Hanna Checkers

sghera64 · Sep 15, 2016

For those using the Ca Hanna Checker, and have problems adding 0.1 mL, there are two tricks I use:

Add 1 mL (a whole syringe full) to a cuvette and add RO/DI water up to the 10 mL line. Then add 1.0mL of that to the test cuvette, add the 1 mL of reagent A, and Q.S. up to the 10mL line. Zero the meter, add the purple powdered reagent, shake and read.
Look at the picture below. I used RO/DI water to determine that 0.1 mL lines up with the third "ringlet" from the tip of the syringe. I fill until the bottom of the meniscus just touches the third ringlet. I determined this with an analytical balance and RO/DI water. NOTE: the syringe barrel is nearly drawn out before fetching the 0.l mL sample. This is so that when it is dispensed, all the of sample comes out.

Luis Figueroa · Sep 15, 2016

From what I get from the displacement of tank water for the hanna checker is that it's about 3 or 4 drops to achieve the .01 ml.... I've always thought this to be wrong and that it's supposed to be from 1.0 to .9.

Alfrareef · Sep 15, 2016

sghera64 said:
For those using the Ca Hanna Checker, and have problems adding 0.1 mL, there are two tricks I use:

Add 1 mL (a whole syringe full) to a cuvette and add RO/DI water up to the 10 mL line. Then add 1.0mL of that to the test cuvette, add the 1 mL of reagent A, and Q.S. up to the 10mL line. Zero the meter, add the purple powdered reagent, shake and read.

Look at the picture below. I used RO/DI water to determine that 0.1 mL lines up with the third "ringlet" from the tip of the syringe. I fill until the bottom of the meniscus just touches the third ringlet. I determined this with an analytical balance and RO/DI water. NOTE: the syringe barrel is nearly drawn out before fetching the 0.l mL sample. This is so that when it is dispensed, all the of sample comes out.

Man... with this I'll never get a Ca Hanna test!
I also don't like the drops, colors and cards, but this is diabolic.
By for now. I have to go and fine tune a nuclear power plant... ;-)

cromag27 · Sep 15, 2016

Not enough to make a recordable difference I'm guessing.

Lifer said:
Yep did that too Some reagent sticks to the sides of the funnel

sghera64 · Sep 15, 2016

Luis Figueroa said:
From what I get from the displacement of tank water for the hanna checker is that it's about 3 or 4 drops to achieve the .01 ml.... I've always thought this to be wrong and that it's supposed to be from 1.0 to .9.

Luis, you are correct in that the instructions suggest filling to the 1.0mL mark and displacing down to the 0.9mL mark. That is 0.1 mL and not 0.01 mL (I'm guessing you meant 0.1 mL in the first place)

Luis Figueroa · Sep 15, 2016

Yeah that's correct.

gus6464 · Sep 15, 2016

ULR Phosphorous and Alk. Although I am replacing them with an exact idip I ordered at MACNA. I liked the nitrate on the idip plus I can use the same photometer to measure free chlorine, ph, and cyanuric acid of my pool so the cost of entry is worth it.

Shaun Sweeney · Sep 15, 2016

Frop said:
I was thinking about buying a couple of these. Which one do you guys use, and is it the high range / low range model?

I have two (that I inherited) so I can't speak to how well they work, but, if you work out the cost per test for the dkh, it is about 3 times as much as the little salifert test kits. Just saying' ....

Aqua Lab Aquaria · Sep 16, 2016

In our experience the phosphate and alk checkers are the most reliable. However, as of late we have moved over to iDip for all our photometer testing.

Alfrareef · Sep 16, 2016

Aqua Lab Aquaria said:
In our experience the phosphate and alk checkers are the most reliable. However, as of late we have moved over to iDip for all our photometer testing.

I already have the ULR phosphorus and I'm about to get the Alk. Can you let me know the reasons for going to iDip?

Thks

Aqua Lab Aquaria · Sep 17, 2016

The iDip photometer can test every parameter of interest (Nitrate, Phosphate, Alk, CA, Ammonia, pH, and more) and it does it well. Not only that, the same unit, and most of the same strips, can test freshwater as well!

https://aqualabaquaria.com/products/exact-idip

As a business (and hobbyists) who does both fresh and salt, this is pretty much a no-brainer. The alk and phosphate Hanna's are great for the cost savings, but we've been very happy with our investment in an iDip photometer. Adding the reagents to the iDip is much simpler as well; dealing with the Hanna phosphate packages is a bit of a hassle...

cromag27 · Sep 17, 2016

Last I heard the accuracy and consistency of the idip was still bad.

Alfrareef · Sep 17, 2016

Thanks guys!
Now I'll need to investigate a little bit more. Easy of use is paramount, but accuracy is critical...

Nibejeebies · Sep 17, 2016

I Love my Hana ALK dKh checker its easy to use and spot on with the API and the Red Sea.

However...
The Hana Cal checker personal I feel needs work. I'm a paramedic so I deal with syringes and medications measured in mls, and while I wont say i never make a mistake I can say that Im pretty proficient with drawing up the correct amount and reading such.
That said, when compared to the red sea pro, i constantly get 30 to 100 more with the checker. Ive repeated the tests several times and went as far as bring a sample with me to work and having a fellow paramedic preform the tests in an attempt to rule out my human error, and his test showed 55 higher than the Red Sea pro.
Im very disappointed in this as I test alk daily and Ca every other day. (still trying to pinpoint daily use with my tank)

I am however considering the phosphorous checker.

sghera64 · Sep 17, 2016

I wanted to see how accurate my Ca Hanna Checker is. So, I took some "just opened" Bulk Reef Supply Calcium Hydroxide (no lot number) and made up a 400 ppm solution in fresh RO water. The BRS jug says that it is "produced using high purity Calcium Hydroxide".

I weighed up 1.400 grams of this calcium hydroxide and dissolved it in to 2 L of RO water. I lowered the pH (initially > 12.4) to about 5pH with dilute HCl. I followed the Hanna instructions for the assay.

My 3 replicate results were 390 ppm Ca, 390 ppm Ca and 391 ppm Ca.

While the result is off by about 10ppm (low) [2.5% error], this could be due to the purity of the calcium hydroxide or the fact that I added 10 to 20 mL of that dilute HCl.

saltyhog · Sep 17, 2016

sghera64 said:
My 3 replicate results were 390 ppm Ca, 390 ppm Ca and 391 ppm Ca.

While the result is off by about 10ppm (low) [2.5% error], this could be due to the purity of the calcium hydroxide or the fact that I added 10 to 20 mL of that dilute HCl.

That reproducibility is impressive! Trends are probably more important than absolutes when you're that close to the real number any way IMO.

david1980 · Sep 18, 2016

Luis Figueroa said:
From what I get from the displacement of tank water for the hanna checker is that it's about 3 or 4 drops to achieve the .01 ml.... I've always thought this to be wrong and that it's supposed to be from 1.0 to .9.

The ca test now ships with an auto pipette which gets the 0.01 ml required.