# Lamotte Test Kits Arrived!



## alexperez (Oct 8, 2004)

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.


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## Gomer (Feb 2, 2004)

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

interesting but not supprising on your findings


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## Rolo (May 12, 2004)

alexperez said:


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


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.


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## alexperez (Oct 8, 2004)

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.)#-o

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.


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## Gomer (Feb 2, 2004)

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


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## Jason Baliban (Feb 21, 2005)

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


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## skids (Mar 23, 2004)

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....


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## alexperez (Oct 8, 2004)

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.


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

skids said:


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


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/pdf/instruct/3110.pdf

Step 5 of the procedures gives the conversion procedures.


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## JaySilverman (Jun 19, 2005)

alexperez said:


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


hmm. That's quite a huge difference.


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## stcyrwm (Apr 20, 2005)

Did you do a test against a fixed sample or are you assuming that the LaMotte test is the accurate one?

I think your nitrate test is curious because I am finding my AP test to be about double what the actual nitrate level is when measured against my own fixed sample. If your LaMotte is accurate then you are getting identical results to me on the AP tests.

I have an account with Hach through my business so I just ordered their Nitrate kit to try and I ordered a sample to verify against, which I think is key to anything we do. If that doesn't get accurate results I'm either going to try the LaMotte or go whole hog and get a Nitrate Colorimeter - I can't help wonder though: What if that's not accurate either?



alexperez said:


> Just got my Lamotte kits in and did some testing to compare them to my current test Kits.
> 
> Nitrate:
> Red Sea - 5ppm
> ...


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## alexperez (Oct 8, 2004)

I'm not assuming any one of them is right, but I do trust the Lamotte to give me more accurate results. I did not test them against a known value. I just wanted to show how variable test are in general.

Since I started doing EI, I don't use them that much any more. Just once in a while out of curiosity just to see what the levels are at. Or when I see something going wrong with the plants.


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