Hanna calcium checker

[jd371]

Garbage garbage garbage. Not accurate not reliable. I bought one and got the same obsurd number of 560. I test every day with salifert and my kit went dry so I tried my brand new hanna calcium checker while watching video online of the test. Every hanna checker I bought and tried is junk. Maybe it's time we all get together and file a class action suit to get our money back. Manufacturers making big bucks selling faulty items that don't work at the expense of our reefs. Im sick of it!!

I get reliable readings with the Alk and Phos, but not the cal, I use Salifert for that.

 

[Chrisfish]

Thanks, will be purchasing that one. Thanks to all the members who responded to my thread.

 

[morpheas]

One thing I'd add is that you have to be more precise with the hanna test in your measurements. The points the user can add to the error are the quality of the rodi, the packet emptying but the biggest in my opinion is the 0.1 cc with a 1 cc syringe! No bueno. I went ahead and bought a 100ul pipettor from Amazon and i got more consistent results when comparing with salifert.


Love the alk test though [emoji4]

 

[James Horst]

I'm sure there is a thread on here about this, sorry Anyway I'm using my Hanna calcium checker for the first time and it's showing 560 ppm which I'm assuming is to high(?) would appreciate any and all suggestions on if this is to high what should I do?

I have found that my Hanna calcium meter is inaccurate. I now use Elos, but also Red Sea. And, it will be important to confirm alkalinity and magnesium levels with reliable meters. I do use Hanna alkalinity and find it accurate. I agree with letter the 560 level, if that is close to accurate, just fall gently. If you do not have sufficient Magnesium at this level of Ca, again assuming the 560 is accurate, you risk precipitation of the Ca.

 

[Chrisfish]

I have found that my Hanna calcium meter is inaccurate. I now use Elos, but also Red Sea. And, it will be important to confirm alkalinity and magnesium levels with reliable meters. I do use Hanna alkalinity and find it accurate. I agree with letter the 560 level, if that is close to accurate, just fall gently. If you do not have sufficient Magnesium at this level of Ca, again assuming the 560 is accurate, you risk precipitation of the Ca.

Thank you, yes I will be getting new meters.

 

[omykiss001]

Funny I can get the hanna Ca and red sea to read within about 10 ppm of each other quite consistently. Hanna is a bit more touchy if you are not precise in your volume measurements, i.e. how good you can get 0.1 mL or how you measure the DI addition into the 10 mL cuvette do you read the meniscus to the line the same each time and of course how much powder to you lose or spill. I do science for a living so I already operate with that anal retentive mind set and get, in my opinion, better more accurate and more consistent reads with the Hanna checker. i.e I know my tank volume pretty accurately and I know the molar concentration of my CaCl2 when I add a known volume of concentrate and calculate what my tank Ca should be after the addition the Hanna is often much closer to the predicted ppm. So I prefer it personally, but if I'm sloppy it's accuracy suffers more than the titration tests.

My 0.02 cents

 

[naptalene]

A friend said to use distilled water instead of RO.
I get constant readings since. You also need to be very careful of finger prints etc. on the glass. I literally have a bowl with vinegar that I use to wipe down the glass after every shake.

I do my regular fast tests with the RS pro though lol

 

[GainesvilleReef]

I get good results with my Hannah Calcium test. But I had to learn a couple of tricks. The first issue is the sample size is too small so a fraction of a drop maters. On the sample syring fill it to .7-.8 mil. Slowly push out, into the sink, until the first rubber band inside the plunger reaches 0.5. If there is a drop remaining on the tip shake it off. Now slowly push, into the cuvette, until you reach 0.4 mil. Shake any drop on the end of the syringe into the cuvette. Also, try to get all of the second reagent from the pouch into the cuvette. I can generally repeat test within 5-7 ppm. And it consistently matches my Triton tests within 10-15ppm. All of the Calcium test kits have large error which can be exaggerated by unknown user error such as miscounting the drops in a titration. This is why I don't dose calcium based calcium tests. The tests are not accurate enough to chase numbers with. Alkalinity tests don't seem to have the same problems and can be used for maintaining levels. Since the Calc and Alk are consumed at a fixed ratio, I just base my dosing amounts for both Calc and Alk on my Alk tests. Every 6-12 months I do a Calc test, and if it is below 420, I do bolus dose to raise it above that. I check alkalinity and salinity once a weak and that is it. I use a hannah alk checker and I think it is the easiest and best test kit I own.