jcom
Active Member
Just got a email from Jessica... She will be here tomorrow to answer all our questions and concerns...
Chea!!!!
Nice job brotha!
Let's talk about the hanna meters....
- Thread starter Troylee
- Start date
- Tagged users None
Nice job brotha!
Der ABT
Active Member
wow im glad im reading this, just running out of ALK/P04/CA tests and was going to get an alk and po4 pocket checker but i think i will wait to see some anwsers from Jessica.
Thanks for all those posting up, sorry you had to be the test subjects.....hope it ends up being and Oh you forgot to push the saltwater test button or something stupidly simple like this.
if not ill just stick to the old fashion way or just not test haha.
Thanks for all those posting up, sorry you had to be the test subjects.....hope it ends up being and Oh you forgot to push the saltwater test button or something stupidly simple like this.
if not ill just stick to the old fashion way or just not test haha.
m and m
2500 Club Member
It is sad that a company cant provide a quality hand held cal/alk meter. It would help out so many people keep stable systems and just be flat easer. There would also be alot of bank if it was accurate too.
OP
OP
Troylee
all about the diy!!!!!
will see... today is the big day.... any one have time to compile a Q and A before she arrives... like using both vials or a single vial, the mark etc....
jcom
Active Member
Hello Jessica,
Thank you for taking the time to join our group. If you read through this thread, you'll understand why we, as a group, are a bit confused and frustrated. We all wanted the product to work perfectly (which, of course, isn't always possible), but the results we are getting have us concerned. Apologies in advance if we've jumped to any conclusions or have been too harsh, but our expectations of Hanna are high and our very expensive and time consuming hobby is dependant on getting accurate and consistent test results.
A few questions:
-When using the "Certified Standard Kit - 1.00" I followed the instructions perfectly (cleaned cuvet, mixed solution, etc) and I ended up getting a reading of .080 The kit said that there was a potential deviation of +/- 0.08 which, at 1.00, is borderline acceptable. However, for it to be -0.20 off is unacceptable and very concerning. For those of us keeping sensitive corals like SPS, this is truly a matter of life and death. Since there is no calibration method for the Checker (at least that I know of), how can I feel even slightly confident in using this for my reef system?
-Throughout this thread and others, you will see that people are routinely getting 0.00 results on their Hanna Phosphate Checkers. Knowing how much diligence, effort, and commitment it takes to arrive at these results, it seems very unlikely that this number of people could truly be getting 0.00 results. In our hobby, <0.05 is considered "acceptable" and <0.03 "preferred". I think this relates to the question above about the reference kit and has lead our group to believe that the Checkers are all testing extremely low and would explain the number of 0.00 results. Your thoughts?
-The test kit comes with two vials and, early on, many of us were using one vial for the "zero" tank water sample, and the other vial for the reagent testing. This especially made sense due to the 3 minute time constraint before the unit shuts off. It requires perfect timing (which is challenging, to say the least, with the packets) to use one vial within the 3 minute time range. However, word got out that we were supposed to be using the same vial for both the "zero" and reagent tests, so we made it work. Is it required to use one vial and, if so, why does the "Certified Standard Kit" instruct to use 2 vials??
Thank you for your time. I look forward to making some progress on this matter.
Thank you for taking the time to join our group. If you read through this thread, you'll understand why we, as a group, are a bit confused and frustrated. We all wanted the product to work perfectly (which, of course, isn't always possible), but the results we are getting have us concerned. Apologies in advance if we've jumped to any conclusions or have been too harsh, but our expectations of Hanna are high and our very expensive and time consuming hobby is dependant on getting accurate and consistent test results.
A few questions:
-When using the "Certified Standard Kit - 1.00" I followed the instructions perfectly (cleaned cuvet, mixed solution, etc) and I ended up getting a reading of .080 The kit said that there was a potential deviation of +/- 0.08 which, at 1.00, is borderline acceptable. However, for it to be -0.20 off is unacceptable and very concerning. For those of us keeping sensitive corals like SPS, this is truly a matter of life and death. Since there is no calibration method for the Checker (at least that I know of), how can I feel even slightly confident in using this for my reef system?
