(upbeat music)
- Hi, today's best of 2019,
nitrate test kits.
- There's not many of these left.
The year's wrapping up, but
a lot of calls for this one and today
we're gonna see the most popular as usual,
the most economical and the most accurate
from our testing that I did.
- For me, number one thing,
easiest to perform and easiest to read.
Best in show and then what we want to see in 2020.
All right, number one most popular nitrate
test kit as voted by you guys and what you guys
pick up in 2019, what is it?
- Yeah, I mean this one made it by
about three or four hundred more people
bought this test kit over other ones.
For the entire year, Salifert.
So boom, there you go.
It's like a two step test.
Pretty easy to conduct, you know
as far as this, like five drops,
one scoop, mix and you know,
check the numbers, but it's that simple.
But it's also the cheapest too, so.
- Yeah, so best of 2019 cheapest test kit out there?
Also Salifert.
- [Man On Left] Yeah, by seven bucks
to the nearest test kit.
So 17 dollars for that one and the next one's like 24.
- [Man On Right] I guess I'm not surprised because
you know, barring any like real clear
differentiators between all of them,
cheapest usually wins and so,
it's really interesting to see
because you see in some categories we do this
where the most expensive actually is
the most popular, but it has to have
a really clear reason as to why.
And there might be a couple reasons why
a couple of them might be more valuable,
but actually this is one of the better performing ones,
so cheapest and a really, really good value
because it performs well.
And I think they've done some changes to it
over the years because it wasn't my favorite
back in the day and I haven't used it
actually in years because of that.
But now, you know, we go back and refresh.
So cheapest and most popular as voted by you guys.
Best of 2019 accuracy in a nitrate test kit.
In this case, we actually get to make a standard
because we can test zero available nitrate
and then add some nitrate back in with
some hawk solution.
We made some standards.
Added two parts per million and 10 parts per million.
Then we used all these to test them.
So first one was the Nyos.
What did the 10 show up as?
- [Man On Left] I'm gonna have to give this one
probably the most accurate because
the 10 part per million, Nyos read it in between
five and 12 which are the graduations of the test.
It goes one, three, five and then 12.
And I would have to say that the yellow coloration
on that sample for 10 was absolutely right in between.
I'd probably give it a 10.
- So between five and 12 would be like 8,
so they're pretty close.
- That's pretty close.
- And then for our reading two part per million
standard, where'd it come in?
- [Man On Left] Reading two part per million
was absolutely in between the one and the three
part per million graduation.
There is no two spot, but it definitely
wasn't three and it definitely wasn't one
so it was right in between, so two.
- Two, all right.
So pretty, pretty close on both those fronts.
All right, so Salifert at the 10 part per million
standard, what did it read out as?
- [Man On Left] 10 part per million Salifert
in my eye was 10.
There's a low end graduation and a high end graduation
and to me it looked like 10.
It looked like spot on.
- And the two part per million standard?
- Two part per million was actually
through my eye between two and five.
It was tough to tell.
Those pink graduations are so close together
on that low end, that it's just really hard
for me to tell, especially with one mLs sample size.
That means I've got this, just this really thin
layer of liquid in the bottom of the container
and who knows if it's scretched out
or you know, with the lighting and all this other stuff.
It's pretty tough.
- It is hard to see.
All right, so Tropic Marin 10 part per million standard,
what'd it come out as?
- This was the first time I ever used Tropic Marin
and the test was pretty straight forward.
All liquid basery agents.
And 10 turned out to be 10.
- [Man On Right] There you go, and the two?
- Two was a little more difficult
in that the reagent does have some chunks in there,
reagent A.
So it took me a while to get reagent A one mL.
But when the test was all said and done,
I put it somewhere in like the one to two
part per million range, so fairly close,
relatively close.
- Maybe slightly lower, but.
- Pink graduations are tough to see.
It was another pink graduation card
and for me it was a little tough.
- All right and Red Sea, the 10 part per million,
which one did that read out as?
- Yeah, this one was tough for me too
because for the Red Sea high end,
if it's anything over four parts per million,
you have to dilute the sample 15 to one.
So I had only had one mL of tank water,
of the stock solution and then 15 mLs of RODI water.
So the reading was a bit different.
So 10 part per million actually to me
read like four parts per million.
And the graduate and the color was different,
so my sample seemed a bit purple
in compared to the color wheel that they have,
which is more pink.
But I read it, my best guess was four parts per million.
- We did it, the 10 showed up at four.
And the two showed up as ...
- This one was not at the two.
There is a distinct two graduation
and I have to say it didn't hit that.
So I'm calling it like .75 or one part per million,
but still that purple color versus the card
being pink really threw me off.
- All right, so all these actually
fairly close.
Some a little closer than others,
but you know,
with nitrate most people aren't shooting for
very specific number, but kind of
just like getting a ballpark.
So most of these are pretty accurate
for that purpose, but I gotta say,
which one, you know, this was your eyeball
so which one did you say, think was the most
accurate of all of 'em?
- Personally I liked the Salifert.
I've used the Salifert for a long time.
It was, for the 10 super easy for me to read.
And then the Nyos for me,
the graduations are a little too spaced apart
like five or 12.
But if we're talking ball park ranges,
I could tell it was in between one of those two.
