Old Test Kits

shyfish

Member
Hi,
In 35 years I have never had an ammonia problem, with any kind of tank...salt or fresh.
My tank didn't look "right" nothing was dying but my corals didn't look right either. Hair algae was everywhere. I tested and everything kept saying I had perfect numbers, or it would be so off it couldn't be right and I would do the test over and got a different reading every time. The little test strips would say something wasn’t right, but still safe, so I would test with the more “accurate master kit”
The LFS uses the same test strips so I got no satisfaction from them either.
Things weren’t making sense. I thought, my test kit had to be about a year old so maybe I need to replace the master kit. I thought "how long is a kit good for anyway?" I looked at the expiration date... It expired in 2005

I went out and bought a new master kit. While I was there I looked at the expiration dates. All but one was already expired! The one I purchased will expire 7 of 09. I needed a good test kit so I bought it anyway, I needed to know my numbers A.S.A.P. I told the sales clerk and had the kits removed so they could order more. I thought it was enough of a potential problem for me to share this experience.
My ammonia was 0.25. I had added new fish just after cleaning my filters. I don’t know what I was thinking. My little warning disk isn’t attached to the glass anymore and I can’t find it. Its the 3rd one, so I gave up on it. My test strip said everything was in the Okay range. My master kit had said all was well. I could have lost everything.
Hair algae was my only real warning that things were not as they should be. I have that cleaned up now, but thats another post.
 
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