Hanna checker madness

[Scdell]

No matter what y'all think this is, it isn't rocket science. It's a tester that's going to give you a reasonable proximity of the values in your tank. It's not precise, its close. Precise equipment would cost hundreds of $'s. It's hobby grade equipment that's susceptible to flaws. Y'all drink your Hanna tea. I'm not.

 

[Hanna Instruments]

Well, just ordered two more checkers. ALK and Ulr phosphate.
Too many wide range of readings with the Alk reagents. That sort of straightened out by buying the reagents from elsewhere, but still not matching my Red Sea test.
Now the phosphate checker starts with low/high light errors. I'll test with one vial and get a 200ppm reading. The other vial will read 10ppm. These are about a year and a half old. When and if I ever get my ION Director these checkers will no longer be part of my testing. Except the phosphate as I see nothing else worth anything either.
I really expected to get better service out of these for the price one pays for them. But what the heck? It's reefing! Someplace to throw money at.

Please email [email protected] for any issues with your Hanna products. We strive to provide the best testing experience possible to our customers.

When you email technical support at the aforementioned email, please provide what Checkers you are using by finding the part number starting with HI (i.e. HI772 and HI736). Also please make sure you can reference the values from your most recent tests so we can best alleviate your issues.

Thank you for being a valued Hanna customer.

 

[Hanna Instruments]

Anyone know why Hannah doesn't make a Magnesium checker?

It is something we are looking into however the there are quite a few challenges in creating a digital test kit for MG in the existing Checker platform.

 

[Hanna Instruments]

Well, just ordered two more checkers. ALK and Ulr phosphate.
Too many wide range of readings with the Alk reagents. That sort of straightened out by buying the reagents from elsewhere, but still not matching my Red Sea test.
Now the phosphate checker starts with low/high light errors. I'll test with one vial and get a 200ppm reading. The other vial will read 10ppm. These are about a year and a half old. When and if I ever get my ION Director these checkers will no longer be part of my testing. Except the phosphate as I see nothing else worth anything either.
I really expected to get better service out of these for the price one pays for them. But what the heck? It's reefing! Someplace to throw money at.

When measuring any parameter with such a low value, such as phosphate, a big concern is contamination in your testing vial.

1. Make sure you are not rinsing your cuvettes with tap water ever, regardless of the test. This can lead to inaccurate readings from tap water contaminants.
2. Make sure you rinse your phosphate cuvettes with RODI after each test before you store them. When you want to perform a new phosphate test we recommend rinsing the cuvettes with 10 ml of saltwater sample a few times before you zero out the Checker. This would help reduce the interference of contaminants that can impact your phosphate readings.
3. Make sure you are not testing phosphates after cleaning algae in your aquarium or feeding your livestock. This will cause a false high reading.
4. Make sure you are not using a syringe to fill your cuvettes that have been used to feed fish/coral as this will cause false high readings.

 

[Scdell]

When measuring any parameter with such a low value, such as phosphate, a big concern is contamination in your testing vial.

1. Make sure you are not rinsing your cuvettes with tap water ever, regardless of the test. This can lead to inaccurate readings from tap water contaminants.
2. Make sure you rinse your phosphate cuvettes with RODI after each test before you store them. When you want to perform a new phosphate test we recommend rinsing the cuvettes with 10 ml of saltwater sample a few times before you zero out the Checker. This would help reduce the interference of contaminants that can impact your phosphate readings.
3. Make sure you are not testing phosphates after cleaning algae in your aquarium or feeding your livestock. This will cause a false high reading.
4. Make sure you are not using a syringe to fill your cuvettes that have been used to feed fish/coral as this will cause false high readings.

These are all standard procedures that anyone with any practical sense follows. And the standard response one will get when they email about a problem. Just like getting a new sim card for your phone which doesn't work. Contact support and the first thing they ask is if you put the sim card in right? Well, duh! I'm sure there are people that don't know how, but I'm not one of those. I know when my instruments fail me and when to replace said bad instruments. I took that step and ordered replacements. I will not keep doing that though. So.....Emailing support is a waste of time now. Think I'll take the old checkers apart and see what they are made of.

 

[Scdell]

I woke up at 3;30 am. Had to let a dog out. I looked at the tank. Completely cloudy.I can barely see the back wall. I can check Nitrates with my Red Sea kit. I can get a reasonable test with my Hanna Alk tester, but i can't get any reliable test with my Hanna phosphate checker for a couple of weeks now. I guess I'll have to go buy a backup test kit until the new one comes in on Monday. Lesson learned.

 

[Adamantium]

I woke up at 3;30 am. Had to let a dog out. I looked at the tank. Completely cloudy.I can barely see the back wall. I can check Nitrates with my Red Sea kit. I can get a reasonable test with my Hanna Alk tester, but i can't get any reliable test with my Hanna phosphate checker for a couple of weeks now. I guess I'll have to go buy a backup test kit until the new one comes in on Monday. Lesson learned.

That doesn’t sound like a phosphate issue. Sounds like a bacterial bloom. Could be caused by a number for things, but unlikely PO4.

 

[Scdell]

That doesn’t sound like a phosphate issue. Sounds like a bacterial bloom. Could be caused by a number for things, but unlikely PO4.

That's what I'm thinking. been trying to get my redfield ratio in order, but unable to do so if I can't get a phosphate reading. It can be caused by that ratio being out of balanced as different bacteria feed on nitrates and phosphates. Right now I have absolutely no idea what my phosphate is at. Off to my local lfs to get a test kit I guess.

 

[ReefPig]

That's what I'm thinking. been trying to get my redfield ratio in order, but unable to do so if I can't get a phosphate reading. It can be caused by that ratio being out of balanced as different bacteria feed on nitrates and phosphates. Right now I have absolutely no idea what my phosphate is at. Off to my local lfs to get a test kit I guess.

