Hello friends,
I've found myself in a bit of a situation. I recently picked up a Hanna Alkalinity tester and have been using it for about two weeks. I was previously using a Redsea test kit.
I have a hard time seeing the blue - green color spectrum (been told I'm color blind, but that's a different story and an amusing one as I'm a EE for a living) that's why I switched to the Hanna. For the first 5 days I used both test kits to gain confidence in the new Hanna, they were both agreeing with in .2 DKH or so, so I felt good about the new tester. I've been wanting to change my 2 part because the Seachem reef builder I was using before didn't mix well and seemed to mix weak. Having the new tester that I could easily read, I decided it was time. I switched to using the BRS sodium bicarbonate mix.
Everything was going great until...
Tonight I was testing and for the second night in a row my alk was testing @ 10 DKH (yes I run it high) without me adding any alk last night it was at 10.2. Typically I've had to add daily to maintain anywhere near 10 DKH. I was suspicious so I tested with the Redsea kit. It showed 8.4 DKH. I tested 3 times with both and got the same results High Hanna low Redsea with each kit within .1 DKH of the previous respective tests. I tested both kits with my DI water and the came up 0. I did a 50% dilution with both and the results were 50% less that the original results.
Which kit do I believe? Any ideas for testing which kit drifted? Some of my corals are looking less happy so I'm inclined to think the Redsea is correct, but I also changed my alk mix because I'm impatient and apparently secretly desire chaos.
Any help is appreciated, laughs too because if it's all hitting the fan in a handbasket, we may as well have a chuckle for the trouble.
I've found myself in a bit of a situation. I recently picked up a Hanna Alkalinity tester and have been using it for about two weeks. I was previously using a Redsea test kit.
I have a hard time seeing the blue - green color spectrum (been told I'm color blind, but that's a different story and an amusing one as I'm a EE for a living) that's why I switched to the Hanna. For the first 5 days I used both test kits to gain confidence in the new Hanna, they were both agreeing with in .2 DKH or so, so I felt good about the new tester. I've been wanting to change my 2 part because the Seachem reef builder I was using before didn't mix well and seemed to mix weak. Having the new tester that I could easily read, I decided it was time. I switched to using the BRS sodium bicarbonate mix.
Everything was going great until...
Tonight I was testing and for the second night in a row my alk was testing @ 10 DKH (yes I run it high) without me adding any alk last night it was at 10.2. Typically I've had to add daily to maintain anywhere near 10 DKH. I was suspicious so I tested with the Redsea kit. It showed 8.4 DKH. I tested 3 times with both and got the same results High Hanna low Redsea with each kit within .1 DKH of the previous respective tests. I tested both kits with my DI water and the came up 0. I did a 50% dilution with both and the results were 50% less that the original results.
Which kit do I believe? Any ideas for testing which kit drifted? Some of my corals are looking less happy so I'm inclined to think the Redsea is correct, but I also changed my alk mix because I'm impatient and apparently secretly desire chaos.
Any help is appreciated, laughs too because if it's all hitting the fan in a handbasket, we may as well have a chuckle for the trouble.