I hate test kits!!

the first time i got my tank home and set up, i discovered how much i hated test kits, phosphate, calcium, alkalinity, ph, and so on,
then came the hanna phosphate checker and i got it and used it, wow, man did i love it, now i have the calcium and alkalinity checkers under the christmas tree and i can't wait to use them, i never thought i would say that about a tester, i will let yall know how they worked out, thank you hanna

 

i know what you mean the color guessing game on most test kits is a real pain. i have the hanna phos and alk love getting an actual number reading.
the cal seems complicated, so i passed on that one. am looking forward to hearing what you think of the cal checker

 

yea when i first read it it seemed complicated, the cal that is, then i watched a video on it at brs and it looked simple so i ordered it, i will let ya know what i think after christmas, my wife won't let me at them until then,

 

The alk checker is great. A lot of people have issues with the ca checker. The problem is that is uses a tiny amount of sample, relative to the total volume. And the total volume is mostly RO/DI water. If there is any ca left in the RO/DI water, or if you rinse the test tube, or equipment in say tap water, you can get residual ca from the RO/DI, or tap water. The smallest amount can raise the ca reading significantly.

I've found though, if I make RO/DI specifically for the checker, sealed in it's own storage container, so that it doesn't get contaminated. And rinse all the equipment, except the syringe used to get sample, in RO/DI before use. Then flush, the sample syringe with tank water a few times before use. Doing this gives very good results. However, before doing so, I was getting readings about 100ppm too high. This was just from residual ca, from rinsing equipment in tap water.

 

RODI doesn't remove calcium at all from what I understand. It basically depends on your water supply. And like you stated even a very small amount of Ca in your water supply and it will throw the results.

 

well in my mind could we first check the ro water to see if it has cal and + or - the results on the actual test if needed, and also residue in the vial would affect all digital test phosphate, alk, and so on, there could be trace amounts of all dts compounds in the vial could there not. in my mind it would still give a better read then a color chart, i've added a review here it seems like a fair review.

Mr. Saltwater Tank Reviews the Hanna Calcium Checker - YouTube

 

RO/DI does remove calcium along withe everything else excepct pure water.

Hanna checkers DO NOT work well on ultrapure water like RO/DI or distilled. Like any other hobbysist grade tester or kit, they are only intended for and accurate on saltwater or tap water containing enough ions to be tested. It takes tens or hundreds of thousands of $$ on equipment to get any accuracy when testing RO/DI and thats why we uses conductivity/resistivity or TDS to measure the sum or total of everything present.

 

thanks for clearing that up az

 

hanna says to use deionized water with the cal test. maybe its best to buy a bottle of it. not sure how much difference the ro/di makes

 

after using them wow

well i just got thru using the calcium and alk checker from hanna i was impressed with them, its so nice to get a number reading, i also dose my first BRS 2 part additives they were nice also, being able to calulate just what you need in cal a,lk and mag to hit the target is great, so i highly recommend the hanna cal, phosphate and alk checkers.

i'm gonna tell you a truth, i haven't check them for years, so these were the readings
cal 420
dkh 4.8
phos 2
so i'm gonna go for 480, 7 to 10 and 0
i'll let ya know about the BRS 2 part later