JBL ProAquaTest Lab ProScape

JBL ProAquaTest Lab ProScape is the test case for planted and aquascaping tanks. It covers the values that decide whether plants grow or algae does, including pH, CO2, potassium and magnesium, and comes in a waterproof case with childproof reagents.

Key Features

• Built around plant nutrition: JBL lists pH, CO2 and the nutrients plants are dosed with, rather than only the fish-safety values.
• CO2 from pH and KH: a planted tank's CO2 level is worked out from those two readings, which is why they come together in this kit.
• Potassium and magnesium: the two macronutrients most often short in a fertilised tank, and the ones people dose without measuring.
• Childproof reagents: JBL's own note, and worth having in a house with children.
• Waterproof case: everything together and it survives being set down on a wet floor.
• Tells you what to change: JBL pairs the colour charts with recommended actions rather than just a number.

Testing A Planted Tank

• Read pH and KH together and work the CO2 out from both. A pH reading on its own will mislead you in a CO2-injected tank.
• Test before you dose fertiliser, not after. Dosing a nutrient that is already high feeds algae instead of plants.
• Check nitrate and phosphate as well. Low is the aim in a planted tank, not zero, because plants need both.
• Take the CO2 reading at the same time of day each time. CO2 and pH both move across a photoperiod.

Getting A Reading You Can Trust

• Read the colour in daylight, against something white, and not through the side of the aquarium.
• Hold the reagent bottle vertical rather than tilted. A drop counted at an angle is not the same size as one counted straight down, and drop tests are counted in drops.
• Take the sample from mid-water, away from the filter outlet, and test it straight away.
• Rinse the vials in tank water before and after, and never with detergent.
• Write the numbers down with the date. One reading tells you where you are; a run of readings tells you which way the tank is going, which is the useful part.

Good To Know

• Reagents have an expiry date and they drift as they age. A test that has been open for years will quietly give you the wrong answer.
• Store the kit closed, cool, out of direct sun and away from children. The reagents are chemicals, not accessories.
• Heat and humidity are hard on reagents. Keep the case indoors rather than in a garage or on a balcony.
• Light and CO2 usually limit plant growth before nutrients do. Testing tells you which, and saves dosing a tank that cannot use it.