I would like to thank the chemistry gods out there for making the most frequently tested tank parameter (other than temperature) which is alkalinity be such an easy test to do.
I would be inclined to buy the hanna nitrate checker if it had a better range. I guess its good to know that you have some nitrates so you're not bottoming out. If it were to go up to 15 or even 10 I would get it for sure. Great video as always.
Excellent video. I particularly appreciate not expecting professional level results from hobby level kits. A hanna checker is awesome, but its a few grand short of lab quality. A professional feild kits start anywhere from $500-1000 with a well stocked Lamott up to $2000 with somthing like the Hach CEL. And those are just for preliminary reading, accurate samples are taken back to the lab for things like lab grade colorimeters, conductivity meters, spectrophotometers, and membrane filtration methods. And the reminder that most of us don't need to chase that level of accuracy on a hobby scale
Here's a few other really useful tips for doing wet chemistry: 1) Instead of using a syringe to sample water, get some disposable 'Transfer Pipets' on Amazon, ebay, etc They're little plastic droppers that hold ~ 3 mL typically. 2) For rinsing vials, etc, get a "Wash Bottle", and fill it up with RO/DI and use that for rinsing. 3) This is a little more expensive, but get one, or a set (100 uL, 1 mL, 5 mL) of "Automatic Pipette" and corresponding disposable tips and use that instead of a syringe to measure out reagents in test kits. While you can spend $500 on a professional pipette, you can get pretty good ones for < $50 ea.
Yes storing the vials full of rodi after rinsing with rodi keeps them so clean! Then just dump and your ready to test. Really helps cut down kn the tjme for daily alk testing.
Thanks for the information guys.I will never buy from you guys as I am in Wales UK but you would be surprised how many of my local reefers love you guys.
A big thing that helped me is putting water into a cup and then bringing that over to my test kits so 1. I don’t contaminate my tank with reagents in tubes and 2. I don’t keep going back and forth to get 10mL of water.
My Hanna Alk consistently tested around 13dKH and I kept doing water changes and it wouldn’t drop..months later I suspected the reagent and used a Salifert and API and they tested 8.4 and 8...the Hanna still showed the same ~13dKH. Tossed the reagent
So I have to laugh about some of this. I have a trident which is great. However, recently my trident alk numbers have been trending upward. I pulled my dosing lines up and got out my hanna alk tester. Trident is still trending up but, Hanna shows it steady. So it gave me some peace of mind to have the back up and see that its something else I need to check before I get to wild and crazed with what's going on.
Another mistake: for those test kits that use syringes to measure amounts (note: not drops), it's a mistake to not invest in a high quality syringe that uses a PTFE seal (example is Hamilton syringes).
Not directly, but we do allow for the use of a mail forwarding service. Check out the link below for details. www.bulkreefsupply.com/international-shipping
I cannot figure out my daily dose for alkalinity I swear I have tried everything and it still fluctuates almost half a dkh, I am using the Hanna checker and the Neptune trident for testing, I hate “reading” colors, they are always so similar and always look different in different lighting so it’s so inaccurate, I do have to say I love the new Hanna nitrate checker
Since alkalinity gets consumed during the day when the corals are photosensitizing, it's normal to get some alkalinity fluctuation in a 24 hour period. If I were in your shoes, a 0.5 dKH alkalinity swing wouldn't cause me to lose sleep.
The information provided in the video on ICP test is incorrect(7). One: the amount of calcium in the sample does not change in 1-5 weeks. Two: ICP is very accurate for high thresholds but might fail for very small quantities(the machines have a threshold of detection so they cannot (truly) say X element is 0 , only that is lower than the detection threshold). Incorrect results happen depending on how you take your sample. For example adding any amount of biofilm(or any organic impurity) in the sample water is a big NO and will fuck up the results.
Another mistake is incorrect usage of syringes. Most syringes are "to dispense" not "to contain". If you guys don't have a video on proper use of a syringe, you should consider making one.
It's just a titration where you're looking for a visible color change. You don't need a Hamilton syringe (or really any syringe) to do these tests and is a waste of money.
Matt Why would you waste money on a piece of analytical equipment when you’re not using analytical chemistry grade glassware, standard solutions that may or may not have been prepared to analytical chemistry standards, and in a test where you’re not even using analytical methods to measure the result? That’s like buying a multi-thousand dollar autotitrator and using it without standard solutions that were prepared using analytical methods. And manual titrations aren’t even done with syringes. They are done with calibrated Class A burettes. Are you going to recommend to people they buy those?
I would be inclined to buy the hanna nitrate checker if it had a better range. I guess its good to know that you have some nitrates so you're not bottoming out. If it were to go up to 15 or even 10 I would get it for sure. Great video as always.