-Throughout this thread and others, you will see that people are routinely getting 0.00 results on their Hanna Phosphate Checkers. Knowing how much diligence, effort, and commitment it takes to arrive at these results, it seems very unlikely that this number of people could truly be getting 0.00 results. In our hobby, <0.05 is considered "acceptable" and <0.03 "preferred". I think this relates to the question above about the reference kit and has lead our group to believe that the Checkers are all testing extremely low and would explain the number of 0.00 results. Your thoughts?
-The test kit comes with two vials and, early on, many of us were using one vial for the "zero" tank water sample, and the other vial for the reagent testing. This especially made sense due to the 3 minute time constraint before the unit shuts off. It requires perfect timing (which is challenging, to say the least, with the packets) to use one vial within the 3 minute time range. However, word got out that we were supposed to be using the same vial for both the "zero" and reagent tests, so we made it work. Is it required to use one vial and, if so, why does the "Certified Standard Kit" instruct to use 2 vials??
Thank you for your time. I look forward to making some progress on this matter.
Last edited:
OP
OP
Troylee
all about the diy!!!!!
^^^ nice!!!!! 1smile1
fsn77
Dad of 2 future hobbyists
Nicely written, jcom.
As someone who's worked in a university lab and done phosphate testing in marine waters, I can say a couple things regarding some of the points mentioned in this thread...
1) Yes, the tightly quality controlled cuvets are very expensive... A set of 2 can very easily cost much more than what anyone's paying for this meter kit.
2) In a lab, QA/QC protocols can allow up to a 10% deviation of a known, independently certified standard to be valid. At least in the case of the lab I worked in, that certified standard was never stated as being a concentration lower than 1.0 ppm for phosphate.
While I realize that it's not possible to actually have a negative phosphate level, it would seem from what people have posted that the meter doesn't allow for a negative result (or does it?). If not, that's unfortunate, as many of the people getting 0.00 probably have little reason to think anything is significantly incorrect about that number (prior to reading the various threads online and seeing so many people are getting 0.00), when a "truer" result that comes back as an actual negative number would probably be at least useful in cluing the user in on the possibility that they may not have used the product correctly.
I think I understand what Hanna is trying to do in producing the "egg" meters for hobbyists in that they are trying to reach out more to the hobby level user, but as can be the case with any company / product, I'm not sure Hanna has as good of a grasp on what hobby level users expect for quality / accuracy / precision at the price point hobbyists are willing to buy products as they thought they did. Is it a bad product? I don't know because I don't own one and haven't ever used one, but it sounds to me from what many of you are saying that it may not be as good of a product as a hardcore SPS keeper would like it to be. However, it could still be useful for other hobbyists and sounds no worse than spending money on the other various PO4 test kits, plus it sounds like it can produce a result in a shorter period of time while being a little easier to use (no counting of drops or waiting several minutes before attempting to compare the color of the water to a card).
As someone who's worked in a university lab and done phosphate testing in marine waters, I can say a couple things regarding some of the points mentioned in this thread...
1) Yes, the tightly quality controlled cuvets are very expensive... A set of 2 can very easily cost much more than what anyone's paying for this meter kit.
2) In a lab, QA/QC protocols can allow up to a 10% deviation of a known, independently certified standard to be valid. At least in the case of the lab I worked in, that certified standard was never stated as being a concentration lower than 1.0 ppm for phosphate.
While I realize that it's not possible to actually have a negative phosphate level, it would seem from what people have posted that the meter doesn't allow for a negative result (or does it?). If not, that's unfortunate, as many of the people getting 0.00 probably have little reason to think anything is significantly incorrect about that number (prior to reading the various threads online and seeing so many people are getting 0.00), when a "truer" result that comes back as an actual negative number would probably be at least useful in cluing the user in on the possibility that they may not have used the product correctly.
I think I understand what Hanna is trying to do in producing the "egg" meters for hobbyists in that they are trying to reach out more to the hobby level user, but as can be the case with any company / product, I'm not sure Hanna has as good of a grasp on what hobby level users expect for quality / accuracy / precision at the price point hobbyists are willing to buy products as they thought they did. Is it a bad product? I don't know because I don't own one and haven't ever used one, but it sounds to me from what many of you are saying that it may not be as good of a product as a hardcore SPS keeper would like it to be. However, it could still be useful for other hobbyists and sounds no worse than spending money on the other various PO4 test kits, plus it sounds like it can produce a result in a shorter period of time while being a little easier to use (no counting of drops or waiting several minutes before attempting to compare the color of the water to a card).
