Hanna Tester - Which ones first?

[Curl58]

I have some cash to buy 2 or 3 Hanna testers. What order should I get them in? I have a mix reef tank. I just want to be able to get a little bit more accurate results vise looking at colors. I'm sure there are allot of opinions on this so I look forward to hearing them.

Thanks

 

[SkullV]

Just get the Phosphate tester. Salifert/Red Sea Pro/LaMotte are fine for everything else.

 

[marke]

agree you may only need the phosphate one. Buy extra regement. I have the phosphate, alk, and calcium but find myself using the salifert more often for the alk and calcium as well as nitrate.

 

[chem-e]

I only have the alk tester, but I'm always using this tester as alk test on my Salifert is so much more work than with the Hanna. Also, with a reef I find that consistency in alk is one of the most important parameters, so I check this more frequently.

I'd recommend the alk and phosphate over the calcium. After watching the Hanna calcium test demo, I wasn't that impressed. I didn't feel like it saved much time, so I'm still using Salifert for Ca.

 

[emoore]

I have the phosphate checker and I really like it. I think I might try to Alk one and skip the calcium one. I don't check calcium that often anyway.

 

[Waterobert]

I would say buy phosphate checker because it is much better than test kits. It is not perfect but good enough. Alkalinity would be my second selection, however I agree with other poster that test kit is as good as checker.

 

[FragIt Dan]

+1 on phosphate as top on the list.


Dan

 

[tommy tomato]

hanna checkers are 15% off at marine depot right now

 

[Curl58]

Thanks for the recommendation.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Be sure to get the HI736 if you want a Hannna Phosphate checker.

The HI713 is not really accurate enough (IMO) to be very useful for most reef purposes, since it has +/- 0.04 ppm uncertainty, making it possible that if the tank has 0.04 ppm, any reading from 0.00 to 0.08 ppm is within specification.

The 736 claims a bit better uncertainty, but Hanna seems confused on the exact specs, either +/- 0.015 ppm or +/- 0.03 ppm, depending on what you read from them.

 

[Steve175]

Phosphate only. I also own the Calcium and Alk checkers but have gone back to Salifert for both of these as the latter is easier/faster IMO.

 

[solitude127]

Another vote for the PO4 checker. I also have the CA and Alk checker as well and really like all the checkers I have. If you do get the CA checker, make sure you have some pure RO/DI water.