Hanna Colorimetric Checkers for Alk and Ca? F! yes!!

[trilinearmipmap]

If they are anything like the Hanna Phosphate Checker, the will be no quicker than Salifert test kits. More accurate maybe, but no quicker.

I expect these Hanna checkers will be most useful for those assays which would otherwise rely on visual judgment of colour gradation eg. for a nitrate test. For a test which can be done through titration-based colour change eg. calcium and alk tests, I don't see the benefit of the the Hanna checkers.

[Delphinus]

To have alkalinity electronically testable in a hobbyist affordable handheld is a very interesting development, so I must say it's worth of a raised eyebrow. However I wonder how robust it will be. Take for example the probe based nitrate testers .. very fussy and finicky, the probes don't last long and they're brutally expensive to replace - compared to test kits anyhow.

The colorimeters are a little better for robustness but have their own issues. However for a colour comparison based test, a colorimeter certainly takes guesswork out of comparing hues and intensities in potentially variable lighting conditions.

Nevertheless, an interesting development and one worthy of watching out for!!

[muck]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

To have alkalinity electronically testable in a hobbyist affordable handheld is a very interesting development, so I must say it's worth of a raised eyebrow. However I wonder how robust it will be. Take for example the probe based nitrate testers .. very fussy and finicky, the probes don't last long and they're brutally expensive to replace - compared to test kits anyhow.

The colorimeters are a little better for robustness but have their own issues. However for a colour comparison based test, a colorimeter certainly takes guesswork out of comparing hues and intensities in potentially variable lighting conditions.

Nevertheless, an interesting development and one worthy of watching out for!!

[lastlight]

Yeah maybe I'm missing something here. The nitrate tests have you looking at a bunch of colours and taking a stab at it.

Ca and Alk have definite colour changes so why would we need those?

[Ron99]

Originally Posted by lastlight

Yeah maybe I'm missing something here. The nitrate tests have you looking at a bunch of colours and taking a stab at it.

Ca and Alk have definite colour changes so why would we need those?

The checkers might potentially give better precision as most quick and easy calcium tests measure to the nearest 50ppm and alk tests to a precision of 0.5. But I guess we won't know until they release more information.

[lastlight]

I use Elos for Calcium and it's good to nearest 10ppm. But yeah Alk is in 0.5 increments.

[Veng68]

What do you think of this?

http://www.sensafe.com/pond_products.php

Cheers,
Vic

[Ron99]

Originally Posted by lastlight

I use Elos for Calcium and it's good to nearest 10ppm. But yeah Alk is in 0.5 increments.

But to get that precision with the Elos you're supposed to do it in two parts which adds time and more margin for error. Let's see how precise the checkers are. Would be nice to have a quick and easy one step test that is precise down to 10ppm or less.

Originally Posted by Veng68

What do you think of this?

http://www.sensafe.com/pond_products.php

Cheers,
Vic

I actually did contact them once but they have never tested in salt water and do not know if their kits would be accurate or not.