I'd believe the elos 450 like stated above because I see signs when my calcium drops to 380-390 under 300 I think you would see serious signs

I bumped up the # minutes on the Ca dosing and the Salifert read a tiny bit higher last night. It had been a long day so I didn't do an Elos reading. I have a bad feeling the lower number might be the correct value just cuz the implications are worse and since when does Murphy's Law cut any slack..

Testing my makeup water would have been a good idea. :lol: Duh. Oh well, partly though I did not just on account both tests are close to being finished (well the Salifert did its last test last night .. I didn't even get a full 1ml out of the titration reagent .. )

Well, I just find it odd that I almost always find the SKU sticker, covers the expiry date. To me it feels a little bit rude to sit there at the store and peel that back before buying it, but I'm going to make a point of principle that I'm no longer buying Elos UNLESS I can see at the store that it's NOT expired. I think this is the 3rd time this has happened to me. Man was I annoyed with myself this week when I made that discovery that it was almost a year past that date. I've been too trusting I guess.

Unless Elos is printing the date the batch was made .. and not the expiry date itself .. but that would be unusual would it not?

That's most def the expiry. I've never actually noticed that date being covered ever. I'd feel lame peeling the SKU back too but I'd just ask the LFS to check for me.

As far as I know an Elos kit is bad if the kit (even unopened) is beyond that date or if it's been used (even once) more than a year ago. I recall reading they're only trustworthy for one year after first use regardless of expiry? I'm guessing this loosely applies to all kits.

Well eff that, I have no problem being rude especially after our discussion about the zeo stuff. I'm peeling back the sticker on everything I buy from now on :twised:

Hmmm don't know about that but it sounds plausible. I think I'm going to mark the date of opening and first use on my test kit boxes from now on.

No kidding. Don't you think it's kinda rude to sell you old crap?? Not only would I check, but if the store was selling expired kits and I believed it was a regular practice, I'd find a new store.

Yeah I haven't bought from them in awhile. Not sure if it was just a handy spot to put the UPC code or what but I didn't even notice until Tony and I were chatting about whether the stuff expires or not. He found an expiry date on his and upon closer inspection, so did mine. They were way out of whack too.

Picked up a Hanna calcium checker on the weekend. According to it ... 546.

Uh, wow.

Turned off the Ca dosing for now and will retest tomorrow. There's a slight chance I botched the test in a way to bump it to a higher reading but it won't be by a huge amount. Unlike the Alk and PO4 testers you only use 0.1ml of tank water diluted in 10ml of DI water, and 0.1ml is a very miniscule amount and I think I might have overshot the mark by a droplet or thereabouts. (I didn't use the cone dispenser that came with it. The Alk checker came with one as well but I never use that because it doesn't actually have a hole in the end of it on that one).

Question for anyone who uses these Hanna checkers for Calcium, there's a rubberized cone end and a plastic cone end. I assume one is for the reagent syringe and the other for the sample syringe .. but which one is which?

Tony, there have been a lot of complaints about the Hanna Calcium Checkers reading really high. I have always found Elos to read about 80-100 ppm higher than Salifert (the Elos alkalinity reads 1-2 dKH lower than Salifert). I have also found old Salifert kits (still within expiry) to be another 80-100 ppm lower than a new Salifert kit. I have no idea which one is more accurate, but I do know my tank is happier when I use the Elos kits and dose according to them. I have all but given up on Salifert kits for calcium and alkalinity. I need to buy some new Elos kits right away here, so it will be interesting to compare them to my old ones.

I'm trying to locate (it's a back burner project) some good independent calibration fluids for calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium. I hear they are out there somewhere.

Please let me know if you ever find some...