More bio pellets questions.

[jroovers]

The only issue I had seen so far was a tiny bit of cyano in my sump which I really didn't find to big of a deal as it was literally a small patch on my chaeto that I manually removed and then left my sump light off for a couple of days. So far it hasn't returned. I don't have plans of adding more pellets and have left at least 2 weeks in between. I didn't expect over night results when I started the pellet either I just asked when I should start seeing results. As for adding 100mls at a time I am going on recommendations of the bio pellet manufacturer and another hobbiest who runs bio pellets successfully. Again I greatly appreciate all of help. Thank you

I wouldn't worry about adding another 100, if you do add and it and see more cyano than you want, you can always throttle the flow back a bit or remove some pellets and get back to 200.  If you've been running for several weeks though already I would anticipate you having seen a reduction in nitrates by now, but maybe a temporary bump up is do to other factors.  Definitely seems like you are on the right path IMO.

 

[DerekL]

I did notice that one of my Bangii cardinals is missing maybe that would explain the bump up in nutrients. Anyways my nitrates have been steadily dropping daily now as I have been checking everyday and this has been without doing a water change. My phosphates have been at .02ppm for awhile now hope to see that start to drop soon too. Hopefully I will start to see improvements in my tank as I have suffered enough loss and would hate to lose any more frags. I seem to have lost frags that were doing so well. At least what Lps I have hasn't seemed affected by this. I am just going to leave my tank be and hopefully recover and mature more for awhile before adding any more corals. Just stick to my weekly water changes and allow the biopellets and gfo do what the need to do.

 

[Pistol]

I did notice that one of my Bangii cardinals is missing maybe that would explain the bump up in nutrients. Anyways my nitrates have been steadily dropping daily now as I have been checking everyday and this has been without doing a water change. My phosphates have been at .02ppm for awhile now hope to see that start to drop soon too. Hopefully I will start to see improvements in my tank as I have suffered enough loss and would hate to lose any more frags. I seem to have lost frags that were doing so well. At least what Lps I have hasn't seemed affected by this. I am just going to leave my tank be and hopefully recover and mature more for awhile before adding any more corals. Just stick to my weekly water changes and allow the biopellets and gfo do what the need to do.

What do you use to test phosphate?, I use hanna phosphorus ulr (garbage), just did 4 tests and got 4 different results 6ppb, 14ppb, 27ppb, 32ppb, tests were performed a minute apart and in the exact same fashion, and I changed the battery a few days ago and the vial is clean and it is not micro bubbles.

 

[TORX]

I have no idea how these tests even accurately measure such small numbers. I mean seriously, they cost 40$ and can see 6 parts out of 1,000,000,000 units in a 4 ml bottle? That is something like 0.000000006% of the fluid in the vial contains phosphates. Just using a AA battery? A few missed or extra grains of regent will skew the results. These tests just floor me.

 

[DerekL]

I use just the regular Hanna phosphate checker. After reading the thread about you guys getting results all over the charts I repeat the test 3 times and I actually get the same results for all three tests. I also have a salifert phosphate test kit and double check ever so often which it. My nitrates are dropping and my stag colonies both had the awesome polyp extention today so I am praying that I am going to see a turn around

 

[AdInfinitum]

What do you use to test phosphate?, I use hanna phosphorus ulr (garbage), just did 4 tests and got 4 different results 6ppb, 14ppb, 27ppb, 32ppb, tests were performed a minute apart and in the exact same fashion, and I changed the battery a few days ago and the vial is clean and it is not micro bubbles.

I recently got one of the Hanna ulr checkers and have been quite pleased with it's accuracy and consistency considering the price and bearing in mind the expected deviation range.  I have tested it with phosphate lab standard solutions and compared the results with much more expensive field effluent testers and it has been within expected tolerances.

Is your checker old? I do expect that for $50 it will have a limited lifespan of acceptable accuracy.

A couple minutes of shaking and a few minutes of waiting sure beats cooking a sample in a thermoreactor for 30min. (the standard lab procedure)

 

[Reef Hero]

I just got some new reagents..... Batch is 030 I think..... The batch I had before was 025 and I got weird various readings.
I will test tomorrow and see how it goes. Hey rob, what reagent batch do you have? Pistol? And everyone else?



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[AdInfinitum]

I have lot 27 and 30.

There have been other posts here and elsewhere referring to lot 25 as being questionable...

 

[unibob]

I contacted hanna and they said there is nothing wrong with the batch 25.

 

[AdInfinitum]

I contacted hanna and they said there is nothing wrong with the batch 25.

They are a reputable manufacturer of lab equipment and supplies.  I would tend to believe that their standards would carry over into their consumer grade products.

