alexperez

Just got my Lamotte kits in and did some testing to compare them to my current test Kits.

KH:
Red Sea - 3
AP- 3
Tettra - 5
Lamotte - 2.2
Other test kits where off by a bit but it makes a big diffrence in the amount of CO2.

GH:
Red Sea - 12
Lamotte - 13 (It measures total hardness so I figure 15 - 2 (KH) = 13 GH. Am I Right ?

Nitrate:
Red Sea - 5ppm
AP - 40 ppm
Lamotte - 22 ppm

CO2:
Red Sea : got to over 70 drops and still no change in color gave up. Kit probably bad.
La Motte : 35 ppm (KH - 2 PH-6.2 = 37.9 ppm chucks Calc)

PO4:
Red Sea - 2.0 ppm
La Motte - 2.0 ppm Not quite at 2 but the bestt match.

PH Taken by SM122.

Gomer

5 *$gasp$* lamotte *$gasp$* kits *$gasp$*

interesting but not supprising on your findings

Rolo

As far as it goes in our hobby total hardness is GH. So subtracting isn't needed.

But I wonder what are the units Lamotte gives: "mg/L CaCO3", "grains per gallon"? I've been thinking they don't use "GH" since that's unique to this hobby.

alexperez

Yea Gomer,
It was a lot of money (got to spend more now since I dropped the PO4 vile of water that goes in front of the test tube and broke it.)

But after spending so much money on the other kits and never really knowing If they where correct and then doising incorrectly cause of it, which resulted in Algae outbreaks and plants thrown away. Its worth every penny.

What does suck is that since I now use Tom's EI method, I don't need to test that often. but its nice to know that what I measure is correct.

Gomer

Accurate test kits like you have are great for when your tank goes to hell and you need to know why.

Jason Baliban

Great information....thanks for sharing. Just wish you had comparisons for Hagen kits....that is what I use. Oh well

skids

Which La Motte Nitrate do you have? Mine maxes at 10ppm. It's the Model MCR. Code 3110

Jason, you could measure your water and send it to him and a free plant maybe....

alexperez

IF you want to send me some water I'll be happy to test it and give you the results. PM and let me know And I'll send yout the Address.

MatPat

I have the same kit. This LaMotte kit actually measures Nitrogen-Nitrates. The kit maxes out at 10ppm of Nitrogen, not Nitrates! To convert the Nitrogen reading to Nitrates you need to multiply your results by 4.4

Here is a link to the instructions to verify: http://www.lamotte.com/pages/common/...truct/3110.pdf

Step 5 of the procedures gives the conversion procedures.

JaySilverman

hmm. That's quite a huge difference.