NYOS is a progressive brand of marine aquarium products which has recently teamed up with Ecotech Marine to make inroads in the American side of the marine aquarium hobby. The Reefer line of marine aquarium test kits are some of NYOS’s signature aquarium products, and we recently got our hands on the full line to “test the test kits”.
NYOS describes their kits as easy to use, with laboratory quality results, affordable to the standard saltwater aquarium hobbyist. The NYOS kits are made in strict batches as to not compromise on accuracy and quality control.
First up, we chose to review the Nitrate kit as we have previously reviewed the Professional NYOS Nitrate kit way back in 2012. Nitrate is a great indicator for overall water quality, you will want to keep your nitrates low to keep your aquarium sps corals and fish happy.
The test instructions for the Nitrate test are easy to follow both from the pictogram instruction on the back of the booklet, and the written instructions in the book. You can also watch this short instructional video which shows how to perform the tests. The test bottles were also simply labeled with the numerical order they are used, and the quantity required for each test. The written instructions come in six languages, German, English, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch.
The NYOS Nitrate test kit has enough reagents to perform 40 individual tests, and a measurement scale with 10 shades of yellow from 0 to 160 ppm. We like that the measurement scale is printed as a sticker, so you can peel of the back and stick it to any flat surface. The kit also came with two bottles of solution, two vials, a syringe, and measuring spoon.
A major plus for the Reefer line is that all components are made in Germany in accordance with German test and regulatory standards including the reagents and droppers, and the test droppers have been specifically calibrated to ensure uniform drops during all tests. We did the test several times and can agree this was the case.
After adding the reagent (part 2) the test take five minutes before the results. Our only challenge in reading the value was identifying a precise reading for the result, we found our yellow-orange color in between so we just went with the middle value.
The NYOS Nitrate kits was easy to use and only took about eight minutes from start to finish. We really like the simple two step process of the test kit, and the wide range of colors in the indicator chart, and will keep using it in our home aquarium.
Next up we took the NYOS Phosphate kit for a spin. As with the previous Nitrate test, the instructions were easy to follow, both from the pictogram instruction on the back of the booklet, and the written instructions in the book. You can also watch this short instructional video which shows how to perform the tests.
The NYOS Phosphate test kit has enough reagents to perform 50 individual tests, and a measurement scale with 10 shades of blue from 0.025 to 1.0 ppm. The NYOS phosphate test kit is very practical for basic measurements of phosphate, although we find it quite hard to distinguish between values of PO4 between 0.0 and 0.1 ppm of phosphate. However, if your phosphates are below 0.10 ppm, you don’t really have anything to worry about.
The test requires 20 ml of saltwater (10 for the test and 10 for the control), the test takes 10 minutes after the part 2 reagent is added to the test vial. We like the easy to follow two step process and the clever idea of including only 1 cap for the glass testing bottle with no cap for the base sample saltwater bottle.
The NYOS Phosphate test kit was easy to use and we really like the simple two step process. The test results were easy to read and replicated twice with the same results. The whole like of NYOS Reefer kits are now available in the USA and can be ordered here. [NYOS]