OP
OP
Troylee
all about the diy!!!!!
this is true.... and if it's the case so be it.. i agree it's better than any drops and cards etc... i just really need to know the margin of error because a 1.0 solution found it to be off by .20 if that's the case i don't want to bother using it anymore and just go off my instincts like i always did....your corals will tell ya by coloration and rtn what's up lol...... i think it's a combo of orerator error and quality to be honest... i don't expect lab grade result's for 40$ and never will for that matter.... something that is close and has a error margin of .05 as they describe is acceptable in my book....
.20 can kill sps thou......
.20 can kill sps thou......
Oiseau Reefer
Well-Known Member
Very well said to above can't wait to get some answers
My biggest question is how do you plan on standing behind your product that is very clearly giving the majority of us inaccurate results??
My biggest question is how do you plan on standing behind your product that is very clearly giving the majority of us inaccurate results??
I've tested my Hanna Checker against Salifert and API and found the Hanna to be a good deal better than Salifert with regard to accuracy and repeatibility. Just want to make it clear that there are some of us here who have the checker and have had very good results with it and have found it to be at least as accurate as Salifert.
FISH PROS
FISH PROVIDER
i just hope that once the hanna rep comes over that she can provide real answers and not just some text book answers, kinda like when you call dell or some of these other companies , no matter who you talk to they all say the same thing as if we cant tell that they are reading out of there customer service manual. Really what we need is an actual tech or designer not a rep , a rep is only gonna know what they are taught to say or read
Last edited:
100% agree. I've just gone the whole thread and most (7) people using the meter say they are getting non-zero readings. Amongst the 4 people getting 0.00, 2 have confirmed 0.00 with another test.
swannyson7
Moderator/Acro Aficianado
Excellence Award
Reef Of The Month
Photo of the Month
CTARS Member
Moderator Emeritus
I've always had 0.00 except for one time at 0.02 with my Hanna PO4 tester. However, I'm running EcoBak and GFO and I'm getting readings in the same range on my Elos & Seachem test kits. I got the new Alk tester the other day and I'm getting the same readings as my old test kits as well. Maybe I'm just lucky?
Just tested the outlet of my RODI and my display water. .03 on the RODI (exactly the same as my measurement from last week) and .01 on my display (had my skimmer off for 2 days after adding a lot of corals and dosing zeo additives heavy and feeding phyto, so a non zero reading was expected). Basically, this meter has proven itself to me as a reliable and accurate way of measuring PO4 without spending $400 for a high end meter. It will be my main PO4 test, with salifert as a backup.
Last edited:
Oiseau Reefer
Well-Known Member
The answers given on RC sound txt book to me
jcom
Active Member
TJW, if you have enough packets, try giving your tap water a test and see what it says. We have good water here in SLC, but 0.00 phosphates??? I don't think so.
I'm not trying to be a smart butt (kinda sounds like it). I'm serious, I'd be curious to see what results you get.
I'm not trying to be a smart butt (kinda sounds like it). I'm serious, I'd be curious to see what results you get.
Reggie
unregistered
I've posted my full review of the Hanna HI 755 Alkalinity colorimeter: The Hanna HI 755 Alkalinity Colorimeter Review | Reef Gizmo
It looks like there's a problem with the free reagents that comes with the kit (marked "Lot 1"). "Lot 4" was more accurate.
It looks like there's a problem with the free reagents that comes with the kit (marked "Lot 1"). "Lot 4" was more accurate.
Oiseau Reefer
Well-Known Member
I tested my tap water and 0.08 then I tested it with API and got in the .5 range hmmm???
OP
OP
Troylee
all about the diy!!!!!
Okay explain the 1.0 certified solution that was off by .20
Oiseau Reefer
Well-Known Member
All I know is it rendered this test untrustible in my opinion so even though at this point even though I'm hating giving hanna anymore money I'm thinking of giving them $10 for the test to see if my meter has the same problem what I'd really like to know is why don't they give us one for free with the meter
Similar threads
-
- Poll
New Posts
-
OK People with Red Sea Reefer Failures... Convince me not to....- Latest: VintageReefer
-
-
-
