Every big lake decision rests on a number someone can stand behind: whether to treat, whether to close the beach, whether to spend. Lab testing is how a suspicion becomes a fact.

Picking a test used to mean knowing method numbers, detection limits, and which lab would even take a lake sample. We've done that part. Pick the question, we ship the kit in 1–2 business days, and results land on your lake's timeline.

Start here

An open sampling kit with six bottles on a North Woods lake dock

Basic Lake Test ($163)

Six core parameters from one surface sample.

A lake-water sample bottle held against a North Woods lake at golden hour

Total Phosphorus ($52)

The most predictive number in lake management.

Nutrients

Two sample bottles beside a field notebook and lily pads

Nutrient Profile ($225)

Nitrogen and phosphorus together, for eutrophication risk.

Three sample bottles where a small stream enters a lake

Nitrogen Sequence ($225)

Three forms of nitrogen that show where it's coming from.

Algae and blooms

A hand fills a sample bottle in slightly green lake water

Chlorophyll-a ($215)

How much algae your lake is actually growing.

A gloved hand samples at the edge of green bloom swirls

Rapid Bloom ID & Cell Count ($265)

What you have, answered in 24 hours.

A sample bottle beside a pea-green bloom at a sandy swim beach

Microcystin ($185)

The liver toxin that closes beaches.

A sample bottle on a dock overlooking clear water and a subtle offshore bloom

Saxitoxin ($195)

A lake can test clean for microcystin and still be dangerous.

A field scientist samples dark algal mats while a leashed dog waits away from shore

Anatoxin-a ($215)

The fastest-acting cyanotoxin. If an animal is sick, sample now.

Swim safety

A person collects a water sample at a public swim beach

E. coli & Coliform ($138)

The standard measure of whether the water is safe to swim in.

Clarity and salt

A muddy plume enters clear lake water after rain

TSS ($64)

How much material is in the water.

Clear and cloudy water samples side by side on a lake dock

TSS & Turbidity ($144)

How much material is in the water and how much it matters.

A field technician samples a culvert beside a melting lakeshore snowbank

Chloride & Road Salt ($86.40)

Chloride doesn't break down, so this records how much has arrived.

A sample bottle on a pale shoreline rock with a treatment pontoon in the distance

Alkalinity & Hardness ($88)

Buffering capacity, and whether alum is safe to use.

Contaminants

A technician samples where a maintained lawn meets the lake

Fungicides & Pesticides ($220)

140 modern lawn and farm chemicals.

A drainage ditch from a cornfield enters a quiet lake bay

Pesticide Detection ($235)

Nine legacy compounds, including atrazine.

A gloved hand holds a sample bottle beside rust-stained rocks and mine tailings

Metals CAM17 ($275)

17 heavy metals from mining, industry, and urban runoff.

A sample bottle overlooks a small marina and a faint surface sheen

Hydrocarbons ($300)

Petroleum compounds and PAHs, for lakes near marinas and highways.

A sample bottle beside shoreline foam with a distant airfield across the lake

PFAS by EPA 1633 ($799)

40 forever chemicals, the defensible number.

A water-sample vial held up to sunlight above a North Woods lake

Comprehensive Microbiology ($398)

A 151-organism biological screen.

Sediment

Gloved hands lift a dark lake-sediment core from a canoe

Total & Reactive Phosphorus ($272)

How much phosphorus is in the sediment, and how much is available now.

A layered lake-sediment core secured across a canoe

Phosphorus Fractionation ($434)

How much of that phosphorus can come back out.