Cali Kid Corals

PSA: The importance of calibrating your Trident

NanoCrazed

NanoCrazed

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Can you tell at what point I switched out my reagent, and then calibrated? Picture said 1000 words. Calibrate those Tridents when switching out reagents regularly!

When I saw my numbers jump up, I erred on side of caution and shut off my doser, which contributed to the decline in Ca+ levels. But, you can imagine my surprise as to how far off the numbers were before and after calibration. Glad this is one time I wasn't being lazy...

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But here's the rub -- at which reagent change do you calibrate?

I was out of B, had some C, and still had A. When I changed B, the Ca went whacky. But Ca/Mg depend on B and C. So, throw away what's left of C and calibrate with fresh B&C, or calibrate with just fresh B while knowing that C will need to be replaced soon enough? :)
 
NanoCrazed said:
But here's the rub -- at which reagent change do you calibrate?

I was out of B, had some C, and still had A. When I changed B, the Ca went whacky. But Ca/Mg depend on B and C. So, throw away what's left of C and calibrate with fresh B&C, or calibrate with just fresh B while knowing that C will need to be replaced soon enough? :)
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You're supposed to replace all at the same time, and then the theory is both A bottles are the same lot so they should not need a calibration in between. That's the reason they make it hard to just replace B or C.
 
Meshmez said:
You're supposed to replace all at the same time, and then the theory is both A bottles are the same lot so they should not need a calibration in between. That's the reason they make it hard to just replace B or C.
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But frugal me, says don't waste reagents! As much as possible. They don't come cheap...and sometimes still a pain to get.

Outside of changing test robots to a different make
 
@NanoCrazed it may not have been sheer miscalibration, there apparently have been reagent batch or storage issues that causes Ca to appear to rise and Mg to appear to fall toward the halfway point of the reagent use. If you just change your reagent it will fix it.
 
Chromis said:
@NanoCrazed it may not have been sheer miscalibration, there apparently have been reagent batch or storage issues that causes Ca to appear to rise and Mg to appear to fall toward the halfway point of the reagent use. If you just change your reagent it will fix it.
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Oh that's right -- forgot you told me this.
 
When you run out of B or C, it is time to change all 3. Reagents do start to oxidise once exposed to air and will start to go bad. Which is why we do not recommend adding old left over reagent to a new bottle of reagent. Or running reagents past the 2 month mark.

If you want to change out only 1 bottle at a time, you have to calibrate at each change. You can calibrate using your own tank water instead of a calibration solution.

So say you only want to change B. Have the trident run a combined test. Change B. Then run calibration using the previous numbers.

It's easier to change all and calibrate once using calibration solution.

Reagents are currently readily available. Neptune Aquatics has a stack of 6 months. So does Aquatic Collection. Bay Bridge and Aqua Lab should have them as well.
 
Vhuang168 said:
When you run out of B or C, it is time to change all 3. Reagents do start to oxidise once exposed to air and will start to go bad. Which is why we do not recommend adding old left over reagent to a new bottle of reagent. Or running reagents past the 2 month mark.

If you want to change out only 1 bottle at a time, you have to calibrate at each change. You can calibrate using your own tank water instead of a calibration solution.

So say you only want to change B. Have the trident run a combined test. Change B. Then run calibration using the previous numbers.

It's easier to change all and calibrate once using calibration solution.

Reagents are currently readily available. Neptune Aquatics has a stack of 6 months. So does Aquatic Collection. Bay Bridge and Aqua Lab should have them as well.
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Thanks, Vincent! Didn't think you could calibrate with tank water for interim swaps. I am used to a very strict definition for calibration standards but that makes sense!
 
It is not a procedure we recommend. If you want a strict calibration standard then you should change all 3 together and calibrate with the calibration solution.
 
Why does the reagent not get consumed in equal parts?

Is it similar to manual testing where you add reagent until something happens, so depending on your tanks parameters it gets consumed differently? Or is it based on how frequent tests are scheduled?
 
max_nano said:
Why does the reagent not get consumed in equal parts?

Is it similar to manual testing where you add reagent until something happens, so depending on your tanks parameters it gets consumed differently? Or is it based on how frequent tests are scheduled?
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I believe it's the same as manual testing. So depending on your parameters, usage will vary
 
max_nano said:
Why does the reagent not get consumed in equal parts?

Is it similar to manual testing where you add reagent until something happens, so depending on your tanks parameters it gets consumed differently? Or is it based on how frequent tests are scheduled?
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There are various reasons. 1 is due to the error checking the Trident does. If the test is vastly different from the previous test, it will run the test again to make sure. I'm not sure how many times it will test if the results are off but that will cause 1 reagent to be used more than the others. Or if you have a blockage in the line and the Trident gets an error, it will try to the test again to check if the blockage is cleared.
 
Also to add we guaranty ~121 test in a two month reagent kit.
We need to cover customers that keep their Alk in the low 7 to the high 15 and because the Trident is doing a titration test there are more drops to the to the end point on higher Alk readings. On average when looking at a lot of customers Tridents when keeping Alk at 9.5 or less you will have 50% or more of reagent A when B & C are exhausted. However if you run Alk 9.5 or higher you will have 50% or less of the second bottle of reagent A. (Note this is based on the minimum testing of 4x a day)

B & C should be close to the same % left in most cases
 
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