Water Testing Kit Questions

Still the newbie trying to learn...

This weekend's task is to upgrade and round out my water test kits to some extent.

First, I looked at the Pinpoint monitors for various measurements and the grand total price tag is more than I can swing right now financially. So it will have to be drops and test tubes with a few exceptions.

I am planning on the following and wanted to get everyone's advice before spending the money.

Questions:
1) pH and ORP: I was thinking of the Hanna Instruments Combination pH/ORP Tester for $55 on eBay.

PH/ORP/TEMP Tester HANNAH INTRUMENTS - eBay (item 280440063106 end time Dec-27-09 10:12:58 PST)

For both measurements it seemed like a fair value. Anyone have any experience with this unit??

2) For Salinity, I was thinking of the following refractometer for $20 on eBay

http://cgi.ebay.com/Salinity-Refrac...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item4cecaaf3b6

I can't see a difference in price on the different refractometers. On the other hand, am I eventually going to get a Pinpoint and should I bite the bullet now and spend the extra $90 to get it??

3) For the remainder of tests that I am missing: Phosphates, Calcium, Magnesium... I was going to buy Elos kits since they are sold individually. I have the other tests I think that I need (Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, dKH/Alk).

So.... it that a reasonable starting point?? What else should I be doing or doing differently???

Thanks
Mark

 

Bump... anyone??

 

i really like my elos a lot better than my api would reccommend

 

not to sure but ill give ya a bump

 

Hanna Instruments makes a fine product. Their Photometer is the only accurate way to to measure phosphates. Not sure about the selected pH / ORP / Temp meter, but being as it's the same company (confirm there's no H at the end), I would say go for it.

The refract looks good as well. Same as some others I've seen locally. I'm switching my test kits from API to Salifert.

 

Sounds good to me. Personally I would look at getting a controller that has a pH and ORP probe rather than separate units, unless you have multiple tanks you want to monitor.

As for test kits I use a mix of Elos and Salifert, I like both generally although I prefer one brand or the other for different kits. I think most refractometers are about the same quality just make sure it has automatic temperature compensation, also I would recommend getting a calibration solution to calibrate it.
Aquarium refractometer - English

 

I just use DI water fro calibrating my refractometer. I monitor PH on my AC Jr. It does not have ORP, but I would be curious what mine is. Don't really want to buy a meter then. I used API, but no more. Most folks love Saliferts and I agree. I like them much more. Alk/Ca are easy.

I just went through the whole phosphate thing. Bought a Merck kit for $80, yet I don't see any difference in the part of the scale that matters. .3 and below. All other PO4 kits just measure gross and are useless for our needs. Someone said the color graduations are better on the Elos. I guess give it a try. The PO4 Hanna meter will read down to .001, but it has a +/- of .04 accuracy. Well most people agree they are accurate, but that again tells me I have real high to what I should have.

So now that I went through all that, I don't really care what my PO4 is. Made the decision to run GFO. I'll run it and that's it.

 

A single "point in time" ORP reading is useless. To use ORP, you want to see changes over time or trends. However, for temperature and pH, they make a nice unit.