I have many API test Kits and they instruct you to put 5ml in the test tube. They instruct you to fill to the 5 ml white line. I have a scale that measures to the accuracy of 1/100th of a gram.
1 ml of water = 1 gram
Some of my test tubes will measure 5 ml or 5 grams at the white line on the test tubes.
But with some of the test tubes 5 ml or 5 grams is about a 1/8 to 3/16 above the white line.
My question is; If I only fill to the test tube white line, and there is only 4.7 ml in the test tube... Will the test be accurate?
It is a hobby level test anyway, meant to give you a general ballpark of your readings. The tests aren't super accurate to begin with, so it shouldn't make a massive difference.
Yeah, it's fine. People have complained to API before about their tubes, and the response was (I'm paraphrasing) "Meh, you're fine. Close enough." I think the volume is less important than the parameters of the water. Which is nice, because it makes it much easier to fill a tube (and not worry about getting it to the line).
API's nitrate test kit uses 10 drops for 5ml water. I find the test solutions quickly run out. My "solution" is to use scale to get 2grams of water (2ml), and add 4 drops of test solution. I may use 1ml of water if I am desperate.
I use seachem products so I think that I will switch to the sachem test kits. I was just reading on the sachem site that a if you use prime, and I do... API test kits drive up the PH which causes the ammonia that is bound up by prime, to be released and makes the test a false neg.
I have the API master kits for fresh water. My biggest complaint is that only 3~5 drops PH, high PH, nitrite test solutions are needed for full 5ml, and they last forever because I don't need to test those parameters very often, while 8~10 drops ammonia, nitrate solutions are needed for full 5ml, and I need to test, especially for nitrate, very often. API is doing this backwards.
Now I can do 1 drop tests.
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