Hanna Nitrate HR is in the house!

[taricha]

Compare the two and tell me if HR is worth it? What are your thoughts? LR Nitrate test is undiluted since I was below 5ppm.

That's great!
4.8 +-2.0ppm (HR) conveys very different info than 4.73 +-0.25ppm (LR)
If I just wanted NO3 in the 5-10 range, I'd 100% rather use the HR for that. If I were trying to manage 2ppm, then I think only the LR is appropriate to the job.

(Btw, these pics also show the HR forms a slightly more coppery color than the hot pink of the hanna LR and red sea)

 

[Dan_P]

That's great!
4.8 +-2.0ppm (HR) conveys very different info than 4.73 +-0.25ppm (LR)
If I just wanted NO3 in the 5-10 range, I'd 100% rather use the HR for that. If I were trying to manage 2ppm, then I think only the LR is appropriate to the job.

(Btw, these pics also show the HR forms a slightly more coppery color than the hot pink of the hanna LR and red sea)

I wonder whether the HR chemistry is similar to the one packet fresh water chemistry. It too was a copper color. I used the freshwater nitrate test for high nitrate in saltwater. It had a limit of detection between 5 and 10 ppm.

 

[GoVols]

That is shipping cost, and it has gone up. When you mail it via snail mail you would pay $3.99. But you are paying for service with that box as it will not arrive in an envelope.

You know,
I did pay the $11 cost to Hanna, meanwhile, my shipment is still in the "waiting to be filled phase".

 

[Micro-Reefs Aquarium]

You know,
I did pay the $11 cost to Hanna, meanwhile, my shipment is still in the "waiting to be filled phase".

I called Hanna twice and left two voice messages to confirm my order and try to cancel it, but no response! So, I placed the same order with www.saltwateraquarium.com, NO SHIPPING AND NO TAXES!

Feels odd that you place an order with Hanna directly and you are on a waiting list for it to ship and they are charging you a pretty excessive shipping charge, I need these tests now, since I am testing my nano tanks and running ULTRA LOW NUTRIENT SPS dominant system.

I am fighing zero phosphates and hovering 5ppm and below with Nitrates and started dosing BrightWells NeoPhos. So, testing is critical, I had to get my UL Nitrate test kit back out as backup until my shipment from SA arrives.

I will just return my order from Hanna if it has shipped, makes no sense to burn all that extra money in shipping but I went with the early post about Hanna having them, check out the first couple pages when this thread took off!

 

[Micro-Reefs Aquarium]

It is all about customer service!

 

[Micro-Reefs Aquarium]

For those reefers that are running ULN systems take a look at my findings.

HR found .4 ppm nitrates

LR found 1.02 ppm nitrates

My Cheato is outperforming my fish & corals.

 

[Micro-Reefs Aquarium]

With this thread gaining ground, it made me more aware of my phosphates and nitrates. Soon found myself running ULNS in both my SPS and LPS tanks.

My Cheato is out competing my 5 small gobies, I have in each tank.

So, it was off to my LFS to get Neo Phos and Neo Nitro and start the regiment.

I will keep you all posted but value this thread for making me watch more closely my nitrates.

 

[FishyFishFish]

I gave @Hanna Instruments the benefit of the doubt and emailed them again but still no response.

I am left to assume that they don't want to tell me why the price of the reagents is higher than I expected. This leaves me to come up with my own conclusions which, without any information whatsoever is either:

1) Covid shipping costs. I asked this question on my email and specifically asked, if that was the case, if we should expect significant price increases in the rest of their reagents.

Or,

2) The LR Nitrate checker needed 2 powder reagents, and a liquid, and a filter per test. All of this was supplied in a kit which cost $15 (which makes sense as that was a lot of stuff). Hanna realised that people were paying $15 for 25 Nitrate tests and decided to keep the price the same, even though they were now only supplying a single reagent, which was much cheaper for them to produce.

The actual cost of the reagent powder, in a box of reagents, must be a tiny amount relative to the overall production cost (including packaging and shipping from Romania etc). I don't believe that the difference in cost of that powder compared with that contained in, for example, the Phosphate reagents would result in a overall 60% markup; for that to be the case the powder would have to be many many times more expensive.

I was only mildly annoyed about the price of the reagents, but am much more annoyed about Hanna ignoring me, which in my opinion is the lowest form of customer service. To rub salt in the wound I received an automated email from them today titled 'how are we doing?'. Honestly, not very well!

 

[homer1475]

$15 bucks for 25 tests. Who cares if the ULR packs are $9.

Thats what hanna has marked the reagents at, if you want to use checker, you pay for the reagents. Who cares how much they cost?

