Trident Way Off - Please help

[neotactical]

My tank and Trident is about 6 months old. For the past several weeks Trident is reporting Alk to be upwards of 10 while Hanna Checker consistently reads in the mid 4's. I know that is terribly low and I'm dosing Alk to raise it but it's only coming up a little per day. Red Sea Alk test also reads in the 4's. I replaced Trident Reagents 3 days ago and calibrated last evening to the readings on the calibration solution. I've read that some people calibrate to their Hanna Checker readings, but I'm concerned that there is this much of a discrepancy between Trident and all my other test kits. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

FYI - I'm using Red Sea salt at 35ppt, which should put me around 8 according to the Red Sea documentation.

 

[blaxsun]

I stopped using the Trident calibration fluid months ago and instead calibrate using tank water and an average of test results. Instead of dosing you could always do a few 25% water changes over a few weeks to bring your alkalinity up?

 

[piranhaman00]

Your alk is not 4 that’s not possible , stop dosing immediately and find a reliable test kit/bring water to lfs.

 

[neotactical]

Your alk is not 4 that’s not possible , stop dosing immediately and find a reliable test kit/bring water to lfs.

Well, I wish that were the case, but how can 2 test kits that are only a couple of months old both be off? I just ran another test with Red Sea and it reported my Alk to be 6. I just ran another Hanna test and the Alk shows 4.7. If you've used Hanna before - the color is typically much darker than what I'm getting. See pics attached.

 

[neotactical]

I stopped using the Trident calibration fluid months ago and instead calibrate using tank water and an average of test results. Instead of dosing you could always do a few 25% water changes over a few weeks to bring your alkalinity up?

I was doing 1 gallon water changes daily for the past couple of weeks, but it didn't do anything to my readings. Perhaps I need to do more.

 

[Naturalreef]

My Trident has been accurate and consistent ever since cleaning the curvette before each reagent change. It takes less than 10 mins. No issues with calibration fluid. Search youtube and you will see how easy it is.

 

[blaxsun]

My Trident has been accurate and consistent ever since cleaning the curvette before each reagent change. It takes less than 10 mins. No issues with calibration fluid. Search youtube and you will see how easy it is.

Maybe I'll try cleaning it next time, but I've tested (now) 3 batches of calibration fluid and they've all been off by more than ±40%.

 

[Naturalreef]

I really think the cleaning will tighten up the readings. Initially, my curvette was really dirty. Took 3 -tips to clean it. Now 1 q-tip is sufficient. Hope it fixes your problem.


To be clear, I use the calibration fluid and my readings are very tight. All I care about is consistency, not the actual reading Compared with other kits.

 

[blaxsun]

I really think the cleaning will tighten up the readings. Initially, my curvette was really dirty. Took 3 -tips to clean it. Now 1 q-tip is sufficient. Hope it fixes your problem.

To be clear, I use the calibration fluid and my readings are very tight. All I care about is consistency, not the actual reading Compared with other kits.

I will definitely do that on my next reagent change - appreciate the tip! I'm more concerned with the consistency as well. I find the Trident drifting over time as the reagents age, so I'm hoping that maybe cleaning the curvette solves (or at least minimizes) this.

 

[Naturalreef]

I think it will blax. I am doing 8 alkalinity tests per day,so going through reagent quicker. But between reagent replacement, alk is consistent.

Calcium and magnesium get a little wonky between reagent replacement, but I’m not using trident dosing with those. Water changes and kalk dosing keep them in line.

 

[neotactical]

So - I either have a bad batch of salt, bad water, or my Hanna Checker and Red Sea Test kits are bunk. I'm using Red Sea Salt. I just made a fresh 5 gallon batch of it to 35ppt. According to the documentation on Red Sea for this salt - fresh made seawater should be 7.5-8.5. Both my Hanna Checker and Red Sea again tested 3 and 3.5. I'm using RO/DI (5 Stage BRS) water that I have in my salt mix station - the water is used for top off. It's been at least a month that the water has been in the vat with pumps moving etc. They are 50 gallon drums so I only fill when they hit the low sensor and fill to the top sensor and work through that batch before the R/O unit kicks on again. Could this be causing the issue?

 

[Ostentum]

how about you check the calibration fluid from the trident with the red sea and hanna and see how close that is to the label. My hanna and red sea are pretty spot on to my khg and trident. Trident tends to drift fairly rapidly and I only calibrate now with tank water not the calibration, since it seems to always jack it up with calibration.