What ppm of Phosphate do you have in your SPS tanks?

[fishguy597]

Well I have to say I haven't checked mine for a while till today. I went to my lfs and had them check it and its at .12. This blows now I have to run some gfo and my colors are looking so good...
darn it.

the little green Hanna checker is it worth it. I just don't understand how the other ones are a couple hundo and this is $50. I'm a firm believer you get what you pay for.what is the downfall to this unit?

 

[REEF SMAC]

It took me a long time to finally man up to getting hanna low range meter. I used API, then Red Sea Color Wheel thingee and the hanna checker. But overall I'm really happy with the meter. Yea it was $200 bucks but once you bite the bullet you won't miss it. I paid more for all the other cheaper kits combined trying to avoid paying for the nice one.

Could not have said it better. Thought my PO4 was at zero all the time too, until I finally bought the same meter v1...rotate showed us at the beginning of this thread.
I pretty much use the same technique as v1...rotate and sahin to use it.
Whorth every penny of that $200 to finally get an accurate reading IME.

I try to keep mine reading at .03 but it does creep up to .05 when I get lazy with my GFO.

 

[MammothReefer]

Well I have to say I haven't checked mine for a while till today. I went to my lfs and had them check it and its at .12. This blows now I have to run some gfo and my colors are looking so good...
darn it.

the little green Hanna checker is it worth it. I just don't understand how the other ones are a couple hundo and this is $50. I'm a firm believer you get what you pay for.what is the downfall to this unit?

It has more a possible variance. I don't know the exact +/- but that's it.

 

[OneReef]

 

[sahin]

Haha, thats cool. Photo showing the result and the testing equipment.

Many many thanks for posting in this thread. Please continue posting your results and any discussion/commentary relating the level of phosphate and SPS coral colour is appreciated. Thanks! :thumbsup:

 

[sportzfish]

Well I have to say I haven't checked mine for a while till today. I went to my lfs and had them check it and its at .12. This blows now I have to run some gfo and my colors are looking so good...
darn it.

the little green Hanna checker is it worth it. I just don't understand how the other ones are a couple hundo and this is $50. I'm a firm believer you get what you pay for.what is the downfall to this unit?

Why do anything if the colors are looking good in your tank? What if the test at the lfs is off?

 

[RynosReef]

My experience with the hanna checker was a little shaky. Maybe others had a better experience. Mine could never give me a repeatable reading of my phosphates. So I'd test the water and get 0.06, and be thinking I needed to replace gfo or do a water change or something. Then I'd retest it 5 min later and get 0.02. Retest again a few minutes later and get 0.04 ect. Before I discovered this I kept replacing my gfo probably way more than i needed too. I know this because after I discovered it i'd take a sample to my LFS to use his milwaukee martini po4 meter. His reading was 0.00 no matter what the checker was reading everytime.

I thought maybe that microbubbles in the test vial were throwing the readings so i tried to rotate the tube to get the air out and made sure the vial was clean. I still got readings all over the place.

My hanna low range meter doesn't have that problem. It reads the same reading every time which really gives me some piece of mind when trying to figure out what my tank actually needs. And it saves money too! GFO isn't cheap to constantly replace and making new saltwater is a pain too if you're making water changes for nothing.

It's definitely nice to get a digital readout of the test result, instead of a color comparison. But the number still needs to be accurate.

Well that was my experience... maybe others had better results with the checker?

 

[sahin]

My experience with the hanna checker was a little shaky. Maybe others had a better experience. Mine could never give me a repeatable reading of my phosphates. So I'd test the water and get 0.06, and be thinking I needed to replace gfo or do a water change or something. Then I'd retest it 5 min later and get 0.02. Retest again a few minutes later and get 0.04 ect. Before I discovered this I kept replacing my gfo probably way more than i needed too. I know this because after I discovered it i'd take a sample to my LFS to use his milwaukee martini po4 meter. His reading was 0.00 no matter what the checker was reading everytime.

I thought maybe that microbubbles in the test vial were throwing the readings so i tried to rotate the tube to get the air out and made sure the vial was clean. I still got readings all over the place.

My hanna low range meter doesn't have that problem. It reads the same reading every time which really gives me some piece of mind when trying to figure out what my tank actually needs. And it saves money too! GFO isn't cheap to constantly replace and making new saltwater is a pain too if you're making water changes for nothing.

It's definitely nice to get a digital readout of the test result, instead of a color comparison. But the number still needs to be accurate.

Well that was my experience... maybe others had better results with the checker?

I have the Hanna ULR Phosphorus meter and I find it very consistent with results. The first one I got was defective and would throw all kinds of numbers even with testing within a few minutes. I returned it to Hanna UK and was sent a new one (this one also has a 3 minute timer instead of the 2 minute timer) and it works very well.

 

[MammothReefer]

My experience with the hanna checker was a little shaky. Maybe others had a better experience. Mine could never give me a repeatable reading of my phosphates. So I'd test the water and get 0.06, and be thinking I needed to replace gfo or do a water change or something. Then I'd retest it 5 min later and get 0.02. Retest again a few minutes later and get 0.04 ect. Before I discovered this I kept replacing my gfo probably way more than i needed too. I know this because after I discovered it i'd take a sample to my LFS to use his milwaukee martini po4 meter. His reading was 0.00 no matter what the checker was reading everytime.

I thought maybe that microbubbles in the test vial were throwing the readings so i tried to rotate the tube to get the air out and made sure the vial was clean. I still got readings all over the place.

