Salifert mixed reagents...ruined?

James77

Team RC
On my Salifert Calcium test kit, I accidentally put the remaining CA3 after the test into the CA2 bottle, maybe 1/10 a ml into a nealry new kit.

Is the kit still ok?
 
Is the CA3 the dye? If so, the kit might be okay, at least for a while. I'd try contacting Salifert, though. The longevity might be reduced.
 
If I am correct, you might be OK. Here is my thought process.

Reagent 2 is a base used to raise the pH. Reagent 3, which is probably EDTA, is the calcium titrant. Mixing Reagent 3 with Reagent 2 neutralizes a bit of the base but more importantly, all future tests will require slightly less titrant.

The conclusion is that future test results will likely underestimate the true calcium concentration a bit. If you are going to lose sleep over this, buy a new kit. Otherwise, measure the calcium level more often and use up the kit more quickly.
 
If I am correct, you might be OK. Here is my thought process.

Reagent 2 is a base used to raise the pH. Reagent 3, which is probably EDTA, is the calcium titrant. Mixing Reagent 3 with Reagent 2 neutralizes a bit of the base but more importantly, all future tests will require slightly less titrant.

The conclusion is that future test results will likely underestimate the true calcium concentration a bit. If you are going to lose sleep over this, buy a new kit. Otherwise, measure the calcium level more often and use up the kit more quickly.

Not going to lose sleep :lol:

That's what I am hoping, that it will just be slightly less accurate. I would just rather not spend the money waiting on the trident as I have to have others see the colors of these things. I guess I could also re-test now and see how close it is to my last reading.

Thanks both for the replies.
 
For the price of reagents, I would just toss them and buy new ones. Our hobby grade kits already have a huge error rate and now you just made it even less accurate.



For 23$ I would rather have a test kit to be within it's stated error rate then one that I have no idea what it's error rate is, or how it's going to interpret the results.
 
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