Since when was the redfield ratio something we should target?
In fact the majority of articles and threads recommending not targeting that.

Simple:
PO4 somewhere between 0.02 and 0.1 is good, most target 0.05 ish.
NO3 somewhere between 3 and 10, most target 5-8 ish..

Forget the redfield ratio, it's utter nonsense.

 

[Scdell]

Since when was the redfield ratio something we should target?
In fact the majority of articles and threads recommending not targeting that.

Simple:
PO4 somewhere between 0.02 and 0.1 is good, most target 0.05 ish.
NO3 somewhere between 3 and 10, most target 5-8 ish..

Forget the redfield ratio, it's utter nonsense.

That friend IS the Redfeild ratio. Keeping them in balance.

 

[Shirak]

The red field ratio is more than just keeping them in balance. Balance yes good. More important IMO stability.. If we really wanted to mimic the actual ratio however and we were keeping tank PO4 around .03ppm then according to his ratio NO3 should be around .4-.5ppm. Way lower than most reefers keep there tanks. Hence the ratio itself for reef keeping is pointless.

 

[ReefPig]

The red field ratio is more than just keeping them in balance. Balance yes good. More important IMO stability.. If we really wanted to mimic the actual ratio however and we were keeping tank PO4 around .03ppm then according to his ratio NO3 should be around .4-.5ppm. Way lower than most reefers keep there tanks. Hence the ratio itself for reef keeping is pointless.

Indeed, the redfield ratio is not relevant for reef tanks.
I may be wrong, but I believe this was the measurement captured from phytoplankton.

 

[Scdell]

The red field ratio is more than just keeping them in balance. Balance yes good. More important IMO stability.. If we really wanted to mimic the actual ratio however and we were keeping tank PO4 around .03ppm then according to his ratio NO3 should be around .4-.5ppm. Way lower than most reefers keep there tanks. Hence the ratio itself for reef keeping is pointless.

The way I understand it is to get your nitrate where you want it to be. Then get your phosphates in accordance to that. Not your nitrates according to your phosphates.

 

[ReefPig]

The way I understand it is to get your nitrate where you want it to be. Then get your phosphates in accordance to that. Not your nitrates according to your phosphates.

You're over thinking it.
It's not like alk, mg, ca, although there can be a little bit of a sea-saw effect, it's not exactly the same.

In short, ignore the redfield ratio, just go with the normal levels people target, as I mentioned above, these are much more suitable for a reef tank.

You can never just lock one number in and adjust another. Know where you're at, and where you want to target, then make appropriate adjustments. Dosing nitrates and phosphates can be very helpful to achieve this.

 

[Scdell]

You're over thinking it.
It's not like alk, mg, ca, although there can be a little bit of a sea-saw effect, it's not exactly the same.

In short, ignore the redfield ratio, just go with the normal levels people target, as I mentioned above, these are much more suitable for a reef tank.

You can never just lock one number in and adjust another. Know where you're at, and where you want to target, then make appropriate adjustments. Dosing nitrates and phosphates can be very helpful to achieve this.

The same with carbon dosing. The problem is everytime you put something in the tank you're creating an imbalance in the bacteria. SO....... yeah, you want stability. Keeping bacteria stabil is one part of it. I'm not looking for one #, I'm looking for close. It's kinda hard with a checked going haywire on you.

 

[45ZoaGarden]

These are all standard procedures that anyone with any practical sense follows. And the standard response one will get when they email about a problem. Just like getting a new sim card for your phone which doesn't work. Contact support and the first thing they ask is if you put the sim card in right? Well, duh! I'm sure there are people that don't know how, but I'm not one of those. I know when my instruments fail me and when to replace said bad instruments. I took that step and ordered replacements. I will not keep doing that though. So.....Emailing support is a waste of time now. Think I'll take the old checkers apart and see what they are made of.

How is emailing them a waste of time?
Seems to me like they were trying to make it right and send you out a new unit.

 

[Scdell]

How is emailing them a waste of time?
Seems to me like they were trying to make it right and send you out a new unit.

I already ordered two new units. I don't read that as they are going to send a new unit out for replacement. I read that as they want to troubleshoot the unit. I have no doubt the unit is bad.

 

[((FORDTECH))]

I bought new ones. I really doubt they would honor a year and a half old tester. I can't trust the ones I have right now. It's not like they're $200 a piece. Three sets in three years tho. I won't keep that up!

Very strange for you to have both testers and have issue with both multiple times. I would venture to say this is user error or neglect. Something to do with you or your environment. My Hanna checkers are over 2 years old and work great. I’m even on the original batteries that they came with.

 

[Scdell]

Very strange for you to have both testers and have issue with both multiple times. I would venture to say this is user error or neglect. Something to do with you or your environment. My Hanna checkers are over 2 years old and work great. I’m even on the original batteries that they came with.

Ok. We'll go with that.

 

[((FORDTECH))]

Read this again even tho you say you do it.

1. Make sure you are not rinsing your cuvettes with tap water ever, regardless of the test. This can lead to inaccurate readings from tap water contaminants.
2. Make sure you rinse your phosphate cuvettes with RODI after each test before you store them. When you want to perform a new phosphate test we recommend rinsing the cuvettes with 10 ml of saltwater sample a few times before you zero out the Checker. This would help reduce the interference of contaminants that can impact your phosphate readings.
3. Make sure you are not testing phosphates after cleaning algae in your aquarium or feeding your livestock. This will cause a false high reading.
4. Make sure you are not using a syringe to fill your cuvettes that have been used to feed fish/coral as this will cause false high readings.