On Thu, 19 Jun 2003 19:45:33 GMT, "Alex R"
wrote:

I've had the same experience with reagent 3 in the Hagen NO3 kit. It would
clog up the bottle tip so the liquid barely came out. I even contacted Hagen
about it, and they sent me a replacement reagent 3, but it had the same
problem. Apparently, you have to shake it for a couple of minutes before
this zinc mass dislodges from the bottom of the bottle. Hagen should
definitely address this. I finally bought a Seachem NO2-NO3 test kit and
that one works fairly well.

I am of the belief that no matter how much you shake it, it doesn't
break up - even after twenty minutes of vigorous pounding and shaking.

I've had 5 year old cans of paint mix up better. This particular
Hagen kit will be disposed of in short order. I am investigating the
SeaChem kit, as several others have mentioned it. It's certainly not
a requirement, as dosages can be calculated, as with Chuck Gadd's
excellent web page:

http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_p...osage_calc.htm

Considering the Tetra test kit scale, I doubt it measures NO3-N. (Few test
kits do.) The minus sign simply indicates the negative charge of the anion.

Probably...

You could always dose without testing, as I often do. For quite some time,
according to my test results, I have had to add the same amount of KNO3 each
time I dose. So now I don't test much, I just add this same amount twice a
week.

This is true as well, and the approach I will eventually take. I'm
just one of those anal types who likes have a visual representation of
what I already know... ;-)

Thanks for the input,
Greg