Hanna Calcium Checker Review

Dowtish · Aug 16, 2011

you mean Salifert Cheng?

Dowtish · Aug 16, 2011

CJO said:
Check your raw RO/DI water for calcium. If there is any calcium in it, it can greatly affect the results.

CJ

I think that this may be the reason that everyone is getting different results. I don't have a personal RO/DI system and so I get my water from 3 different places, so who knows what the heck is really going on!?

poolkeeper1 · Aug 16, 2011

Does a saltwater Calcium test work on RODI water?? To get a proper reading do you need a special test kit for freshwater?? I have never heard of using a Salifert for fresh water Hmmm Seems this tester is not reliable enough to abandon my current way of testing for Ca.
JMO
Bill

pickupman66 · Aug 16, 2011

that does seem really sketchy....

mapn4reef · Aug 31, 2011

Mr. Saltwatertank input: Mr. Saltwater Tank Reviews the Hanna Calcium Checker

Dowtish · Aug 31, 2011

Mr. Saltwater Tank is a liar!:squigglemouth:

poolkeeper1 · Aug 31, 2011

Dowtish said:
Mr. Saltwater Tank is a liar!:squigglemouth:

lol, Too many shills for dubius reasons JMHO
Bill

pickupman66 · Aug 31, 2011

as far as the number of drops, use the tiny tip you had for your salifert kit. you will end up with like 5 drops of tank water instead

Dowtish · Sep 19, 2011

pickupman66 said:
as far as the number of drops, use the tiny tip you had for your salifert kit. you will end up with like 5 drops of tank water instead

It has now been confirmed by Hanna themselves that they screwed up on the type of syringe they included with this test kit. they are now advising going to a pharmacy and getting diabetic syringes in order to drop the right amount of saltwater into the cuvette. (lame)

And yes Bill, you can use a salifert cal. kit to test fresh, RO/DI water. I have tested mine and there wasn't enough in their to matter, maybe had to adjust my results by 5ppm.

pickupman66 · Sep 19, 2011

well, glad they solved it..

fsu1dolfan · Oct 17, 2011

Hey everyone - Figured i would share some new results from this weekend. I went and bought a new API calcium tester since i felt like the hanna checker was not really working for me. On Friday i dropped by RC and found these pictures and instructions posted by hanna Calcium Checker Optimization - Reef Central Online Community I printed them out and decided to see one last time if the checker was worth it. To my surprise API was 420 and the checker was 436. I definitely watched the lines more carefully to make sure it was exact as possible. I also used RO water instead of distilled. Not sure what made a difference but it was IMHO the most accurate result i have achieved. I also noticed that one difference was the 10ml line. I never use to make sure the "meniscus " was just above the line...i use to even it out with the line. Also i noticed that .1ml equals two drops from the syringe consistently. Again not sure what made it work but i plan to do it that way every time. Maybe it isn't so bad.

Dowtish · Oct 17, 2011

Corresponding video
[video=youtube;LGjpicL6hTk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGjpicL6hTk[/video]

m and m · Oct 20, 2011

So are these worth it?

Reef Breeders · Oct 27, 2011

Definitely, I love mine

Dowtish · Dec 6, 2011

About 3 quarters into this video we get to hear directly from a Hanna rep about the Cal. checker

[video=youtube;4v5-FPMQRYY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4v5-FPMQRYY[/video]

rcmike · Dec 6, 2011

Good info. I'm going to have to give mine another go. A couple of times I got good results where I thought they should be but a couple of times it maxed out the meter at 600!

LeoLionFish · Dec 6, 2011

I so cant wait until Macna 2012!!! Is anyone from the club going?? I smell roadtrip!!

Travis D.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

H@rry · Dec 6, 2011

Also on the video is an interview with Philip Root. I remember him from when he and a partner ran a LFS in Rainbow City, AL. He's really come a long way!

Dowtish · Dec 6, 2011

rcmike said:
Good info. I'm going to have to give mine another go. A couple of times I got good results where I thought they should be but a couple of times it maxed out the meter at 600!

Same with me. I have gone to the pharmacy and gotten a bag of 1ml diabetic syringes, and by using those it has been much more reliable. But I have also found that there is residual calcium in the RO/DI that I get. So I have contacted Hanna through email and asked for some of their lab grade RO/DI...I'll update here when and if I hear back from them.

Dowtish · Dec 8, 2011

Well I got a reply to my email asking for some of their lab grade RO/DI. and this is what is said....

Hi Chris,
Thank you for choosing Hanna! We have two sizes available:
HI 70436: $17, 3.75 Liters
HI 70436M: $9.75, 230 mL

We have both in stock now.

Not that I was asking for much, but I figured they might want to send me some to see if I was happier with my results with the checker. So, I guess I will have to pay for it, if I want to see the difference in the results.