AWT Testing....

[suasati]

This is the reply I got from AWT...
================================

Many Reef Clubs will take advantage of the pre-pay subscriptons. There is a discount for pre-paying a years worth of monthly or weekly testing. You can ask that we send the entire years worth of Sample Submission Packs at the time of pre-payment. You can send them back to us all at once or at your own pace. This seems to work very well.

Thanks for your interest in our services and let me know if I can be helpful at all.

Jeremy Redmond
Customer Service
AquariumWaterTesting.com

=====================================================


Here are their rates....

One-Time ---- $34.99
ref Kit (4 tests) ---- $99.99 ($25 per test)
Monthly(12 tests) ---- $254.99 ($22.50 per test)
Weekly(48 tests) ---- $899.99 ($20 per test)

Each sampletest will contain two bottles and individual boxes with self addressed postage. We can request all boxes at the same time, you take the boxes home fill in the info and send it to them with the water that need testing. They will send a pdf file with the report to your email. List below are all the elements they will test for...

- Ammonia
- Nitrite
- Nitrate
- Phosphate
- Silica
- Alkalinity
- Calcium
- Potassium
- Magnesium
- Strontium
- Molybdenum
- Iodine
- Copper
- Boron

---

Here is their website, they have a sample report in their website. If there is enough interest we can proceed.

 

[showtime305]

Seems nice. If my dad wasn't in the the Bahamas I would send my water to be tested in his lab. It would be nice to get a lab grade test done to verify my kits accuracy.

 

[dkelly]

I've heard that samples can change dramatically over time and temp changes. Does this company somehow take this into account when they process your samples?

 

[suasati]

dkelly;85477 wrote: I've heard that samples can change dramatically over time and temp changes. Does this company somehow take this into account when they process your samples?

I don't know you will have to ask them that...

 

[dannybradley]

It's an interesting idea, but 100 to 1000 times greater accuracy is subjective to how accurate the tests already are. If your Seachem calcium test is accurate to 5ppm, do you really need to be 1000 times more accurate than that?

 

[suasati]

Lamotte alk test gives me 132ppm (7.392dKh) and salifert gives me 8.6dKh.

Lamotte calcium testkit give me 490ppm salifert gives me 430ppm and API gives me 460ppm.....

so what is my cal/alk reading?

Trying to get an accurate reading on PO4 and NO3 is ridiculous, and How many here know what their K+ reading is? Some may see it useful some maynot. This would give you a baseline to compare to your testkit thats all....

 

[dannybradley]

With that, I would agree. I did the math the other day. I've probably run over 21,000 liquid reagent tests. I've refined my methods and had Seachem training on their tests. I don't see much varience between different brands. It's all in how the test is performed.

 

[suasati]

DannyBradley;85556 wrote: . I don't see much varience between different brands. It's all in how the test is performed.

Yes I have been testing with the same difference for the past year, that is why I am requesting some help from AWT> and I would like to know where my K+ is at and also to baseline my potassium test kit.

 

[skriz]

This is an email that they sent to another guy; it addresses some issues people have brought up:

In regards to equipment in use for the aquarium water testing, here is what I gathered this morning.

Hach DR series Spectrophotometers and AutoTitrators
Denver Instrument 200 series meters
Jennco & Denver Instrument Ion Specific Probes

All equipment is tested against reference solutions on a weekly basis and re-calibrated as is necessary. In the case of parameters checked by the Spectrophotometers, the unit is additionally zeroed out before each test with a sample of your water.

We do not sell or share our client list, as I'm sure you both understand and appreciate. This is a relatively new service but I can tell you that we now serve a fair cross-section of hobyists whom have sited a variety of reasons for signing up. Some use our analysis to benchmark their own testing efforts, some use it to establish and verify maintenance and dosing routines, and some see it as an insurance policy.

The collection process is rather simple, just fill the bottles with your water, close it tightly and drop it in the mail...we get it in 2 days and test it immediately. You mentioned in your question the effect of die-off shifting the accuracy of the ammonia during transit. Let me share with you the answer to this quesiton as passed on to me by a staff marine biologist here at AWT:


As far as ammonia in the sample is concerned, it is true that any organisms in the sample bottles that are collected, should they die in transit, would contribute ammonia to the sample. However, there are a few things to consider here. First, the home ammonia test that you are likely currently using, if it is a high quality test kit, reads in increments of 0.1ppm. The equipment that we are using is 1000 times as accurate, but the acceptable range for ammonia is up to 0.05mg/L. What this means is that while your test kit may read zero, you could actually be anywhere from zero up to around 0.08. This is an example of the limitations of home test kits. Given that our equipment is considerably more sensitive, it will almost always find some ammonia in any sample, but unless the water sample you pulled came from the interstitial spaces in your substrate, or contained such an enormous amount of bacteria that your water is cloudy, the ammonia reading will still be within acceptable parameters, and the effect of die-off during shipping could be “waved-off” as negligible. The results that you get would still be 100 to 1000 times as accurate as a home test kit.

