What to believe?

[Steven91]

So, I've been using the trident for about 3 months now, and noticed my calcium was sky high so decided to not dose calcium and just let it fall naturally. Still having an issue with sky high cal, or so I thought. Today, decided to compare my trident against my Hannah checker for Alk and Cal, and Aquaforest for my Mag and here is what i found:

Trident Hanna
9.1 9.5 DKh This to me seems in range of error
734 515 ppm Cal This seems way off from each other, not even in range of error. Did test again with 2nd sample and same result
1587 2250 ppm Mag Again, seems way off. Went through 1ML of reagent and started against with another 1ML reagent and got about half way through before finally reaching end result


So, is the trident that wildly off, or something else? Trident pulls from my sump, while my samples were pulled from display, but that should not effect the results to even that great of an margin. Just been dosing B-Ionic Alk as been waiting for calcium to fall. Water changes done with Instant Ocean

 

[Doctorgori]

You using the Hanna Ca checker? If so; Don’t trust Hanna CA I can tell you that, its garbage and hopefully more post will chime in.
Hannas got a Mg checker?

 

[reef lover]

Have you calibrated it recently??

 

[homer1475]

I was going to say the same thing about the hanna calcium checker. A couple drops(heck even 1 drop extra, or less) can throw the results way off.

I personally like salifert for CAL, and MAG. Easy to use, and very repeatable results.

 

[homer1475]

MAG levels with IO doesn't surprise me. Test your fresh mix, it's probably in the 1500 range.

I use regular old purple box IO(have for years) and I never have to supplement MAG. As a matter of fact it's usually on the high side(upwards of 1300, but typically in the 1500 range).

 

[Steven91]

You using the Hanna Ca checker? If so; Don’t trust Hanna CA I can tell you that, its garbage and hopefully more post will chime in.
Hannas got a Mg checker?

No Hanna does not have Mg, using Aquaforest. I'm gonna take a sample up to my lfs to see what they get

Have you calibrated it recently??

Did calibrated, was reading the same levels, just put new stuff in so waiting the 48hrs to calibrate it again

MAG levels with IO doesn't surprise me. Test your fresh mix, it's probably in the 1500 range.

I use regular old purple box IO(have for years) and I never have to supplement MAG. As a matter of fact it's usually on the high side(upwards of 1300, but typically in the 1500 range).

Might consider switching salts as my levels feel extremely high, over 2k mag

 

[reef lover]

No Hanna does not have Mg, using Aquaforest. I'm gonna take a sample up to my lfs to see what they get



Did calibrated, was reading the same levels, just put new stuff in so waiting the 48hrs to calibrate it again



Might consider switching salts as my levels feel extremely high, over 2k mag

Last time I swapped reagent it said my cal was over 650...recalibrated making sure to prime sample line before and after and its reading true now at 450.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Might consider switching salts as my levels feel extremely high, over 2k mag

You are suggesting you have over 2,000 ppm magnesium in Instant Ocean? That's not anywhere close to normal for IO. Might be testing error, or less likely, a bad batch.

 

[Steven91]

Last time I swapped reagent it said my cal was over 650...recalibrated making sure to prime sample line before and after and its reading true now at 450.

Okay, after a new reagent in the trident (going to calibrate tomorrow) everything is looking normal. 8.8 alk, 515 cal, and 1780 mag. Seems to be more in line with that in getting in my tests and all seem realistic. Though might have to change dosing for a little until that mag drop