Reefmaster Alkalinity Test Confusion

icejay · 12/22/2009, 04:09 PM

Hi guys. I'm using the Instant Ocean Reefmaster Alkalinity Test to determine measurement of carbonates in my tank. A little bit confused about it... The ROUTINE TEST instruction says that if the first drop of the alkalinity reagent turns the sample water yellow, proceed to PRECISION TEST (which has the same procedure with the ROUTINE TEST except for dividing the number of drops to 4 instead of 2).

On my sample, the first drop of the reagent turned the sample blue so I'm doing the ROUTINE TEST. Then it turned yellow-green after 12 drops. As doing the ROUTINE TEST, the result would be 6 meq/L which is very high. The instruction says that it could only test up within the range of 0-5.0 meq/L.

Is the result accurate? or should it be 3 meq/L (PRECISION) instead of 6 meq/L (ROUTINE)? Hope you could shed light. Thanks.

thegrun · 12/22/2009, 04:13 PM

I'm not a big fan of the IO test kits, specially the Alk Test Kit. API is quick and easy to use, Salifert is a little more accurate but slightly more difficult to use.

icejay · 12/22/2009, 04:58 PM

@ thegrun: have you tried the IO test kit? maybe you can help out?

icejay · 12/22/2009, 06:43 PM

:bump:

bertoni · 12/22/2009, 08:11 PM

What's being dosed into the tank? pH buffers add a lot of alkalinity, for example.

12/22/2009, 04:09 PM	#1
icejay Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: New York Posts: 18	Reefmaster Alkalinity Test Confusion Hi guys. I'm using the Instant Ocean Reefmaster Alkalinity Test to determine measurement of carbonates in my tank. A little bit confused about it... The ROUTINE TEST instruction says that if the first drop of the alkalinity reagent turns the sample water yellow, proceed to PRECISION TEST (which has the same procedure with the ROUTINE TEST except for dividing the number of drops to 4 instead of 2). On my sample, the first drop of the reagent turned the sample blue so I'm doing the ROUTINE TEST. Then it turned yellow-green after 12 drops. As doing the ROUTINE TEST, the result would be 6 meq/L which is very high. The instruction says that it could only test up within the range of 0-5.0 meq/L. Is the result accurate? or should it be 3 meq/L (PRECISION) instead of 6 meq/L (ROUTINE)? Hope you could shed light. Thanks. __________________ Life cycles... Current Tank Info: 55g reef tank with a 10g fuge

12/22/2009, 04:58 PM	#3
icejay Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: New York Posts: 18	@ thegrun: have you tried the IO test kit? maybe you can help out? __________________ Life cycles... Current Tank Info: 55g reef tank with a 10g fuge

12/22/2009, 06:43 PM	#4
icejay Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: New York Posts: 18	:bump: __________________ Life cycles... Current Tank Info: 55g reef tank with a 10g fuge

12/22/2009, 08:11 PM	#5
bertoni RC Mod Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Mountain View, CA, USA Posts: 88,616	What's being dosed into the tank? pH buffers add a lot of alkalinity, for example. __________________ Jonathan Bertoni

12/22/2009, 04:13 PM	#2
thegrun Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Garden Grove, Ca Posts: 17,023	I'm not a big fan of the IO test kits, specially the Alk Test Kit. API is quick and easy to use, Salifert is a little more accurate but slightly more difficult to use.