For me, the extra $8 fort the reagents is worth it simply so I don't have to try and distinguish between shades of color, but rather have a an actual number I can read.

Maybe instead of whining over an extra $8, we thank hanna for finally bringing the nitrate checker out after all these years of asking and begging.

So lets compare.....
Red Sea Pro = $43.99 for 100 tests, then it's an additional $24 for 100 tests. Then you have to determine what shade of pink it is. Initially = $0.43 per test. Refill = $0.24 per test.

Nyos = $24.99 for 40 tests = $0.62 per test, but again you have to decide what shade of orange the test is.

Hanna HR = $49.99 for 10 tests, then $15 for 25 tests = Initially $4.90 per test, then $0.60 per tests with refills. But, and this is a giant BUT, you get a hard number, you don't have to try and distinguish between shades of colors. This in itself is leaps and bounds over any color comparison chart, and is a 100% plus for those of us that are color blind.

So for me, it's well worth the price.

It's easy, either pay hanna what they want for reagents, or go back to color comparison charts. It's that simple, and no reason to whine about the price of reagents. It is what it is, and since hanna makes them, they can charge what they want for them.


Hanna more then likely has to pay shipping(they don't actually sell much themselves, hence the charge for shipping. They rely on other store fronts to sell their products), where as a company like Saltwateraquarium.com sells and ships probably hundreds of packages a day and more then likely has a price lock with shipping companies and can eat the small shipping costs.

Kind of like how ecotech charged me shipping for a wet side, yet I bought one on BRS(same price), and payed $0 shipping. Large company that ships hundreds of packages a day, Vs. manufacturer that doesn't ship much stuff out to the end user.

I will say that the lack of communication from hanna does worry me though, as any time I have emailed them, I got an almost immediate response.

 

[Micro-Reefs Aquarium]

Ask not what your Hanna can do for reefing, ask what you can bring to reefing with their product!

For me it has been priceless, giving me quick variables on where my Nitrates and Phosphates sat in my two 12 gallon systems.

I discovered I was running ULNS due to small bioload of fish in ratio to my macro algae Cheato.

This thread saved me from losing more SPS frags since it helped identify numbers rather than shades.

For me Hanna was questionable only that they were taking too long to send me regents that saltwater aquarium shipped on the fly.

So I am complaining but contributing to the forum in this thread for anyone running an ULNS in a nano tank.

 

[FishyFishFish]

The issue is not the cost, it is the fact that they only released the cost AFTER they had sold the first few batches of checkers. Why not be upfront and release the cost at the same time they advertised the cost of the checker? Was this a deliberate ploy or just a lack of planning? We will never know. I should have waited until the reagents were available; that was my mistake but at least my checker is still in a sealed box so I have the option to return it if I want to.

My bigger annoyance is the lack of response from them (other than an automated customer survey). I have also had fantastic service from them in the past so this blanking almost feels intentional. Had they responded to my original email and said anything at all (even if was just 'we have set the price - deal with it') that would have been better than being ignored.

This whole release has been a bit weird. Saltwater Aquarium, Premium Aquatics and Marine Depot all sold the checkers in June, before the 'available in July' mentioned on Hanna's website, and before even Hanna were selling them. No reagents were available at that time. BRS has only just listed them on their website but still have not had any stock as of yet. Maybe the reagents were supposed to be available straight away, but somehow the release was botched. Or maybe they were pressured by the demand to release the checkers before Hanna was fully ready.

This will be my last post on the cost issue; I have tagged @Hanna Instruments, several times now, on this thread and they could have responded or messaged me but they prefer to be silent, so mentioning it again is clearly not going to achieve anything.

 

[taricha]

2) The LR Nitrate checker needed 2 powder reagents, and a liquid, and a filter per test. All of this was supplied in a kit which cost $15 (which makes sense as that was a lot of stuff). Hanna realised that people were paying $15 for 25 Nitrate tests and decided to keep the price the same, even though they were now only supplying a single reagent, which was much cheaper for them to produce.

slight (but not total) defense of hanna here.
The fact that they combined the reagent in one packet doesn't fundamentally change all the chemistry required - they just figured out a way to combine multi-steps and multi-reagents in a single packet applied at once. I expect that the reagent is more expensive than some others for that reason.
Secondly, not ALL the hanna single packets are $9 for 25 tests. I've used several of their Reagent packets with prices that vary considerably:
Free chlorine, you can get 100 packs for $24 = 24 cents each
Low Range Iron is 25 packets for $29 = $1.16 each

I assume this has at least a tiny bit to do with the reagent/process costs, and also the volume of the test reagents sold.
So no, I wouldn't have expected the packets to definitely be $9.

