Hanna checkers

Delphinus · #1 03-17-2014, 08:28 PM

+1 to the above comments. Alk is ridiculously easy and get good consistent results. Phosphorous ULR (where you have to multiply by 1000 and divide by 3.066 to get phosphate) is almost as easy to perform test but not quite (I find I will get variations in readings from one test to another, but if you think about it "ppb" is a VERY small resolution so it stands to reason there will have to be a small tolerance in values). Calcium is an easy test but has a few drawbacks, not the least that you need to distill 0.1ml of tank sample in "lab grade distilled water". Basically you are testing a droplet of water from your tank but diluted almost 50x (0.1ml into 5.0 ml) so accuracy is a bit of an issue especially given how sensitive it will be to possible contamination from your "lab grade distilled water" (I just use my own RO/DI which "ought" to be good enough...)

FishyFishy! · #2 03-17-2014, 09:29 PM

I was looking at the Hanna's too.

Does anyone have any experiences with the Red Sea kits?

freeze · #3 03-17-2014, 09:37 PM

I have them as well, have found the Hanna's way more consistent and easier. Red seas are okay but don't get the best or most consistent readings. They gave me a good ball park but nothing definate.

The Guy · #4 03-18-2014, 04:17 AM

I have the Hanna phos checker and find it good, the only thing is the little paks of regent . They are a PITA,

wish they would come up with a liquid regent so you could just use a drop or 2 instead of trying to get all that powder into the test bottle with out spilling part of it.
I use Salifert testers for the alk, cal & mag.

mrhasan · #5 03-18-2014, 05:03 AM

For alk, the accuracy of the device keeps me away (+/- 5% of the reading between 4.2 to 14). I keep my alk around 8 so that translates to an inaccuracy of up to +/- 0.4dkh. For a $60 machine, that's unacceptable to me.

Don't have any experience with Ca.

For PO4, I don't love it but I can't hate it either because of all the "guess the shade of green" test, hanna atleast get it "right" to some extend and I don't have to play the shades of green game.

Mark 972 · #6 03-21-2014, 04:57 PM

Bad experience with the Hanna calcium checker! It registered 600 so we stopped dosing. After some advice from other people in the hobby, we purchased 2 other test kits - Elos and Salifert. Tested and compared and calcium results - Hanna checker was out of this world and other 2 kits matched at 420.