Why have I tortured myself all these years

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Jeremy Luke

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I've been using the Hanna phosphate ULR for some time now and love it.

I just bought the Alk chlorometer today. Wow. Fantastic. Instant reading to the tenth. No more... Has it changed colors all the way? Did it already change color two drops ago? Why have I waited this long. Thank you Hanna.
 

TheHarold

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I just wish they could get their Ca one to work as well as Alk/PO4! I could never get repeatable results with Ca.
 

Shredded

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I just wish they could get their Ca one to work as well as Alk/PO4! I could never get repeatable results with Ca.
I had the same issue. The calcium tester never tested right. Talked to them at MACNA, I told him I had a problem with... and he finished my sentence with calcium checker. He gave me a tip.
First go by distilled water from the pharmacy. Do not use your RO/DI water. They frequently let calcium thru and while that's good for your tank it screws up your calcium test.
The other tip is my own, when it's time to add the powder, get it all (I hold the envelope by a corner and flick it hard forcing the power to the opposite corner, cut it open and fold to be ready to pour. (Prep this before you start test.) Once you've added the powder, cap and shake it really vigorously for one minute to thoroughly dissolve the powder, then spend a full minute making sure that all the bubbles are gone. Tapping, rotating, inverting slowly to shake them all out of solution, then tap some more. Polish the outside with a micro fiber towel (I do that with all their test vials) to remove all oils and finger prints, then insert the vial and take your reading. I can repeat my readings over and over.
 

Hanna Instruments

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I just wish they could get their Ca one to work as well as Alk/PO4! I could never get repeatable results with Ca.

We apologize for any inaccurate readings you may have experienced. Our HI758 Calcium Checker uses a 100 to 1 dilution to analyze calcium. It is important to make sure you are using the new HI731339P volumetric pipette to administer saltwater sample to the cuvette. Any increased or decreased sample size will result in inaccurate readings.

Calcium Checker Troubleshooting Tips
  1. Never rinse your cuvettes with tap water or saltwater
  2. Use pure vapor distilled water from your local pharmacy at C1 phase. RODI water from home filtration units may not be suitable for this test as calcium can easily permeate through your filter membranes. Or use HI70436m DI water we sell https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/deionized-water-hanna-instruments.html
  3. Clean your cuvettes with distilled or deionized water absent of Calcium that is going to be used for C1 phase dilution.
  4. Measure out 9 ml of distilled or deionized water for C1 phase
  5. Make sure no excess aquarium sample saltwater is on the tip of the pipette. Only administer the saltwater that is sucked into the pipette tip.
 

TheHarold

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We apologize for any inaccurate readings you may have experienced. Our HI758 Calcium Checker uses a 100 to 1 dilution to analyze calcium. It is important to make sure you are using the new HI731339P volumetric pipette to administer saltwater sample to the cuvette. Any increased or decreased sample size will result in inaccurate readings.

Calcium Checker Troubleshooting Tips
  1. Never rinse your cuvettes with tap water or saltwater
  2. Use pure vapor distilled water from your local pharmacy at C1 phase. RODI water from home filtration units may not be suitable for this test as calcium can easily permeate through your filter membranes. Or use HI70436m DI water we sell https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/deionized-water-hanna-instruments.html
  3. Clean your cuvettes with distilled or deionized water absent of Calcium that is going to be used for C1 phase dilution.
  4. Measure out 9 ml of distilled or deionized water for C1 phase
  5. Make sure no excess aquarium sample saltwater is on the tip of the pipette. Only administer the saltwater that is sucked into the pipette tip.

I’m glad to see there is an improved pipette now, that was not included when I got mine. Requiring an additional $20 to get obtain accurate readings from a $50 device seems like a kick in the knees though, to me. Should have been included originally if it it required to make the product work. The ULR PO4, Alk, and nitrate one work great. I also have the hl96822 for salinity, another excellent one!
 

Hanna Instruments

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I’m glad to see there is an improved pipette now, that was not included when I got mine. Requiring an additional $20 to get obtain accurate readings from a $50 device seems like a kick in the knees though, to me. Should have been included originally if it it required to make the product work.
The test will work without the pipette if you are careful, try distilled water or the DI water first. The pipette had been updated about 2 years ago. All new Calcium Checkers come with a mechanical pipette, reagents for 25 tests and 2 cuvettes.
 

TheHarold

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The test will work without the pipette if you are careful, try distilled water or the DI water first. The pipette had been updated about 2 years ago. All new Calcium Checkers come with a mechanical pipette, reagents for 25 tests and 2 cuvettes.

I would try again, but to just buy fresh reagent and the mechanical pipette would be around $45 :confused:. The math seems odd, when the complete set you described is $50. $5 difference to get another actual colorimeter?
 

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