My hanna low range meter doesn't have that problem. It reads the same reading every time which really gives me some piece of mind when trying to figure out what my tank actually needs. And it saves money too! GFO isn't cheap to constantly replace and making new saltwater is a pain too if you're making water changes for nothing.

It's definitely nice to get a digital readout of the test result, instead of a color comparison. But the number still needs to be accurate.

Well that was my experience... maybe others had better results with the checker?

It's all about the "curve line" in the water, and the powder. Make sure you are being extra diligent with adding the same amount of powder every time and make sure you are always filling it up exactly the same. I have a routine of sorts I use where I first cut the packet in half and open it all the way up, then bow it like a v to shake all the powder into the middle. Since the powder sometimes sticks in the walls of the packet it's not going to be exactly the same every time, but i've managed to get it close enough..but more important what I do is I test my phosphates once a week and if I have a "anomaly" number I don't do anything. Only if I see a steady rise over a few weeks or a steady decline. I wish they would switch phos from powder to liquid like the alk checker.

 

[M Woodhill]

My experience with the hanna checker was a little shaky. Maybe others had a better experience. Mine could never give me a repeatable reading of my phosphates. So I'd test the water and get 0.06, and be thinking I needed to replace gfo or do a water change or something. Then I'd retest it 5 min later and get 0.02. Retest again a few minutes later and get 0.04 ect. Before I discovered this I kept replacing my gfo probably way more than i needed too. I know this because after I discovered it i'd take a sample to my LFS to use his milwaukee martini po4 meter. His reading was 0.00 no matter what the checker was reading everytime.

I thought maybe that microbubbles in the test vial were throwing the readings so i tried to rotate the tube to get the air out and made sure the vial was clean. I still got readings all over the place.

My hanna low range meter doesn't have that problem. It reads the same reading every time which really gives me some piece of mind when trying to figure out what my tank actually needs. And it saves money too! GFO isn't cheap to constantly replace and making new saltwater is a pain too if you're making water changes for nothing.

It's definitely nice to get a digital readout of the test result, instead of a color comparison. But the number still needs to be accurate.

Well that was my experience... maybe others had better results with the checker?

mine does the same

few minutes ago it read 0.06 and then 0.00

my results always fluctuate from 0.07 to 0.00

 

[dzhuo]

Well that was my experience... maybe others had better results with the checker?

The numbers you report are still within the error margin (+/- 0.04) of the checker so technically they might still be accurate. The inconsistency does sound weird. Dana Riddle reviewed both the Hana alk and phosphate checker and have found the phosphate checker to be remarkably accurate compare to a $3,500 spectrometer:

Product Review: Inexpensive Analytical Devices: Hanna Instruments' Checkers: Alkalinity and Phosphate

The alk checker, on the other hand, almost always reports high.

 

[MammothReefer]

The alk checker, on the other hand, almost always reports high.

My alk checker matches my salifert kits perfectly.

 

[OneReef]

I have found that even with the error range with the Hanna, it is more useful than test kits like API, Red Sea, etc, that usually always say '0' even when there are phosphates present.

 

[crlmn11]

Mine run at .02-.04 on a Hach total phosphate test. I have run them lower and had tips bleach on sps or had their colors really fade. Now I try to maintain and at these levels and test weekly. At this level and with a few snails and urchins no algae and good color on everything.

 

[Mj75]

It's all about the "curve line" in the water, and the powder. Make sure you are being extra diligent with adding the same amount of powder every time and make sure you are always filling it up exactly the same. I have a routine of sorts I use where I first cut the packet in half and open it all the way up, then bow it like a v to shake all the powder into the middle. Since the powder sometimes sticks in the walls of the packet it's not going to be exactly the same every time, but i've managed to get it close enough..but more important what I do is I test my phosphates once a week and if I have a "anomaly" number I don't do anything. Only if I see a steady rise over a few weeks or a steady decline. I wish they would switch phos from powder to liquid like the alk checker.

+1 the Hanna people should come up with a better way of delivering that powder.

 

[sahin]

+1 the Hanna people should come up with a better way of delivering that powder.

I would love for Hanna to come out with a liquid reagent. The power stuff is too fidley and sometimes if the power does not dissolve and catches on the side, it can produce an errornous result.

So.......the general view I can gather from this thread is that phosphate levels at or around on average 0.03ppm (disregarding user and testing equipment error) will yield decent colour?

Please continue the discussion. Perhaps attached a photo or two if you agree? Disagree?

 

[netsurge]

I just purchased the Hanna phos. checker. got 0.24... Think I need to do some water changes and switch the GFO.

 

[netsurge]

OK, just re-tested and got .04. Testing again.

third test shows 0.0

fourth test - auto turnoff

fifth test - auto off - youtuuuube!!!!

Sixth test - 0.01

So far... i have used up all the reagents that came with it.. verry frustrating. Why in the heck does it tome out so fast.

 

[Tony B (UK)]

In my current tank ive never tested for po4, I only test alkalinity, calcium & magnesium.

 

[MammothReefer]

OK, just re-tested and got .04. Testing again.

third test shows 0.0

fourth test - auto turnoff

fifth test - auto off - youtuuuube!!!!

Sixth test - 0.01

So far... i have used up all the reagents that came with it.. verry frustrating. Why in the heck does it tome out so fast.

The trick is to hold down the button then you get a 3min timer. (when it shows c2) What I usally do is prep my packet first, get the water in there do C1, then when it shows C2, pull out the vial added the regent THEN hold down c2 so I get 3 mins.. Usually everything is mixed up with about min to 45 seconds to spare.