I got a little confused whether you were advocating cutting the amount in
half or not?

Personally, the only test kit I use up by season end is pH and I'm not only
checking my stuff, but doing water tests for other ponders. In the KHA
program they suggest replacing yearly, so I'm only going for year on each
kit and the club covers my kits' cost since I'm doing other members.

If I was just doing my own and holding the kit for the supposed 2 years
(assuming it was fresh when I got it) I think I'd still have liquid left to
toss out, and I'm good about doing tests. I'd be surprised if most people
on here even have the all kits they should, let alone use them often enough
to run out. ;o) ~ jan

~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~


On Mon, 04 Jul 2005 22:18:55 GMT, (Roy) wrote:

Do it exactly by the directions in the kit in regards to the quanity
of water needed for each test? Some of you may already be doing this,
but when I brought it to the attention of a local fish store, who has
been in business close to 35 years it had never dawned on him to cheat
a bit, but not comnpromizse the tests results.

The test kits I have (all individual kits for each test is what I buy,
usually Aquarium pharmaceutical brand) have a 5 ml glass vial inside,
with a marked ring around the vial to give the proper level of wate
rneeded for the test.

For example on the Ammonia kit you fill it to the mark, and add 8
drops from each of the two bottles in the kit. Total tests you can
make this way is 130. HOwever if the vial is filled halfway with
2 1/2 ml of water and only 4 drops of test solution from each bottle
is added you can get 260 tests fromthis same kit. Same for the nitrate
kit........10 drops per 5 m of water = 90 tests or 5 drops per 2 1/2
ml of pond water gets you 180 tests. The Nitrite kit uses 5 drops per
5 ml of water so use 1 drop per ml of water.......you an get anywhere
from 180 tests using 5 drops to 900 using 1 drop per ml. YOu can
always use a graduated syringe to do the measuring. I played with it
for some time now and no matter how many drops I use the tests all
show the same results.

I much rather have the onhand test kits be used more often and thrown
away when shlf life hits them than skim on tests due to price or need
them and not have them as you did not get the replacement in yet.

So whats y'alls take on this concept? IMHO I think they just use the
standard vial (all kits I have use the same size and graduated vial)
thats in every kit they make and only alter the drops needed for the
tests, so it should not make any difference, except perhaps they may
not sell as many kits if foks adjust the water sample used accordingly
with lesser amount of test chemicals.

==============================================
Put some color in your cheeks...garden naked!
"The original frugal ponder"
~~~~ }((((o ~~~~~~ }{{{{o ~~~~~~~ }(((((o