Trident Says Alk 7.54, Hanna says Alk is 8.5

[PeterC99]

Just recently, I’m getting a large variance between my Trident and Hanna Alk tests. Trident is saying my Alk is 7.54, Hanna says my Alk is 8.5. Bringing a sample of my saltwater to my LFS this weekend. Hammers and torches looking good so I think my Alk is closer to 8.5. Not sure why my Trident is suddenly having Alk reading issues?

 

[Waters]

For what is is worth, my Hanna ALK reads .8 higher than my Trident every single test....has from the very beginning. Do your Trident numbers normally read something other that mid 7s? When it comes to ALK, I trust the Trident over other test kits. Can't say the same for CA and MG unfortunately.

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

For what is is worth, my Hanna ALK reads .8 higher than my Trident every single test....has from the very beginning. Do your Trident numbers normally read something other that mid 7s? When it comes to ALK, I trust the Trident over other test kits. Can't say the same for CA and MG unfortunately.

How far off is the CA and MG ?

 

[dadnjesse]

I recently has a big discrepancy with my Hanna Alk and my Trident. I tried for days recalibrating the Trident to no avail. I checked my Hanna to RedSea Alk and those were off also. I called Hanna and complained as I had two reagent bottles the same date and lot numbers that were not expired that were faulty. They sent 2 new ones and now they test very close.

 

[spsick]

The truth lies somewhere in between so I’d say you’re good just watch the trend not the number.

 

[PeterC99]

For what is is worth, my Hanna ALK reads .8 higher than my Trident every single test....has from the very beginning. Do your Trident numbers normally read something other that mid 7s? When it comes to ALK, I trust the Trident over other test kits. Can't say the same for CA and MG unfortunately.

Normally my Trident has reported my Alk in the mid 8’s.

 

[piranhaman00]

Always have salifert on hand for this reason, never fails don’t trust computers

 

[PeterC99]

Always have salifert on hand for this reason, never fails don’t trust computers

Trident was incredibly accurate for 2 years. Maybe time for maintenance?

 

[Waters]

How far off is the CA and MG ?

It is never consistent......the Trident Ca runs higher and the MG runs lower than test kits......with mine at least. For example, my Trident Ca runs around 480 while Salifert shows it at around 440. As others have stated, I just watch for trends on both Ca and Mg. I have also turned off Ca dosing based on the Trident because I can't trust that number. I have installed the maintenance kit but it didn't make a difference.

 

[Waters]

Trident was incredibly accurate for 2 years. Maybe time for maintenance?

If it has been two years it is definately time to order the maintenance kit. It basically replaces everything other than the main board and solenoids.

 

[Falc!]

Either way it looks good....i have found its more important to keep stable whether its a bit high or low is not as important as stability

 

[ReefDreamz]

Normal. My Hanna reads exactly 0.8 dkh higher than the Trident every test I've ever done.

 

[JCOLE]

Just another thread of many. This seems to be a trend now. My original Trident was spot on for years until it needed to be replaced. I replaced it under the Trident replacement program and this has been the issue ever since. Calcium and Mag are very close and consistent with other test kits. However, Alk is always 1.4-1.5dKh lower than my Hanna, Salifert, and Red Sea kits. No amount of calibration or resets will fix it. I just leaned to live with it and adjust for the difference.

 

[David_CO]

if you calibrate with the trident fluid the alk has always reported low in my experience. about .5-.6 dkh lower than my alkatronic and salifert. .7 dkh lower than hanna

 

[Reefer_kano]

My trident is always 1.0 less than my hanna.
Hanna reads 9.5 and trident around 8.5.
I'm hesitant to calibrate it because my calcium in on the dot and mag just about the same all the time.

 

[blaxsun]

I just recalibrate my Trident to my teat results (and don't use the calibration fluid Neptune provides). It's also recommended to recalibrate every time you replace a new regent bottle.

 

[Lion6]

What worked for us:

We were getting a 1.5 dKH lower value on trident than our Hanna alkalinity tester.

The trident was so low that it did not seem believable.

We could not get the Trident to calibrate so it would agree with the Hanna alkalinity tester. When we attempted to calibrate the trident upwards 1.5 dKH using tank water, it seemed to work until the next scheduled test. At the next regularly scheduled test the trident would revert to the values it reported before we had calibrated it.

I SUSPECTED that Trident is programmed to prevented making a large calibration.

I SUSPECTED that if you calibrate more than 1.0 DKH it assumes error and reverts to the last calibration performed with Neptune calibration fluid.

I tried to think of a workaround.

I decided to try to perform a tank water calibration in many different steps. Each time, I only calibrated a portion of the total desired calibration.

It worked and held the values UNTIL I had changed it a total of about 1.0 dKH. After the total of all my calibrations exceeded this 1.0 dKH level, it seemed to throw out all the calibrations and go back to the values it was reporting before I tried to do anything. Back to square one.

