Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

They didn't have all the tests and I'm not sure if they are the correct tests in some cases.

Don't have pricing for Pb and Turbidity. There are number of other suppliers I can chase up to see if we can get better prices.

As you will see it is not just the unit if we get one packet of every test on the table the total comes to $4300

If we cull the list to only include those rated as important or essential we can reduce that some what but there is no point giving a figure for that yet because not all the test are rated based on their importance yet.

Why would you want to test for lead?

I'm not at all sure we do

That is why I added a column about the importance of the test. If people think its important or not important they can change the ???s to what they feel is appropriate.

Once in a while we have had people asking about stuff like that. Someone had a suspected problem with Zn, copper gets mentioned from time to time. There are other tests that are more appropriate for regular AQ or aquariums like testing for formaldehyde, cyanuric acid and the like. Not really relevant to us but if people look through the list and find something they would like or even might like it can be added to the spread sheet for consideration.

And what do you know...

http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=23671

I tend to stick to tests of the known plant macro and micro-nutrients. We know that the food we buy is nutritionally complete as far as the fish are concerned. Where it's potentially lacking is in plant nutrition.

Oxygen
Nitrogen
Phosphate
Potassium
Sulphur
Calcium
Magnesium
Silicon
Iron
Molybdenum
Boron
Copper
Manganese
Zinc

Nickel, Cobalt, and Aluminum are tough to measure.

ps: I was just looking over the YSI reagent list and didn't see lead.....

Yeah I haven't seen it either but the literature is a little confusing.

It seems to talk about more tests than are mentioned in the list

I put a request out to my FB network this morning and I got a call from a guy who used to use a YSI 9500 for testing water in treatment plants, boilers, cooling towers and the like.

Based on what he and others have said and my own reading it does seem to be the unit to go for.

I'm keen, depending upon price point of course. I'm looking at around $100 minimum testing fee from a lab, so would be happy to chip in that at least. In order of importance for me it would go:

Potassium - (essential),
Iron (DTPA) - (Useful/essential),
Manganese - (Useful/essential if it turns out to be a limiting quantity),
Magnesium (useful, though can infer level at home from GH and Ca2+ test)
Calcium. (Useful, though can estimate level at home from Ca2+ test)

If I had unexplained fish deaths I would be interested in zinc and copper, though generally not.

As far as I can tell, sulphur levels do not seem to be a limiting factor (even in excess) so I'm not interested, though am concerned if there is an upper limit as I supplement potassium in Sulphate form from time to time.

There is going to be a bunch of stuff that is essential to everyone and then other stuff that may only be needed once in a while.

The prices for the tests I've put in the spread sheet are for packs of reagents of 200 or 250 tests. There are 50 test packets available as well for many of them. For the stuff that was not as popular we could get the 50 pack packets. Would put the price up per test but if we only need to test for Cu or Zn or something elese once in a while would be a better way to go.

I've just got an email back from my phone call to a YSI distributor. I'm writing up a series of questions now for them.

One thing on the Mn test. Its highest value is seriously low. 0.03mg/L

Is this within range for us?

I've added another test.

Don't know if it would be useful or not but the sulfide test might be useful if worried about anerobic conditions developing in GBs

I guess with things like H2S we'd need to get a handle on how stable in solution it is? If it all offgases to the air in the sample bottle then escapes on opening the test may be misleading - From experience in testing dissolved gases in transformer oil this can be an issue for certain gases depending on their solubility in the liquid.

The Mn does seem vary low, I think the hydro solutions generally aim for around 0.5ppm, which would require ~20 times dilution to be measured, though I think AP systems can run with lower nutrient levels cf hydro due to higher water turnover.

I was looking at HP solutions and the maximum testing levels for a few of the YSI 9500 seem a bit low.

Matt just commented on Mn but K seems awfully low as well.

yeah 12 is pretty low if you want to match K to N and your N is 100ppm. What is the resolution of the measurement? Maybe have to do a 10x or 20x dilution. I typically only need to know is it 0, 10 or 100ppm type levels for K.

I got an updated test sheet from the supplier which has the Boron test on it.

Can't post a pdf so I've shared the document:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B02REyzhf9xoTkwyUXE1TDR0S3lFaEt4YUNuVTl0eFg0b0Nv/view?usp=sharing

Document lists the tests, working range, detection limit and tolerance.

Yup - K definitely requires dilution to measure correctly. A 1-5 dilution opens up the range to 0-60.