Yellow, like you had mentioned was easier to read
for my eye too and probably for yours.
It's a toss up for me.
I'm gonna give it to Salifert personally, for myself.
- So I don't think you can go with either one of those.
The Salifert or the Nyos one in terms of accuracy,
again because you don't have like legitimate
like ranges of one, two, three, four, five, six,
seven, eight, nine, 10.
You're kind of guessing in between those ranges.
And so they actually might depend on actually
what your level is, you know and how close
you are to one of those graduations.
But Nyos and if I'm looking for accuracy,
the Salifert seemed to do the best and that's
interesting because that we did this one time,
a long time ago and you know what.
I don't know if Salifert was even included in that test.
It wasn't.
- No, I went and rewatched that video
and you threw it out because you didn't like the card.
You said its graduations were too hard to read.
- Too hard for me to read.
I still say they're hard for me to read,
but maybe we should include then
we did it today and actually,
not one.
- Oh one note too on these two
is out of the four, the Nyos and the Salifert
were both two part reagent tests
where it's just a liquid drop and a powder
versus three part reagent tests.
- Oh so that leads right into
best of 2019 easiest to perform and read.
Which ones are they?
- And quickness too.
The two part test kits, obviously easy to perform.
It's a few drops, it's a scoop of the reagent.
It's a mix and then like a five minute waiting period
for one.
Three minute waiting period for the other.
And then in terms of accuracy relatively close
and actually just got our boat, so easiest to read,
probably I'd give it to the Nyos on the graduation's
yellow for some reason is really easy to read
so versus pink in my eye.
But yeah, about five minutes max on either one of these.
- Yeah, so this one's only three minutes to do
and this one is only like five minutes.
Like some of these other ones, I think this one
is like 10 minutes to do.
10 minutes for a test kit is kind of a lot.
And you know, depending on you kinda forget
that you're even doing it at that point.
And so, like if it was more accurate
I think I'd spend the extra time, as long as accuracy
counted for that range, but for me reading it,
I actually have a super hard time reading
the pink shade in this one, specifically at the low range.
If you really care about, you know,
where you are in the low range,
I found this one to be a lot harder to read
the slight shades of pink.
As you get to the higher range, I don't think
it matter much and it's a little easier to read.
So no big deal.
This one though, because they used
the two little bottles.
So one of them is clear and you're looking through water
and the other one you're looking through the actual
dyed water, a result to the test kit is super easy.
Like I can get peg it with total confidence
where it is in this range.
For me, when I know I got it,
it's super, super valuable and for me,
this one is the easiest to perform
and read with the Nyos.
So best of show 2019 I think we probably
already know what it is.
- I mean this one already won two or three
of our categories, so give it up to the Salifert.
Give it up to the Nyos.
They're most economical.
Both of them are the lower end cost options
and it's really like just dollars that separates
all of them so it's really not that big of a deal.
But also two part tests,
they're quick and they're reliable.
- So my personal vote was for the Nyos.
I just find it easiest to read.
It's in the range of how much time I'm willing
to spend on it and I would actually,
now that I've used it again, it's been years.
(laughter)
I would actually confidently use this again
and I don't really care whether I'm one or three
parts per million, personally.
I just kind of want to know within a few points
and so I can probably get that out of this.
I can just get it out of this one more confidently,
but you felt a little different.
- Yeah, the Salifert gets the, I've used the
Salifert quite a bit, so
when I read, you know, two,
I was in the ball park again too.
I don't know, you kind of got me leaning
toward this one when you mentioned the two
glass vials and measuring them up.
When I do the Salifert, it's my open eye,
it's an open container and it's, you know,
the color on the paper and my sample that I'm
looking down at the bottom of.
When I have two bottles and I'm sliding across
the scale and it's got the foam insert.
- That black foam insert which is uniform color.
- Yeah, I mean it does make it pretty.
I'll switch to Nyos too.
- Boom, wow!
- Yeah, I'll switch to Nyos.
- I didn't see that coming.
(laughter)
All right, so Nyos is best in show 2019.
So what would we like to see for 2020?
- [Man On Right] Okay, I'm gonna tell you,
there's only one thing we want to see for 2020.
What is it?
- Bottom line.
Hanna checker for nitrate, please.
There's a lot of hurdles, like you had that episode
that talked about all the hurdles of the sodium
chloride messing with the reagents.
You know, it's really hard to test nitrates in salt water
versus fresh water, but there's gotta be a way
that this can be done and if,
Hanna if you make one, take my money please.
I'll buy like five of them.
- Okay so, for real, like it doesn't need to be
the most accurate.
It just needs to be super, super easy
and as accurate as any of the things you're already using.
- Yeah.
- So they could literally just borrow
the chemistry from, call up any one of these
and say I wanna use your chemistry in our kit,
because all it is is reading the transparency
of the water, right?
And so this is one of those tests that it could
so easily be transferred over to a checker
and they should absolutely do it.
So for 2020, we would like to see the Hanna team
bring out a nitrate checker.
If all of you would like to see that,
make sure to let us know in the comments
because I will definitely share it with them.
All right, so if you want to see any information
on any of these, specifically on the winner here
with the Nyos, head on over to the website
and you can see why all the other reefers
are talking about Nyos.