Reliable testing at a LFS

[popsbjd]

Do any LFS do reliable water testing? I realized this weekend my nitrate and phosphate reagents are expired. This might explain the dinos I'm experiencing. I'm hoping to find a spot that can get me real numbers on nitrate and phosphate so I know if I need to do water changes or feed more.

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[firethorn77]

Premier has tested mine in the past with the Red Sea kits

 

[popsbjd]

I went to Premier and they tested my water with strips. Frankly, I was pretty disappointed. I don't mind paying for a test if I can rely on the result. I'm hoping somewhere uses something reliable. I'm dealing with dinos and I've gotten differing reading on nitrate from near 0 to 12. I need to know if I need to do water changes or not right now.

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[Adam]

I have been pretty disappointed with several of the tests I've gotten done locally myself. Sometimes good sometimes not so much. The test results are only going to be as good as the person doing the testing. Also when a store is busy it's harder to get quality set of tests done, getting there earlier in the day helps some. Pure Reef generally tends to do a better job overall from what I've seen. Don't be afraid to ask questions or to have a test repeated if you think it may not have been done right.

 

[sharis100]

Does any store locally use the Reefbot for testing? That big giant store version? I am sure those test results would be more exact since it is a machine and not a person doing the testing.

 

[Adam]

Not that I know of. That would be great though!

 

[Eric_n_Ga]

I can say this . I took a 1 liter bottle to 3 stores in ATL in one day and got conflicting results from all 3 . Not only was I unable to get a full water test done by any of them ,the tests they did do were all over the place. Not to mention nobody that did the actual test sounded confident in the results .

That was also the day I ordered my Hannah checkers

 

[popsbjd]

I can say this . I took a 1 liter bottle to 3 stores in ATL in one day and got conflicting results from all 3 . Not only was I unable to get a full water test done by any of them ,the tests they did do were all over the place. Not to mention nobody that did the actual test sounded confident in the results .

That was also the day I ordered my Hannah checkers

Yeah, probably what I'm going to end up doing. I generally do alk and calcium 3× each to get a solid answer on my red sea kits. So hard to read the color change sometimes.

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[Eric_n_Ga]

Yeah, probably what I'm going to end up doing. I generally do alk and calcium 3× each to get a solid answer on my red sea kits. So hard to read the color change sometimes.

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I'm red green color blind so I had no option really .

 

[sharis100]

GHL is coming out with the ion director in March. It is supposed to be reagent free, but I don’t use GHL products so I don’t really know too much about it.
Maybe the ARC should invest in a commercial Reefbot or partner with a sponsor to get one and have a place where we can all go to get reliable results???

 

[ZapataInc]

GHL is coming out with the ion director in March. It is supposed to be reagent free, but I don’t use GHL products so I don’t really know too much about it.
Maybe the ARC should invest in a commercial Reefbot or partner with a sponsor to get one and have a place where we can all go to get reliable results???

I like that idea.

 

[Adam]

It is a good idea. I just worry about up keep and the operators in most of the LSF's.

I got more confident with my testing procedures when I saw ICP results that matched up with mine that were within the margin of error of the test kits.
I suffer from colorblindness too. So I need to have my wife help me with some of them.

I would love an easy and accurate nitrate test.

 

[sharis100]

It is a good idea. I just worry about up keep and the operators in most of the LSF's.

I got more confident with my testing procedures when I saw ICP results that matched up with mine that were within the margin of error of the test kits.
I suffer from colorblindness too. So I need to have my wife help me with some of them.

I would love an easy and accurate nitrate test.

I have no idea of the cost of the commercial Reefbot, which is why I suggested teaming up with an LFS, or maybe this is something the club might consider? I just know that it is a very consistent machine that uses commercially available tests and the machine once calibrated never varies and can test multiple samples.

 

[popsbjd]

Depending on cost/portability, it could be something brought to club meetings for supporting members. It would be great if there was a solid place locally to get test results validated. I know ICP tests are available but that requires sending samples off through the mail.

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[york1]

Do any of you use the Hannah checker for calcium? I have the hannah checker for alk and phosphates and like em. Ive just heard some stories of the calcium checker not being accurate

 

[ZapataInc]

Do any of you use the Hannah checker for calcium? I have the hannah checker for alk and phosphates and like em. Ive just heard some stories of the calcium checker not being accurate

I'm using a Hanna calcium checker. I've had some reading that's I thought were not right. But I did the test again and got another reading. I double checked that reading with a Salifert test. And it was reasonably close. So it was probably my test taking skills being horrible.

 

[Adam]

The Hanna Cal checker is very accurate if every step is followed with exact measurements. There are 3 main areas that are prone to human error. The 1ml of reagent, 9ml of rodi water and 0.1ml tank water sample. Any variances and the test is off, especially with the 0.1ml sample. It's so small the if it's off the littlest amount the swing in the results can be big.

Since they upgraded the kit to include a 100um pipette it made the test a lot easier to preform. But even the smallest extra drop will drive the result reported up.

 

[bzb]

Reefbot looks really cool but I was following a couple threads on R2R and it looks like it's pretty "beta" IMO. Lots of little issues for early adopters, but it looks like Reefbot is trying to make it right.

I don't know if I'd want to take that risk for $900 to however much the commercial version costs.

 

[bzb]

The Hanna Cal checker is very accurate if every step is followed with exact measurements. There are 3 main areas that are prone to human error. The 1ml of reagent, 9ml of rodi water and 0.1ml tank water sample. Any variances and the test is off, especially with the 0.1ml sample. It's so small the if it's off the littlest amount the swing in the results can be big.

Since they upgraded the kit to include a 100um pipette it made the test a lot easier to preform. But even the smallest extra drop will drive the result reported up.

I love the Hanna Alk checker, and the Copper checker is super clutch (even if those packets are terrible). The process and the expense of these reagents is what steered me away from the Hanna Calcium, because if you do fat finger any of them, a second test is pricey.

I'm using a variety of test kits. I always figured the little scoops were my issue, but I'm more convinced after running them more that it's actually the droplet sizes of the reagents. I've restarted tests for the droplet sputters, but every once in a while the drops definitely seem larger or smaller than others.

Enough to cause a major swing in your results? Probably not. Enough to make a noob like me concerned with fluctuating values within the margin of error? Definitely.

 

[Adam]

I love the Hanna Alk checker, and the Copper checker is super clutch (even if those packets are terrible). The process and the expense of these reagents is what steered me away from the Hanna Calcium, because if you do fat finger any of them, a second test is pricey.

I'm using a variety of test kits. I always figured the little scoops were my issue, but I'm more convinced after running them more that it's actually the droplet sizes of the reagents. I've restarted tests for the droplet sputters, but every once in a while the drops definitely seem larger or smaller than others.

Enough to cause a major swing in your results? Probably not. Enough to make a noob like me concerned with fluctuating values within the margin of error? Definitely.

Yes, the cost per test is about the highest. I'm colorblind and to do the other titration tests I've got to have someone else around. For me, the convenience factor weighs into the cost. For the Big three I keep other test kits around. If something doesn't look right with the results I get, I verify with follow up tests to verify before dosing.