Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I would like to start a thread regarding Test Meters, guages, or any test equipment used to monitor your system. What do you use? Why? What works, what doesn't, what would you ideally like to have in your system to manage it properly? What are the best resources for test equipment.....please share!!

I haven't been testing for long though find the master test kit easy to follow.-Manual system-

Would like DO meter in line as back up power outage managment plan.

I would like a DO meter myself. I do not test water. I watch fish behavior....one day it will catch up to me I know

THat it will MF... I did that and just lost my largest Barra
I think we would all like a DO meter, but the cost is WAY up there (just do an ebay search to see)... but that has not stopped me from wanting to get one, its just at the bottom of my wish list.
I have both a chemical and digital ph test kit and I use both(the digital is a cheaper model and does need to be reset from time to time (about every third or fourth test))

DO meters are expensive:( I would like to monitor Co2 as well...

I was thinking that someone out there is a science nut in lab jacket...
..surely we have technology to make a home job.(Home made)

To check battery acid you use a hydrometer which measures using a floating glass in a big pipette kind of thing..

would it be possible to measure DO using a floating device?

I can borrow the DO meter from work sometimes...

lucky doer!

actually, I have a few spare express bags here.
Can i send u some and borrow it a coupla times.Come to think of it aus post will prolly loose it or someone will flog it!

Draws no response from Jaymie..
guess you have to be on to read a post. DOH!
C1

well if you promised to take reeeally good care of it... I think they'd prolly kill me!

GGGRRR! hate it when the site breaks.
Jaymie you are kind to risk death to help an AP member.
But I couldn't do it.
Thanks though.

There are chemically based aquarium test kits for DO and CO2. I don't often use test kits any more for my fish tanks, unless I'm trying to breed something tricky like checker-board cichlids or rams, but this is only because I've been doing it for 25 years now and can usually pick the problem just by looking at the tank and the behaviour of the occupants. Have not tried that with an aquaponics setup though... My worry is not the fish but the plants and things like trace elements...

DO kit : http://www.aquaria.com.au/catalog/produ ... ts_id/6645

CO2 in tank test kit: http://www.aquaria.com.au/catalog/produ ... ts_id/6581 - you can get refills for it from this site too. I use these guys all the time and find them completely reliable and super fast (only took 1 week for my last order to arrive a few weeks ago - and that's a journey of several thousand kmsacross the South Pacific!!!) - I pretty much only use these test kits for my senior chemistry class for water testing field trips.

OzV- you have been reading up and I thank you for that.
Much appriciated.
C1

No probs - not reading up though - I do these tests all the time with the kids in various senior and junior classes - just passing on book marks If you choose the test kits be aware of these things:

DO test - it's a pretty difficult test to do requiring four different reagents and about 10 minutes of your time. To cut a long story short what you are trying to do is cause a reaction that makes a suspension of an compound conatining all the available oxygen in the water to which you add a chemical, drop by drop, to cause that suspension to dissolve again; the number of drops are equivalent to a certain % of dissolved oxygen - eg I did a test in a creek yesterday and used 17 drops of the final reagent that equated to 8.5mg/L oxygen (or 8ppm) - a good level is 10mg/L yadda yadda yadda... Be careful! The chemicals you are using are not labelled yet they contain quite concentrated acids to dissolve the suspended particles. They won't divulge their exact chemical contents because they don't want competitors to copy them but a lot of these test kits contain nasty substances (e.g the aquarium nitrate test may contain cadmium as a reducing agent - a nice little carcinogen).

I have the CO2 kit at work and can look at it tomorrow for you - sorry I can't remember anything special about it at his point. It's not a test I do very often. You can get an idea of CO2 levels in your water though using a 'round-a-bout' kind of method. If you measure low oxygen levels and you measure your water's pH and find it a little acidic then you can assume CO2 levels are on the rise as CO2 dissolves readily in water forming carbonic acid whcih causes the pH to drop - it's not conclusive by any means - just a potential link...