Red Sea Reef Foundation Test kit questions

Anyone using this kit?

If so I have two questions. First, what is the end color for the KH test? The card shows an orange but the demo video says pink. I can find orange but pink I don't even see. After blue there is a strange grey color until orange.

Second, it states to pull the syringe to 1 ml and to the bottom of the stopper in which will leave an air gap. This will be the volume in the tip. So do you also read the end result based on the bottom of the stoppers location and not the volume of liquid in the syringe?

Also, there are different amounts of air gap from test to test from .1 .2 in the mag test! What gives? Help.

 

That sounds like three same method as salifert. Yes you read where the plunger lines up. How much difference does .1 result in? There is a certain amount of error in most kits anyway.

 

Well, .1-.2 is 10-20%. In which would adjust the reading quite a bit, more than I would want to adjust my parameters based off of.

 

All I use is red sea pro kits. I always pull the plunger to the 1 ml mark and read the end result at the bottom of the plunger only. Don't worry about the little difference in titration in the syringe between kits. When I do my alk test I stop as soon as all blue coloration is gone and it's slightly orange. The color card can be misleading.

 

10-20% variation does sound a bit much. I think I'd be concerned over +/- 5%.

 

My theory on the airgap is from the different tip from a normal syringe. A normal syringe would just have a little needle on the end. You can see that the 0 mark is on the cylinder with the plunger, not including the tip. So the tip makes up for the difference.

I see you already mentioned the tip. DOH. I can't explain the variance of the difference of fluid. I usually use the same syringe until the marks wear off and then move onto the next one.

 

So, I tested my Alk & CA last night and thought about this thread when doing it. The colors, as DSC said, are for reference. What I noticed with the Alk is it does a bit of a transition and I've done this test so many times, I can almost predict when it's going to change. But it does go from the blue, to slightly grey and then when I see any amount of the orange color I stop and look at the amount used. Then I add one more drop, swirl and see if the color changes or just get's to a deeper orange. If it's just a deeper orange, then I go with my initial reading. You kinda "learn the feel" or "gleam the cube" of when the color actually changes.
For the CA test, it's much easier to see the color change, it's a drastic change to purple. It will go to blue first and when I first started testing, I would stop too early (I think). However, it makes a distinct color change as soon as the test is ready. I then notes the amount used and plop a few more drops in and it will just get darker, then I know I'm good.