On Tue, 17 Feb 2004 00:15:14 GMT, Alkad Mzu
wrote:

I guess my question is that; can anyone share any experience with using
their own testing methods. for example I went to my local aquarium store
and asked for sodiumthyosulfate(dont count on that spelling being right)
and the guy pointed to amquel. according to what I've read he was wrong
cause sodiumthy.. is meant for separating the chlorine and chloramine
thereby cuasing an amonia spike that is detectable on average tests
as opposed to amquel or any other cholrine treatment sold for the
hobbyst that make amonia undetectable and causing mysterious nitrite spikes.

If your ammonia is undetectable then you need to find yourself a real
test kit. Seriously, ammonia test kits should be checking total
ammonia, and not just one specific type. And unless I'm half in the
bag (which is very possible), ANY product that breaks down chloramine
will produce ammonia, doesn't matter if it's AmQuel, AquaPlus,
whatever.

Are you sure you even care about chloramine? There's not a whole lot
of places that use it.

Anyway, I'm happy with the Hagen Master Test Kit - it comes with
everything, including test tubes, caps and 2 pipettes.