Please understand that were we looking at this service from an aquatic toxicology paradigm, there would be an extensive amount of sample preparation, including micron filtration, acid Ph fixation, and sample refrigeration. This kind of service would be extremely cost prohibitive for regular testing. This is not what we are providing. We are providing a level of water analysis that is considerably more accurate than what is available to hobbyists using home test kits, recognizing that the margin for error will still leave the testing results considerably more precise that what you get at home, while maintaining a price point that is within the range of the serious hobbyist.

I hope this helps Dave and please let me know if anything needs more clarification or if any other questions come up as you share this with your group.

Thanks again for your time considering and discussing our service!

Jeremy Redmond
Customer Service
AquariumWaterTesting.com

I'm with you Anand, I'd like to know where my test results are compared to a lab. I'd be up for getting a couple of tests done.

 

[showtime305]

I'm in for a test.

 

[izib]

Im in.

 

[tim8111]

If there is enough interest in this, I could get a colorimeter and do testing for everyones water as often as they wanted. I have looked at a few of these devices and think it could be a valuable services to our group. How many of you guys would be interested in this as a local service instead of shipping the sample?

- Tim

 

[wbholwell]

tim8111;85721 wrote: If there is enough interest in this, I could get a colorimeter and do testing for everyones water as often as they wanted. I have looked at a few of these devices and think it could be a valuable services to our group. How many of you guys would be interested in this as a local service instead of shipping the sample?

- Tim

Tim, I was thinking of the same thing. This sounds like a great idea. If you do it I'll throw a few bucks your way to help offset the cost.

 

[tim8111]

wbholwell;85727 wrote: Tim, I was thinking of the same thing. This sounds like a great idea. If you do it I'll throw a few bucks your way to help offset the cost.

What I was thinking was, there would be a small fee to cover the reagents and the device's cost per test. I could still do it for less than the AWT. I am not trying to make money off of the offer, but I can't throw over $1,000 around and not get it back.

- Tim

 

[dave green]

Over $1,000 for a tester???? This hobby can get expensive!

I picked the wrong week to quit smoking crack!

 

[tim8111]

davidbgreen;85746 wrote: Over $1,000 for a tester???? This hobby can get expensive!

I picked the wrong week to quit smoking crack!

For the multi parameter colorimeters, by the time you get a decent one and 10 or 15 different reagent kits for testing. Some are even more. :doh:

 

[wbholwell]

tim8111;85730 wrote: What I was thinking was, there would be a small fee to cover the reagents and the device's cost per test. I could still do it for less than the AWT. I am not trying to make money off of the offer, but I can't throw over $1,000 around and not get it back.

- Tim

Whoa, I thought you were talking about this one:

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+4345+15437&pcatid=15437">http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+4345+15437&pcatid=15437</a>

If you do get the colorimeter, though, I'd love to get some occasional testing done through you.

 

[tim8111]

wbholwell;85760 wrote: Whoa, I thought you were talking about this one:

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+4345+15437&pcatid=15437">http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+4345+15437&pcatid=15437</a>

If you do get the colorimeter, though, I'd love to get some occasional testing done through you.[/QUOTE]

I was looking at a multi like this one
[IMG]http://www.hach.com/hc/search.product.details.invoker/VendorProductCode=4847000/View=PRODUCT_OVERVIEW/NewLinkLabel=DR%26frasl%3B890+Portable+Colorimeter/PREVIOUS_BREADCRUMB_ID=HC_SEARCH_PRODUCT4845000/SESSIONID%7CBURBMk5qVXlNU1puZFdWemRGZFhUVmhYTVRFNU1RPT1DVFV3TQ==%7C">http://www.hach.com/hc/search.product.details.invoker/VendorProductCode=4847000/View=PRODUCT_OVERVIEW/NewLinkLabel=DR%26frasl%3B890+Portable+Colorimeter/PREVIOUS_BREADCRUMB_ID=HC_SEARCH_PRODUCT4845000/SESSIONID|BURBMk5qVXlNU1puZFdWemRGZFhUVmhYTVRFNU1RPT1DVFV3TQ==|</a>

Or

[IMG]http://hannainst.com/usa/prods2.cfm?id=030003&ProdCode=HI%2083200&test=1">http://hannainst.com/usa/prods2.cfm?id=030003&ProdCode=HI%2083200&test=1</a>


These would test every chemical we could want to test and then some. If your going to do something do it right or not at all. :)

Maybe I should do a poll and see about the frequency people would like to do water testing. Something with the choices of Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, or Annually?

- Tim

 

[suasati]

You initial costs with reagents would be pushing 2000, I am not sure it would be worth it... You will need to do 100+ tests at $20 to break even.... but the only problem I have is neither does K+ or Stronium, which I am interested in....

 

[tim8111]

SuAsati;85787 wrote: You initial costs with reagents would be pushing 2000, I am not sure it would be worth it... You will need to do 100+ tests at $20 to break even.... but the only problem I have is neither does K+ or Stronium, which I am interested in....

I know it would be close to 100 test to break even. I was doing the math earlier. The DR/890 has 10 user programmable test which I was reading about. Fairly complicated stuff, but it allows you to take any color based test an translate it on the colorimeter. Cool stuff, but we can see where it goes.