 

[Pistol]

I use just the regular Hanna phosphate checker. After reading the thread about you guys getting results all over the charts I repeat the test 3 times and I actually get the same results for all three tests. I also have a salifert phosphate test kit and double check ever so often which it. My nitrates are dropping and my stag colonies both had the awesome polyp extention today so I am praying that I am going to see a turn around

I had one of those as well and that was the problem, everything was the same result, I had 2 separate systems and they both tested the same every time.

 

[Pistol]

[quote author=unibob link=topic=7373.msg76557#msg76557 date=1389501166]
I contacted hanna and they said there is nothing wrong with the batch 25.

They are a reputable manufacturer of lab equipment and supplies.  I would tend to believe that their standards would carry over into their consumer grade products.
[/quote]Their only standard is to steal our money and run to the bank with it and I'll bet it's an offshore account so they don't have to pay any tax on it either.

 

[DerekL]

Thank u for the concern but I am testing 3 different systems with my Hanna checker. I also have a 29gallon biocube and I have tested the phosphates in it as well and get a different result. I have also checked my neighbours with a different result. I have seen variations of .001ppm in my display tank bit it been awhile. I have also checked my neighbours water and again his tested different then my 90 and bio cube. I am not saying I trust it a it's a lab grade test but who has a lab available other then I think one guy one here. But it has to be somewhat reliable to be sold to us.

 

[Pistol]

Thank u for the concern but I am testing 3 different systems with my Hanna checker. I also have a 29gallon biocube and I have tested the phosphates in it as well and get a different result. I have also checked my neighbours with a different result. I have seen variations of .001ppm in my display tank bit it been awhile. I have also checked my neighbours water and again his tested different then my 90 and bio cube. I am not saying I trust it a it's a lab grade test but who has a lab available other then I think one guy one here. But it has to be somewhat reliable to be sold to us.

No it doesn't, it doesn't have to be reliable at all, there is nobody regulating or inspecting what they are selling, there is no way for the average person purchasing the product to prove its reliability, its called good marketing, it's only accurate to + or - .04ppm, the reagents are poorly packaged and vary from lot to lot,  the phosphorus ulr is supposed to be accurate to + or - 5ppb yet results vary by 28ppb with the same lot # reagents, it's good marketing, they got over $100 of my money and I got an unreliable tester.

 

[Reef Hero]

[quote author=DerekL link=topic=7373.msg76575#msg76575 date=1389541163]
Thank u for the concern but I am testing 3 different systems with my Hanna checker. I also have a 29gallon biocube and I have tested the phosphates in it as well and get a different result. I have also checked my neighbours with a different result. I have seen variations of .001ppm in my display tank bit it been awhile. I have also checked my neighbours water and again his tested different then my 90 and bio cube. I am not saying I trust it a it's a lab grade test but who has a lab available other then I think one guy one here. But it has to be somewhat reliable to be sold to us.

No it doesn't, it doesn't have to be reliable at all, there is nobody regulating or inspecting what they are selling, there is no way for the average person purchasing the product to prove its reliability, its called good marketing, it's only accurate to + or - .04ppm, the reagents are poorly packaged and vary from lot to lot,  the phosphorus ulr is supposed to be accurate to + or - 5ppb yet results vary by 28ppb with the same lot # reagents, it's good marketing, they got over $100 of my money and I got an unreliable tester.
[/quote]have you tried other lots??


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Pistol]

[quote author=Pistol link=topic=7373.msg76581#msg76581 date=1389543833]
[quote author=DerekL link=topic=7373.msg76575#msg76575 date=1389541163]
Thank u for the concern but I am testing 3 different systems with my Hanna checker. I also have a 29gallon biocube and I have tested the phosphates in it as well and get a different result. I have also checked my neighbours with a different result. I have seen variations of .001ppm in my display tank bit it been awhile. I have also checked my neighbours water and again his tested different then my 90 and bio cube. I am not saying I trust it a it's a lab grade test but who has a lab available other then I think one guy one here. But it has to be somewhat reliable to be sold to us.

No it doesn't, it doesn't have to be reliable at all, there is nobody regulating or inspecting what they are selling, there is no way for the average person purchasing the product to prove its reliability, its called good marketing, it's only accurate to + or - .04ppm, the reagents are poorly packaged and vary from lot to lot,  the phosphorus ulr is supposed to be accurate to + or - 5ppb yet results vary by 28ppb with the same lot # reagents, it's good marketing, they got over $100 of my money and I got an unreliable tester.
[/quote]have you tried other lots??


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
[/quote]Currently I have lots 27, 30, 34 and they are all all over the place, lot 30 consistently reads lower than the other 2, I also find the packets seem to have some of the edges sealed more than they should but I can't tell if any reagent is trapped or not. I know some of my previous lots were 25 but can't remember the others.

