.
Then gently swirl the vial for five seconds
to mix the reagent.
Then, using the one-milliliter syringe
with the pink collection tip,
draw up one milliliter of reagent KH.
The end of the black plunger should sit right
on the one-milliliter marking of the syringe.
It is normal for there to be a small pocket of air
below the plunger.
You don't need to remove it,
and it will not affect the accuracy of the test,
as the extra volume of the pink collection tip
will ensure you've drawn exactly one milliliter.
Now, we're ready to start titrating.
Add a single drop of reagent KH to the vial
and then gently swirl for one to two seconds.
Repeat this until the liquid in the vial changes
from the blue start color to the pink end color
that's shown on the quick reference guide.
Once the vial changes over fully to that pink color,
take note of the remaining amount of liquid in the syringe
and compare that amount to the chart in the instructions
to get your alkalinity reading.
For example, I have 0.52 milliliters left in my syringe,
which corresponds to 7.3 dKH of alkalinity in the chart.
A quick tip for standard test kits,
and especially titration-based test kits like this one:
Having a small magnetic stir, like this AutoAqua Smart Stir,
can help make the testing process a whole lot easier.
And they're relatively inexpensive,
so if you wanna make this and other tests
even faster to perform and more accurate,
you can pick one up for around 30 bucks.
The test kit will perform up to 100 standard tests
or up to 200 tests
if using the smaller two-milliliter sample,
which works out to between 14 cents on the high end
to seven cents on the low end per test
and should last the average reefer just over a year
of testing two to four times per week.
I would recommend that you stick
with the larger, four-milliliter sample size
if you're newer to reefing or testing.
That larger sample size makes it easier
to get an accurate result.
However, if you're a reefing guru,
you've been around the block a few times
and are very familiar with testing and have good practices,
using that two-milliliter sample size
will definitely take this test kit a lot further for you.
If this Salifert alkalinity test kit
matches your reefing mantra, you can go ahead
and pick one up for yourself by clicking right here.
(upbeat music)