Red Sea Marine Care Kit (pH, Alk, NH4, NO2 and NO3)

The Red Sea Marine Care Test kit includes all of the main kits you need to run a healthy marine aquarium, allowing you to easily monitor the nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, pH and alkalinity levels.

Buying all of the kits in one handy box saves you money, and because they’re from Red Sea, you can rest assured that they’ll be just right for your marine aquarium or reef so you can keep the water in tip-top condition.

The easy-to-use tests come with simple instructions and color charts so you can accurately monitor all the important parameters during the biological maturation period of marine and reef aquariums and for the ongoing maintenance in any saltwater aquarium.

Introduction to pH & Alkalinity:

The pH is a very important parameter in the biology of aquatic organisms. It is a measure of the acidity or basicity of the water. The scale runs from zero to 14. Zero is the most acidic, 7 is neutral and 14 is the most basic. A change of 1 pH unit, for example from 7 to 6, means that the water gets 10 times more acidic.

Due to its chemistry, salt-water is able to absorb a certain amount of acidic matter without a resulting change in pH. The substances in the water that do this are called buffers. The ability of water to withstand changes in pH is called buffer capacity. Based on a method of measuring buffer capacity it is referred to as the alkalinity of seawater. In some of the literature alkalinity is termed “Carbonate Hardness” or “ KH Carbonate Buffer”. This is exactly the same measurement as is measured in the Alkalinity Mini-Lab Test.

pH and Alkalinity

The pH of natural seawater varies geographically in the world’s oceans between 8.1 and 8.4. On a local scale the pH is however remarkably stable. This is due to dissolved buffers (mainly bicarbonates), which prevent pH changes. Because of the enormous volume of the ocean, a nearly inexhaustible stock of buffers are present: the sea can take up large amounts of acids, without a noticeable change in pH.

Compared to the sea the volume of a marine aquarium is very limited and therefore the alkalinity is also limited. As fish produce acid waste products and as the buffering substances are used up by calcareous algae and invertebrates, the buffer capacity may become so low that the pH could suddenly fall. This would be very dangerous to all organisms in the aquarium.

The alkalinity is measured in so called mil-equivalents of alkaline substances (for example sodium bicarbonate) per liter. These alkaline substances have the power to prevent pH drops. The alkalinity of natural seawater is approximately 2.5 mil-equivalents per liter. This level should also be maintained in the marine aquarium.

A common symptom of an unsuitable pH is pH-stress. Especially in the marine aquarium, unsuitable pH values are very stressful to fish, and increase the chance of the fish being susceptible to disease (marine white spot).

Ammonia (NH4)

This top quality marine test kit includes three bottle of ammonia testing reagent, a handy syringe and glass vial in which to run the tests. The kit measures the total ammonia for marine aquariums. Any reading of 0.25ppm or above of total ammonia indicates a level of toxic ammonia which will have a negative effect on the fish.

Nitrite and Nitrate (NO2/NO3)

The Nitrate Cycle: Ammonia, produced by fish as a waste product is oxidized by aerobic bacteria in the biological filter: first to Nitrite (NO2-) and further to Nitrate (NO3-). In nature a complete nitrogen cycle exists, where plants utilize Nitrate as a food source, thus maintaining the very low Nitrate level found in unpolluted water. In the aquarium we create a one way system rather than a nutrient cycle.

The Red Sea Nitrate and Nitrite test allows you to test the nitrate and nitrite levels within your marine aquarium, making the water just right for your fish and inverts.

This high-quality kit is aimed specifically at marine fish keepers and reef aquarium owners and includes two bottles of reagent, a syringe and a glass vial. The kit measures the total nitrate and nitrite for marine aquariums for effective water quality management.