Trident Help

[hiimsean]

So I’ve been running my trident for almost a week not. From the start the alk numbers have been low, consistently 5.5-5.6. I used my Hanna twice and got 7.75 which is normal from previous tests. Even my Red Sea test read about 7.5. So I waited to calibrate to today and after running with the calibration fluids it’s read 6.6 the last two readings. I’ve read people having issues calibrating it when there’s a large difference and it doesn’t “like” calibrating more than 1 dkh. Has anyone else had a similar experience? I’m going to let it run for a few days and recalibrate to see if it will come up again. I also plan on testing the calibration fluid with my Hanna checker tomorrow. Any tips going forward.
It was used for about 4 months when I purchased it.

btw, it did hit 7.9 with 7.75 calibration fluid

 

[Rainblood]

did you prime the sample line with the calibration fluid?

 

[hiimsean]

I thought I did but that’s something I will double check when I recalibrate. Thanks for the heads up

how much should those three swing in a day? All is usually a +/- .3 it looks like. Cal is all over the place

 

[Rainblood]

Did you do a water change? All three spiked at the same time

 

[hiimsean]

That’s when I did the calibration

 

[Rainblood]

Pre calibration lines seem fine to me. I wouldn’t stress over fluctuations

 

[Atalien2005]

There are some articles that talk about the trident calibration solution not being accurate to the number printed on the bottle. What I start doing is calibrating to my trusted tool (Hanna) and using those numbers when inputting into the trident. Results are much more consistent after I started doing that.

 

[hiimsean]

so I recalibrated making sure to prime the line with the calibration fluid and got similar reedings but my alk and calcium stared reading higher. All went from 5.6 to 6.6. Calcium went 350 to 380ish. Calcium seems to be close to my Hanna but alk is still low. I was reading 7.7 on alk. I tested the calibration fluid with my Hanna and the bottle claimed 7.75 but read 9.35. I’ve checked against my Red Sea kit and I get fairly close to my tank water alk. I assume the whole issue is the calibration fluid.