(but you are right to suspect that undercutting their new LR Nitrate checker might also be a concern they wish to avoid at this time. Maybe the packet price will come down later).

Also, this rollout seems smoother than the LR Nitrate one. Several of us used up our reagents with testing the kit performance, and there were still no refill reagents available. So less bad than their last big new release

 

[GoVols]

I called Hanna twice and left two voice messages to confirm my order and try to cancel it, but no response! So, I placed the same order with www.saltwateraquarium.com, NO SHIPPING AND NO TAXES!

Feels odd that you place an order with Hanna directly and you are on a waiting list for it to ship and they are charging you a pretty excessive shipping charge, I need these tests now, since I am testing my nano tanks and running ULTRA LOW NUTRIENT SPS dominant system.

I am fighing zero phosphates and hovering 5ppm and below with Nitrates and started dosing BrightWells NeoPhos. So, testing is critical, I had to get my UL Nitrate test kit back out as backup until my shipment from SA arrives.

I will just return my order from Hanna if it has shipped, makes no sense to burn all that extra money in shipping but I went with the early post about Hanna having them, check out the first couple pages when this thread took off!

Yeah,
I've tried their email twice with no response.

lol
Their customer service is non-existent.

Bout to test their new high range against a brand new box of Salifert.

 

[Micro-Reefs Aquarium]

Yeah,
I've tried their email twice with no response.

lol
Their customer service is non-existent.

Bout to test their new high range against a brand new box of Salifert.

Odd because when I ordered from them a nice lady in sales took my order.

But I never got a conformation email or was my card billed, so after seeing that everyone is getting there regents elsewhere it became an issue due to needing to have test done quickly for nitrate.

I am running a ULNS and risk losing SPS frags. Those are my reasons for wanting to get a hold and canceling my order that apparently never went through

 

[GoVols]

Odd because when I ordered from them a nice lady in sales took my order.

But I never got a conformation email or was my card billed, so after seeing that everyone is getting there regents elsewhere it became an issue due to needing to have test done quickly for nitrate.

I am running a ULNS and risk losing SPS frags. Those are my reasons for wanting to get a hold and canceling my order that apparently never went through

Yeah,
I can see why you need more reagents.

Over here the new checker just came in at 27.7ppm
Salifert came in just a tiny amount darker than the card's 25ppm color.

Seems to be a winner on my end.

Question:
Have you used up your 10 packs of reagent, if so, did the new HR checker seem to be accurate below 10ppm

​

 

[Micro-Reefs Aquarium]

Yeah,
I can see why you need more reagents.

Over here the new checker just came in at 27.7ppm
Salifert came in just a tiny amount darker than the card's 25ppm color.

Seems to be a winner on my end.

Question:
Have you used up your 10 packs of reagent, if so, did the new HR checker seem to be accurate below 10ppm

​

I am using up my last HR today but I have plenty of the LR to look at my figures.

I posted a comparison earlier did you see it?

Let me see if I have it to repost.

 

[GoVols]

I am using up my last HR today but I have plenty of the LR to look at my figures.

I posted a comparison earlier did you see it?

Let me see if I have it to repost.

Those comparisons look great, thanks for taking the time to repost.

It's nice to be able to get an accurate digital reading - VS - hoping that a colored card's color is accurate during the printing process.

If you're colorblind it's a game-changer.

 

[Micro-Reefs Aquarium]

Those comparisons look great, thanks for taking the time to repost.

It's nice to be able to get an accurate digital reading - VS - hoping that a colored card's color is accurate during the printing process.

If you're colorblind it's a game-changer.

I just ran my last test of HR and again did the LR since I was below 5ppm.

Take a look at the results.

Also keep in mind that yesterday, I added Neo Nitro into my 12 gallon SPS system. My nitrates HR yesterday read .4 vs LR 1.02 ppm.

4ml of Neo Nitro was added. Here is what the HR vs LR picked up from 24hr calculation.

What do you think for someone like me that needs close values of ULNS monitored?

 

[homer1475]

If your under 5ppm nd you don't mind the process, I would use the LR kit. Little more accurate at lower ranges as you can see by your comparison. 4.05 is a far cry from 4.9. Thats nearly a 1ppm difference.

 

[Micro-Reefs Aquarium]

If your under 5ppm nd you don't mind the process, I would use the LR kit. Little more accurate at lower ranges as you can see by your comparison. 4.05 is a far cry from 4.9. Thats nearly a 1ppm difference.

Once I get my tank dialed in yes LR for me once a week if that for accuracy.

However, it is nice to first run the HR to see where I am at because if the HR says 7ppm having run the LR under non-dilution I would be redoing the test.

I hated that part!