Hanna Checker

So after starting the marine hobby 6 months ago I think I have come to the point where I need to test phosphates. I have enough grief with other color reading test and it seems that many suggest color phosphate test to be inaccurate and useless so here I come checkers!

My question is which checker should I look for? Seems to be 4 different ones related to phos, phosPHATE low range and high range and phosPHORUS low range and high range.

Im thinking I would be looking for the phosphate low range is that correct?? Do we not worry about phosphorus and onyl worry about phosphate in our systems?

 

Anyone?

 

Hey man, idk how much of a hurry you are to purchase one.

But I had the Hanna Low Range Phosphate Checker and ended up trading it in for the Phosphorus Ultra Low Range Checker.

I was getting inconsistent readings (.24ppm, .11ppm, .08ppm) back to back. After talking to Hanna they mentioned this was normal for the Phosphate checker and if I wanted a more accurate lower range test I would need the Phosphors ULR checker.

Reason I am asking if you are wanting to wait is because my new checker is in the mail. I will give you my own personal opinion on both and help you decide.

 

Interesting, thanks for the info! I read the AdvancedAquarist article on the checkers and thought the phosphate one was supposed to be jsut as good as the top dollar phosphate test. I have no clue where mine is at just want to start testing to see if its an issue.

My soft corals are doing absolutely amazing with the growth of my xenia and jasmine polyp being the fastest by far. My ricordea seems to be doing good, been splitting forever now and the top larger shroom looks awesome but the smaller one tryign to splti off doesnt always look as good for some reason maybe seperation anxiety lol. My real issue is my acans, after months of looking amazing and puffing up like huge pillows the past couple weeks they have looked terrible. I did move them right after they ate and that seems to be the downhill point so I moved them back to the original spot and 1 of the 2 colonies has made a decent comeback but the other still looks terrible so I did a coral dip on it a week ago and it has shown some progress but not much. it puffs up very little and the mouths are sometimes clamped shut but sometimes they gape open a little where you see the white center.

 

I know my Acans got upset because of to much light, one thing I have learned is make small changes and wait a few days. I think once they are back into place find the variable and go from there.

Look for:
Light
Flow
Neighbors
ect.

 

They are on the sandbed under a dual T5HO light. i do have a long 13 hour photoperiod but they were under that since iI bought them and they did amazing. The flow was the reason I mvoed them, I would see them puff up ncie and big and the flow would push them around a little, being a low flow corals I moved them to another area with less flow and thats when they went downhill so I moved them back figuring they were happy there for a long time so I guess if its not broken dont fix it. Nieghbors are a fungia that is a few inches away other than that I did purchase a new frogspawn but that was after the issues started. The frogspawn is a good distance away though.

Can part of the issue be food, I did feed them NLS pellets maybe phosphates in the pellets?? I fed the fungia pellets a few days ago and it stopped extending the past few days as well after having awesome PE.

SG 1.025-1.026
ph 8.0-8.2
Alk 9-11
Ca 460-480
Mag 1460-1520
ammonia and nitrite both read 0 with API for what thats worth
nitrate 0-10ppm
temp 78.5-80.5

Those have been my numbers for the past few weeks. I run Seachem SeaGel which is carbon and phosguard and change it every 2 weeks. Dont think it would be a toxin but am thinking I either damaged the coral in moving it while it was very puffy and it jsut needs time to heal and come back or my phosphates have steadily increased to high levels to the point it is now affecting my corals.

 

The Phosphorus ultra low range is the way to go. It gives you a result in parts per billion. To convert it to phosphate in parts per million, you multiply the result by 3.066 and then divide by 1000.

This hanna checker is the most accurate in the low range, which is where you want your phos levels to be ideally. It won't measure above 0.6 ppm of phosphate (unless you dilute the sample with RODI, and then adjust the result according the to ratio that you diluted the sample).

If you just want quick and dirty, but slightly less accurate, phos readings you can go with the phosphate checker. It saves you doing the math each time as well. ;-)

 

So is this what I want?
https://hannachecker.com/index.php?...n=com_virtuemart&Itemid=29&vmcchk=1&Itemid=29

If my levels are above .6 will it jsut show up as .6 or would it pop up an error message

 

I have consistent values with the normal phosphate checker. Also checked it against the other digital meters on the market. came in at the same value every time.

This kit is accurate and consistent (if done properly) for myself, and all of my other hardcore sps friends.

 

Agreed with dingo. I got the phosphate checker as well and it gives accurate readings. My seachem kit before kept showing none. The Hannah checker revealed for me twice I had 0.03ppm. I used the reference I got from seachem and my results are spot on.

My only beef with this kit is it came with only 6 regents, had I known that I would have grabbed the extra set as well.