 

[DerekL]

[quote author=DerekL link=topic=7373.msg76575#msg76575 date=1389541163]
Thank u for the concern but I am testing 3 different systems with my Hanna checker. I also have a 29gallon biocube and I have tested the phosphates in it as well and get a different result. I have also checked my neighbours with a different result. I have seen variations of .001ppm in my display tank bit it been awhile. I have also checked my neighbours water and again his tested different then my 90 and bio cube. I am not saying I trust it a it's a lab grade test but who has a lab available other then I think one guy one here. But it has to be somewhat reliable to be sold to us.

No it doesn't, it doesn't have to be reliable at all, there is nobody regulating or inspecting what they are selling, there is no way for the average person purchasing the product to prove its reliability, its called good marketing, it's only accurate to + or - .04ppm, the reagents are poorly packaged and vary from lot to lot,  the phosphorus ulr is supposed to be accurate to + or - 5ppb yet results vary by 28ppb with the same lot # reagents, it's good marketing, they got over $100 of my money and I got an unreliable tester.


[/quote]

I do also have a salifert test kit for phosphates and it reads the same as my Hanna. Then if all these test kits are so unreliable then why do we even bother testing our water? If you want unreliable purchase Red Sea pro phosphate that test kits have me results like you mentioned getting with your Hanna. I guess no matter what it is in our hobby there can be bad batches. I know someone who lost all of the sps due to a bad batch of reef crystal salt years ago. So Pistol what test kit are you using now for you phosphates? I am not trying to start a war I do believe that yes there was a few bad batches of reagents for the Hanna checkers. The lot # on my HI 713-25 phosphate low range reagent is H 055. I do believe that my phosphate levels that I am getting are accurate as there the chance that my Hanna and salifert test would both be bad. I am just asking if all of these tests are so unreliable why do we bother checking? If and when I do get readings like you I will be contacting Hanna myself as yes it is a fairly pricey test kit.

 

[Pistol]

[quote author=Pistol link=topic=7373.msg76581#msg76581 date=1389543833]
[quote author=DerekL link=topic=7373.msg76575#msg76575 date=1389541163]
Thank u for the concern but I am testing 3 different systems with my Hanna checker. I also have a 29gallon biocube and I have tested the phosphates in it as well and get a different result. I have also checked my neighbours with a different result. I have seen variations of .001ppm in my display tank bit it been awhile. I have also checked my neighbours water and again his tested different then my 90 and bio cube. I am not saying I trust it a it's a lab grade test but who has a lab available other then I think one guy one here. But it has to be somewhat reliable to be sold to us.

No it doesn't, it doesn't have to be reliable at all, there is nobody regulating or inspecting what they are selling, there is no way for the average person purchasing the product to prove its reliability, its called good marketing, it's only accurate to + or - .04ppm, the reagents are poorly packaged and vary from lot to lot,  the phosphorus ulr is supposed to be accurate to + or - 5ppb yet results vary by 28ppb with the same lot # reagents, it's good marketing, they got over $100 of my money and I got an unreliable tester.


[/quote]

I do also have a salifert test kit for phosphates and it reads the same as my Hanna. Then if all these test kits are so unreliable then why do we even bother testing our water? If you want unreliable purchase Red Sea pro phosphate that test kits have me results like you mentioned getting with your Hanna. I guess no matter what it is in our hobby there can be bad batches. I know someone who lost all of the sps due to a bad batch of reef crystal salt years ago. So Pistol what test kit are you using now for you phosphates? I am not trying to start a war I do believe that yes there was a few bad batches of reagents for the Hanna checkers. The lot # on my HI 713-25 phosphate low range reagent is H 055. I do believe that my phosphate levels that I am getting are accurate as there the chance that my Hanna and salifert test would both be bad. I am just asking if all of these tests are so unreliable why do we bother checking? If and when I do get readings like you I will be contacting Hanna myself as yes it is a fairly pricey test kit.
[/quote]I've tried them all, Yes po4 is a tough one, I was just wondering because everyone else seems to know what their po4 is and I don't have a clue. I'm sick and tired of giving companies like hanna my good hard earned money for their crap, I thought they were better than that, I was wrong, my bad. I've contacted them in the past and got all the mumbo-jumbo, they do good mumbo-jumbo though.

 

[DerekL]

I agree with 100% it is frustrating to shovel out our hard earned dollar for crappy ass merchandise. When I bought the Red Sea pro it was an algae set so it came with nitrate test as well. The next time i went into that store is when I bought my bio pellets and he only had the NPX brand pellets and the 200ml bag was 10$. When I paid I threw the 20 bill on the floor he asked what I was doing I told him I was throwing my money away like I did when I bought the Red Sea tests kits. I haven't been back to that store since. I  sorry to hear that Hanna is blowing smoke up your ass. It happens a little too often in this hobby and it's sad with the price of everything.