Quick ICP head to head results

[Alexander1312]

It's the one @Thales and Ben recommend on Reef Beef. Honestly it's HEAVY, which leads me to believe why it's so expensive and doesn't drift like the cheapo ones (there's no dinky screw, it's a huge ring). I haven't had to adjust it at all since I bought it over a year ago. I still use the TM hydrometer for my water prep since I leave it in there while it's mixing as an estimate.

I called up the customer service with a question about the lid sticker and you can tell it's just one of their no-nonsense engineers with a phone by their desk.

You can buy direct like I did (if you don't like to buy from Amazon). https://www.veegee.com/collections/handheld-refractometer/products/handheld-salinity-refractometer

Great thank you. Will buy this ASAP. I have not used a manual refractometer since my initial reefing days and I dreaded this device so much, but looks like there are some improvement with this one, i.e., magnified scale, and ATC, which is great.

The TM Hydrometer always needs a (often large) correction factor to get to 35 PSU, even if temp is measured separately and accounted for, which is annoying. The reason folks thought this is such an accurate device is Triton ICP often matches their hydrometer results. The only alternative is a rather expensive conductivity meter (800-1600), the one that Fauna uses is a 2k device. So 160 USD is a steal if it gets to a 35 PSU ICP validated result.

I recognize not everyone cares so much about hitting exactly 35 PSU, but I do consider this a foundational parameter, hence the focus.

 

[Slingfox]

Great thank you. Will buy this ASAP. I have not used a manual refractometer since my initial reefing days and I dreaded this device so much, but looks like there are some improvement with this one, i.e., magnified scale, and ATC, which is great.

The TM Hydrometer always needs a (often large) correction factor to get to 35 PSU, even if temp is measured separately and accounted for, which is annoying. The reason folks thought this is such an accurate device is Triton ICP often matches their hydrometer results. The only alternative is a rather expensive conductivity meter (800-1600), the one that Fauna uses is a 2k device. So 160 USD is a steal if it gets to a 35 PSU ICP validated result.

I recognize not everyone cares so much about hitting exactly 35 PSU, but I do consider this a foundational parameter, hence the focus.

I was listening to one of the reefing podcasts recently. They had two persons on who do ICP consulting for Fauna Marin. Both of them said that the majority of cases they help on involve tanks where the salinity is off.

Most people in the hobby use cheap-o refractometers. Those are basically complete junk (or need to be calibrated with each use) and therefor many run there tanks at the wrong salinity. Most commonly their salinity is too low.

 

[Alexander1312]

I was listening to one of the reefing podcasts recently. They had two persons on who do ICP consulting for Fauna Marin. Both of them said that the majority of cases they help on involve tanks where the salinity is off.

Most people in the hobby use cheap-o refractometers. Those are basically complete junk (or need to be calibrated with each use) and therefor many run there tanks at the wrong salinity. Most commonly their salinity is too low.

Yes. Fauna receives approx 800-900 ICPs daily, from all around the globe, and the US seems to be, unfortunately, leading the salinity discrepancies, specifically re large deviations.

 

[Alexander1312]

It's the one @Thales and Ben recommend on Reef Beef. Honestly it's HEAVY, which leads me to believe why it's so expensive and doesn't drift like the cheapo ones (there's no dinky screw, it's a huge ring). I haven't had to adjust it at all since I bought it over a year ago. I still use the TM hydrometer for my water prep since I leave it in there while it's mixing as an estimate.

I called up the customer service with a question about the lid sticker and you can tell it's just one of their no-nonsense engineers with a phone by their desk.

You can buy direct like I did (if you don't like to buy from Amazon). https://www.veegee.com/collections/handheld-refractometer/products/handheld-salinity-refractometer

Curious what your question was about the lid sticker, as I might have the same.

 

[Darkxerox]

Curious what your question was about the lid sticker, as I might have the same.

If you can pull it off (I did and it was fine).

 

[H2OPlayar]

Getting a 3 day response on if I have a cracked magnet or some major issue is a big plus for me too.

That's why I started running cuprisorb in all my tanks, I (theoretically) get the visual indication from the bag if any metals get absorbed.

 

[Darkxerox]

That's why I started running cuprisorb in all my tanks, I (theoretically) get the visual indication from the bag if any metals get absorbed.

I wanted to at first but we want a tiny bit of copper and other traces right? There's no perfect way of knowing unfortunately.

 

[Alexander1312]

I wanted to at first but we want a tiny bit of copper and other traces right? There's no perfect way of knowing unfortunately.

Yes, we do/corals want copper in the tank.

 

[Coral reefer]

You're probably right. My middle school science teacher would have sent the ICP back marked down for no error bars lol. I guess that stuff doesn't really stick unless you make a career out of it.

This is America. We don’t like science…anymore…

 

[Alexander1312]

This is America. We don’t like science…anymore…

Most labs are in Europe,, though .

 

[CharlesJohns58]

Most people can barely read a regular bar graph, let alone understand standard error, or accuracy vs. precision, so I can see why they leave it out. Technically I should have done at least N=3 for each test, but a) I'm lazy and b) I only had one of the free TM kits. I would have liked to see reportable range instead of just ideal ranges though.

What you can ask for is the minimum quantification level (MQL). Some of these companies provide you with the minimum detection limit (MDL) and you often see this listed. Problem is, its not very useful since the MDL basically just tells you what is the lowest level that a test method can tell you that an element present. It does NOT accurately tell you what the level is. The MQL tells you what the minimum level is where the test can still provide an actual accurate value.