Hanna checkers

[kobelka]

Hi there,
I'm thinking about buying 3 hanna checkers, alk, cal, and phosphate. I've read a few bad and good reviews and wondered what users here have to say whether they are worth me buying?
Any help appreciated.
Thanks
Dave

[jorjef]

This is my experience.

Alk. Very easy and I believe accurate if you pay attention to detail.

Cal. A bit aggravating with the amount of steps to go through and MUST be anal with accuracy or results vary greatly.

Phos. No experience

[mseepman]

I have Phos and ALK and they are great. I have heard nothing good about Cal checker

[freeze]

Have phos and alk, and have been very good. Haven't gotten the calcium yet. Heard it's a little more "involved" but what test isn't, check this, add this powder, then drop this solution and so forth. Will give it a shot soon

[Magickiwi]

I have all three and the phosphate is by far the worst of the them. Results have huge variations when performed back to back; and even when performed side by side with another Hanna checker. Hard to trust the results. The ULR phosphorous checker is a better option even though you have to convert to phosphate and change the units of measure.

The Alk and Cal both work great for me. They are in the same ballpark as results from chemical kits like the RSM series. Cal is a more involved test but once you get it down it's not really a big deal.

[lastlight]

I use traditional Elos kits for Alk and Calcium. Alk because that test is SO fast and easy. Calcium because the Hanna version is complained about often.

Here's my experience using the Phosphorus ULR the other day.

Test 1 - 18 (0.055 ppm) spilled a small amount of reagent outside tube.
Test 2 - Lost track of time mixing the reagent and it reset. Reagent wasted!
Test 3 - 3 (0.0092 ppm)
Test 4 - 4 (0.012 ppm)

I honestly didn't think I spilled much on the first go but I sure HOPE that explains the wildly different values. Keep meaning to make a little funnel but get impatient lol. Tests 3 and 4 were very close so I'm sorta confident my levels are very low at the moment.

[Delphinus]

+1 to the above comments. Alk is ridiculously easy and get good consistent results. Phosphorous ULR (where you have to multiply by 1000 and divide by 3.066 to get phosphate) is almost as easy to perform test but not quite (I find I will get variations in readings from one test to another, but if you think about it "ppb" is a VERY small resolution so it stands to reason there will have to be a small tolerance in values). Calcium is an easy test but has a few drawbacks, not the least that you need to distill 0.1ml of tank sample in "lab grade distilled water". Basically you are testing a droplet of water from your tank but diluted almost 50x (0.1ml into 5.0 ml) so accuracy is a bit of an issue especially given how sensitive it will be to possible contamination from your "lab grade distilled water" (I just use my own RO/DI which "ought" to be good enough...)

[FishyFishy!]

I was looking at the Hanna's too.

Does anyone have any experiences with the Red Sea kits?

[freeze]

I have them as well, have found the Hanna's way more consistent and easier. Red seas are okay but don't get the best or most consistent readings. They gave me a good ball park but nothing definate.

[The Guy]

I have the Hanna phos checker and find it good, the only thing is the little paks of regent . They are a PITA, wish they would come up with a liquid regent so you could just use a drop or 2 instead of trying to get all that powder into the test bottle with out spilling part of it.
I use Salifert testers for the alk, cal & mag.