New Trident vs old hanna, dkh values

[Anubisxii]

I recently picked up a Neptune Trident and got it installed yesterday around noon. I've been checking those results against my Hannah checker for alk and my Trident saying my alkalinity is 8.2 my hanna checker is showing 7.4.

I have not run the calibration fluid through it yet as it does state to wait 24 to 48 hours, I think in this case I might wait till 48 hours.

I'm just wondering what people's experience have been with running the Trident before calibrating it and if they saw a difference like this. My only concern is I've constantly ran my tank at 8.2 DKH based on the Hannah and it's now showing 7.4. I did add some alkalinity just to bring it back up as I didn't want to stress any of my SPS. But again I'm just wondering what other people's experiences have been when it comes to installing the trident and reading what it is judging the water parameters are.

Thanks.

 

[Spieg]

Calibration is your friend. Do you have any test solution you can use with the Hanna in the mean time? I wouldn't go making changes to water based on an uncalibrated test.

 

[Dan_P]

I recently picked up a Neptune Trident and got it installed yesterday around noon. I've been checking those results against my Hannah checker for alk and my Trident saying my alkalinity is 8.2 my hanna checker is showing 7.4.

I have not run the calibration fluid through it yet as it does state to wait 24 to 48 hours, I think in this case I might wait till 48 hours.

I'm just wondering what people's experience have been with running the Trident before calibrating it and if they saw a difference like this. My only concern is I've constantly ran my tank at 8.2 DKH based on the Hannah and it's now showing 7.4. I did add some alkalinity just to bring it back up as I didn't want to stress any of my SPS. But again I'm just wondering what other people's experiences have been when it comes to installing the trident and reading what it is judging the water parameters are.

Thanks.

Do you have enough calibration fluid to test with the Trident AND Hanna?

 

[Reef man 89]

After your calibration of the trident there will still be just under half the bottle of fluid left. Take the remaining calibration fluid and run it in you Hanna. You will be able to see how accurate it is knowing what the checker should read.

 

[Reef man 89]

This is what I got in my checker

 

[Anubisxii]

I have not ran the calibration yet, I do have the fluid. I will do it tomorrow afternoon after the 48 hour mark. I appreciate all your input!

 

[aznreef99]

I test ca, kh and mg manual with salifert test kits and use those numbers and left over liquid to calibrate Trident. Spot on.

 

[sdreef]

I recently picked up a Neptune Trident and got it installed yesterday around noon. I've been checking those results against my Hannah checker for alk and my Trident saying my alkalinity is 8.2 my hanna checker is showing 7.4.

I have not run the calibration fluid through it yet as it does state to wait 24 to 48 hours, I think in this case I might wait till 48 hours.

I'm just wondering what people's experience have been with running the Trident before calibrating it and if they saw a difference like this. My only concern is I've constantly ran my tank at 8.2 DKH based on the Hannah and it's now showing 7.4. I did add some alkalinity just to bring it back up as I didn't want to stress any of my SPS. But again I'm just wondering what other people's experiences have been when it comes to installing the trident and reading what it is judging the water parameters are.

Thanks.

I ran the same test when setting up my trident. The trident gave me a value of 7.5 and the hanna checker was 7.7. The hanna dKh is +/- 0.3 and the trident +/- .05 so it fell within the range of precision for both checkers.

 

[Brett S]

How much of the Hanna reagent do you have left? I believe that the hanna checker tends to read low as the reagent ages. If you only have a little left and it was first opened some time ago then that could be the issue. If you have a new reagent for the Hanna meter you might want to check with that.

Additionally, I just wanted to remind you that stability is key. Whether your alkalinity is at 7.4 or at 8.2 doesn’t really matter that much as long as it is stable. If you want to change the alkalinity then that’s fine, but do it slowly and over time. Don’t just assume that it’s suddenly low and make a knee jerk reaction to raise it. As long as you aren’t seeing issues with your corals just slowly raise it to get it where you want it.

 

[Anubisxii]

I went ahead and ran the calibration last night and everything is spot on there was a 0.1 difference between my Hannah checker and the Trident with the calibration fluid that was provided after calibrating the trident.

I even drain the sample line and ran another test with the aquarium water versus the Hannah checker and they were still just 0.1 DKH off which is totally fine I can live with that.

Thank you for all your help and advice I do appreciate it.

 

[ca1ore]

I have found the hanna alk checker to vary quite significantly .... particularly with older (but still within the expiration) reagent. Accuracy with all these things is tricky unless you have a standard to calibrate to. Accepting that the trident calibration solution is actually what it says it is, that seems like a better approach than assuming that you hanna, salifert, etc. test kits are accurate.

I do think that novice reefers get too hung up on absolutes. My trident keeps alk between 8.4 and 8.8. Whether it’s is actually that I cannot say, but whatever level it really is the tank observably looks happy.