Has anyone used the Hannah Nitrate Photometer?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
J

justonemoretank

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Mar 30, 2009
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Hey, has has anyone ever used this?

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+4345+15513&pcatid=15513

I'm thinking about it for my Christmas present because we're having problems with consistency on our Nitrate test. Anyone who's ever read any post I've written knows that I view testing as extremely important, and the discrepancies in my testing vs. my husband's testing is causing me a lot of worry. I try to keep nitrate under 20; however, only my husband's tests say they're under 20; mine say they're higher, so that stresses me out. (We're both using the same test kit!)

Before I spend out on this testing machine, I'd like to know if anyone has experience with it. It's pretty expensive, and so are the refills, but they're pre-measured and it seems a lot less likely to produce false results based on user error. Also, the results would be more specific than "20."

Thanks!
 
I've used a fancier machine in one of my labs, but they're the same basic thing. If you don't keep your cuvettes immaculate and scratch free, the test is null. The cuvettes MUST be perfect for the test. Meaning, if you scratch one and not the other, you'll get a skewed result. Of course, they will get foggy over time, so if the machine is to continue working correctly, you'll need some sort of way to calibrate it. (I don't forsee you having major trouble with the cuvettes getting slightly foggy.) Calibration is painless. You'll just need to use distilled water (we used de-ionized water) in a cuvette as a calibration mark. Once it's calibrated, you'll be able to load your sample and test. It's stupid easy to use if you set it up right.
 
Cool... thanks. They do sell replacement cuvettes, and I think they even sell the calibration liquid, but it's good to know I can at least save money on that. My husband uses similar-type tests at work (in nuclear power) but I wasn't sure how this worked out for the hobbyist -- if it ended up being worth it. I'm glad they're easy to use.
 
Come to think of it, I think I used the machine to do a nitrate test. It was a water sample taken from the hall water fountain. It was an environmental engineering class. Not really my cup of tea, but it was pretty neat to learn how the machine works and how to use it! Good luck if you get it!
 
Thanks, I probably will. LOL I get seriously bent out of shape about my nitrate levels.
 
I was under the impression that nitrate was the one item we should worry about the least. My tanks hover around 20ppm, but that may go up or down by 5ppm. I thought nitrite, ammonia and pH were of greatest concern. Why the worry over nitrate?
 
I just figure that if one of my fish gets sick, I want to be able to rule out everything possible. Keeping nitrates low is just better for the fish -- higher isn't bad, but I try and do the best I can for them. Obviously, they live with 0 nitrate in the wild, and I have (in a roundabout way, of course I don't catch them) taken them from the wild and stuck them in a box. I might as well make their experience as positive as possible!
 
20 is nothing to worry about. and i never noticed u obsessed about WQ. hmm how did i miss that? lol
 
Lepisosteus platyrhincus;3606422; said:
20 is nothing to worry about. and i never noticed u obsessed about WQ. hmm how did i miss that? lol
Click to expand...

LOL I'm going to get t-shirts printed up that say, "What are your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels?"

I might get another one made that says, "Bad things happen quickly in small volumes of water."


I know that 20 is nothing to worry about, but as I explained, I try to do my best, and I can do better than 20. Most of my tanks, excluding my pond (and some would even say that's understocked) don't have nearly the amount of fish in them that most people on here would try to fit in them. That's why I can keep nitrates around 20, and freak out when they're 30. If they're 30, that's abnormal -- I'm doing something out of the ordinary. So, I'd rather just know what the exact numbers are, and I'm tired of the test coming out different every time.
 
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