Next, I suspected that maybe something else was the cause. The trident comes with a part they call “optional trident sample line filter”. This is a tiny filter about the size of a dime that goes on the end of the sample uptake line that is in your sump. They tell you to use it if you have turbid water and want to keep debris out of the sample line. From the very beginning, we used it because we felt it was good to keep debris out of the trident. I decided that maybe this filter was altering the test results of the trident. I thought maybe the trident had been factory calibrated without this filter attached and maybe adding it could have affected the Trident results. We had never calibrated using anything except tank water before.

I decided that we should calibrate trident using Neptune fluid and WITH THE FILTER IN PLACE.

We performed the calibration with the Neptune fluid and filter attached. Afterwards, the trident was reading only 0.5 dKH less than the Hanna tester. Much closer.

We then performed a ATI-ICP-OES test and the result from ATI matched up very closely with the trident and also was 0.5 DKH lower than Hanna.

Here is my conclusion:

If you are running the “optional trident sample line filter”, try performing a calibration using Neptune fluid with the optional sample line filter in place.

I believe you’ll end up having trident values about 0.5 dKH less than your Hanna alkalinity tester.

I felt that 0.5 difference between Trident and Hanna was a reasonable amount. Since ATI agreed more closely with the trident after calibrating with the filter attached, I now trust the trident and believe the Hanna to be 0.5 dKH high. Regular testing with the Hanna remains consistently 0.5 higher than the trident.

I sincerely hope this can help some of you struggling with large differences between Trident and Hanna for alkalinity. It worked for us.

 

[Reefer_kano]

What worked for us:

We were getting a 1.5 dKH lower value on trident than our Hanna alkalinity tester.

The trident was so low that it did not seem believable.

We could not get the Trident to calibrate so it would agree with the Hanna alkalinity tester. When we attempted to calibrate the trident upwards 1.5 dKH using tank water, it seemed to work until the next scheduled test. At the next regularly scheduled test the trident would revert to the values it reported before we had calibrated it.

I SUSPECTED that Trident is programmed to prevented making a large calibration.

I SUSPECTED that if you calibrate more than 1.0 DKH it assumes error and reverts to the last calibration performed with Neptune calibration fluid.

I tried to think of a workaround.

I decided to try to perform a tank water calibration in many different steps. Each time, I only calibrated a portion of the total desired calibration.

It worked and held the values UNTIL I had changed it a total of about 1.0 dKH. After the total of all my calibrations exceeded this 1.0 dKH level, it seemed to throw out all the calibrations and go back to the values it was reporting before I tried to do anything. Back to square one.

Next, I suspected that maybe something else was the cause. The trident comes with a part they call “optional trident sample line filter”. This is a tiny filter about the size of a dime that goes on the end of the sample uptake line that is in your sump. They tell you to use it if you have turbid water and want to keep debris out of the sample line. From the very beginning, we used it because we felt it was good to keep debris out of the trident. I decided that maybe this filter was altering the test results of the trident. I thought maybe the trident had been factory calibrated without this filter attached and maybe adding it could have affected the Trident results. We had never calibrated using anything except tank water before.

I decided that we should calibrate trident using Neptune fluid and WITH THE FILTER IN PLACE.

We performed the calibration with the Neptune fluid and filter attached. Afterwards, the trident was reading only 0.5 dKH less than the Hanna tester. Much closer.

We then performed a ATI-ICP-OES test and the result from ATI matched up very closely with the trident and also was 0.5 DKH lower than Hanna.

Here is my conclusion:

If you are running the “optional trident sample line filter”, try performing a calibration using Neptune fluid with the optional sample line filter in place.

I believe you’ll end up having trident values about 0.5 dKH less than your Hanna alkalinity tester.

I felt that 0.5 difference between Trident and Hanna was a reasonable amount. Since ATI agreed more closely with the trident after calibrating with the filter attached, I now trust the trident and believe the Hanna to be 0.5 dKH high. Regular testing with the Hanna remains consistently 0.5 higher than the trident.

I sincerely hope this can help some of you struggling with large differences between Trident and Hanna for alkalinity. It worked for us.

You must have been reading my mind because I've been dealing with that very same issue with my trident but between. The hanna and trident the reading are way off.
Hanna reading at 11.4
Trident reading around 8.9.
Then when I tried the red sea kit I have the red sea reading was around 5.5 or so.
Most of all the sps and lps look happy so for now thar good.
I was doing the testing yesterday before I went to work so I couldn't trouble shoot much but I have time today so I'm gonna try your recommendation.

 

[billyocean]

My hanna matches icp and my buddies trident always reads low.

 

[Lion6]

You must have been reading my mind because I've been dealing with that very same issue with my trident but between. The hanna and trident the reading are way off.
Hanna reading at 11.4
Trident reading around 8.9.
Then when I tried the red sea kit I have the red sea reading was around 5.5 or so.
Most of all the sps and lps look happy so for now thar good.
I was doing the testing yesterday before I went to work so I couldn't trouble shoot much but I have time today so I'm gonna try your recommendation.

Let me know how it works out. I will be interested to know if that solved your problem.