Worth switching to ABC Reagents? Any issues?

[thesassyindian]

Folks,
I need to replenish my Trident reagents.
Is it worth switching to ABC from the standard Neptune ones?

 

[thesassyindian]

I did not realize how much the price difference was!! Jeez!!

 

[Darkxerox]

@under_water_ninja carries them in fill your own refill containers now, way cheaper!

 

[Hamada]

Been using ABC reagents for well over a year, 0 issues. I just top off when my trident runs low. They also don't expire if stored properly.

 

[thesassyindian]

Wait, so Neptune's expiration / "do not mix remaining reagents" is hogwash?

 

[thesassyindian]

@under_water_ninja carries them in fill your own refill containers now, way cheaper!

Unfortunately I live on the peninsula, so Oakland is a little too far for me. Will have to order directly from their website.

@Hamada you live close by - where do you get your reagents from?

 

[Hamada]

Wait, so Neptune's expiration / "do not mix remaining reagents" is hogwash?

Yup

Unfortunately I live on the peninsula, so Oakland is a little too far for me. Will have to order directly from their website.

@Hamada you live close by - where do you get your reagents from?

I bought directly from the website before Kenny had them available. I bought the 6month kit and ran the trident to test 24 times a day to test out the reagents, after that I ordered a 2.5 year kit.

 

[H2OPlayar]

Same, I got the 6 month kit, then the concentrate kit and have had no issues. Also I mix the old/new reagents as ABC says you can do and have no issues there.

 

[Turkeysammich]

If you’re not in a rush. Jonas the owner is on telegrams live streams. He will announce a sale for viewers. It’s like 20-25% off. He’s a very cool guy.

 

[L/B Block]

Been using ABC reagents for well over a year, 0 issues. I just top off when my trident runs low. They also don't expire if stored properly.

I am keeping my old reagent bottles now -and will fill them next time at HTA.
Although somehow I have like 4 extra A reagents.

 

[thesassyindian]

Very interesting to hear that all of you are mixing old and new reagents without any issue.

How does that not affect the Trident test results?

Isn't the whole idea behind shipping these kits with calibration solution that no two reagent mixes will have the exact concentrations?

 

[IOnceWasLegend]

Very interesting to hear that all of you are mixing old and new reagents without any issue.

How does that not affect the Trident test results?

Isn't the whole idea behind shipping these kits with calibration solution that no two reagent mixes will have the exact concentrations?

Personally, I'd be horrified from a QC perspective if a company's mixing process meant the concentrations of solution were so far off that it could meaningfully impact test results.

 

[thesassyindian]

@IOnceWasLegend That was my expectation as well. My last few sets of reagents had quite some variance in their concentrations.
And since numbers are all I understand, here are the values from my last few reagent boxes:

dKH	Ca	Mg
8.3	400	1220
8.45	460	1355
8.2	470	1450
8.1	415	1340
8.4	425	1470
8.3	460	1285
8.55	475	1285

The variance for Ca and Mg are very high at 880.9 and 8264.3. There are significant differences between the Ca and Mg concentrations in different boxes of reagents.
This reduces my faith in Neptune even more.

Wonder how ABC compares to this.

 

[JVU]

@IOnceWasLegend That was my expectation as well. My last few sets of reagents had quite some variance in their concentrations.
And since numbers are all I understand, here are the values from my last few reagent boxes:

dKH	Ca	Mg
8.3	400	1220
8.45	460	1355
8.2	470	1450
8.1	415	1340
8.4	425	1470
8.3	460	1285
8.55	475	1285

The variance for Ca and Mg are very high at 880.9 and 8264.3. There are significant differences between the Ca and Mg concentrations in different boxes of reagents.
This reduces my faith in Neptune even more.

Wonder how ABC compares to this.

Can you clarify how you got these numbers and what they are measurements of? Not sure how to interpret them as is.

 

[JVU]

Very interesting to hear that all of you are mixing old and new reagents without any issue.

How does that not affect the Trident test results?

Isn't the whole idea behind shipping these kits with calibration solution that no two reagent mixes will have the exact concentrations?

I think the idea behind including calibration solution is that you should recalibrate the Trident from time to time normally, and if it starts giving wrong values. Not the variance in the ABC solution.

 

[thesassyindian]

Can you clarify how you got these numbers and what they are measurements of? Not sure how to interpret them as is.

These are the values of Neptune's standard calibration solutions.

 

[JVU]

These are the values of Neptune's standard calibration solutions.

So the values typed on the labels on the standards, right? As far as I know, those don’t correspond to the concentrations of chemicals in the A, B, C reagents or how they will read values in your tank in any way, which is what I thought you were getting at. They just make up batches, test them with (presumably) high quality analytical techniques, and report the values.

 

[thesassyindian]

Oh I see - I misinterpreted the way they make the calibration solutions. I thought the dKH/Ca/Mg values of the calibration solutions should be close between batches.
What you said makes sense.

But then again, it doesn't explain the expiration dates on their reagents and why they ask no to mix reagents between two boxes.

 

[H2OPlayar]

But then again, it doesn't explain the expiration dates on their reagents and why they ask no to mix reagents between two boxes.

$$$, and a cya for accuracy. But we are looking at trends, not absolutes for our tanks. We care if the dKh is moving, not that it is exactly 9.2 vs 9.8

 

[Darkxerox]

$$$, and a cya for accuracy. But we are looking at trends, not absolutes for our tanks. We care if the dKh is moving, not that it is exactly 9.2 vs 9.8

The old chasing numbers vs. trends and observation argument still sticks