Strange calcium tests

[rhomer]

I have purchased two different calcium tests, and I'm having the same problem with both tests. I have a hagen and a salfertest, both behave the same. I add the first two items to my water, I then add the single drip, then mix, add another drop then mix, but the problem is the color never changes. Last night I did the test and added 200+ drops (calcium of 3000+) and the color never changed. I have done the same thing with the hagen test kit and eventually the color changes to orange and not violet. The other test kit that I have the color is supposed to change from violet to blue. This never happened.
A little info about my setup. I just started last night adding any trace elements to the tank. It has been setup since March. I have a 55 gallon with a sealife systems 75, and a 5 gallon refugium. I have 85lbs live rock, and 4 inches of live sand. I have a hippo tang and a percula clown. I have about 40 snails of varing kinds, a fighting conch, a few hermit crabs, and a feather duster.
Now for the numbers. PH 8.2, salinity 1.025, ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates 10, alk 12.6 dkh, phosphates 0.
I use corallife seasalt, and I do 5 gallon water changes every other week, and I do regular maint on my equipment.
I'm hoping that I'm just using the test wrong somehow.

 

[broomer5]

rhomer
I've read where Coralife seasalt mixes to a higher concentration of magnesium, than other brands of saltmix, and what is normally found in natural seawater.
Not sure if this would affect your readings or not.
The chance of both test kits having old expired reagents exists, but seems rather unlikely.
I use the Salifert Profi Test calcium kit, but have never used the Hagen.
Are you following the instructions in the Salifert kit word by word. I think it could be written a little better, and had to read it several times myself when I first got it.
Are you starting out with a 3 ml tankwater sample, using the 5 ml syringe ?
6 drops of Ca 1 - swirl
1 scoop of indicator - swirl
Pulling in 1.0 ml of liquid Ca 3 reagent so the syringe plunger itself is at the 1.0 ml of the syringe mark, and have the little greenish tip pressed on to this syringe ? There will be an air bubble in there - that's supposed to be there - you probably already know this.
Then begin the drop by drop titration procedure ?
Are you testing your aquarium water, or a newly mixed batch of saltwater ?
Sorry - I'm stumped on this one too - very odd.
BTW - what is your alkalinity reading ?

 

[rhomer]

alk is 12.6 dkh or 4.5 mg/l. I'm testing existing tank water, but I will try and test my 7, and I plan on doing a water change tonight, and I will test the pre-mixed stuff also. This should validate the test kit. Your instructions don't match at all to your description of your test. Maybe the one I have is different. Anyway I'm planning on a few other things tonight. I was hoping that someone else was seeing a problem with their tests similar to this.

 

[rhomer]

Tried the tests again on water for a water change, and retested the existing tank water. I had my wife read the instructions, and perform the test as she understood the instructions. She had the same problem I did with both tests. Neither the tank water nor the "fresh" saltwater tested correctly. She did the same and got to hundreds of drops before she gave up.
I'm lost.

 

[broomer5]

From Hagen's FAQ and Troubleshooting page:
Calcium test kit does not work properly. No color shown
The calcium test kit does not work properly? no color during the test or I measured calcium level up to 600 mg/l ????
It is very important to shake bottle reagent #2 very very well before using (at least 5 seconds of strong shaking). Dye in the bottle settles at the bottom and it must be fully mixed into the solution before adding the drops into the vial for the test.
The endpoint will be very easy to observe and obviously the result will be much more accurate.
*************************************************
Is the other brand of calcium test kit a Salifert ? or something else ?

 

[rhomer]

The other test is a Seatest, not what I mentioned earlier. Thanks for the info. I will try it again.

 

[bammbamm74]

Take some water to the LFS and see if they can test it for you. Maybe have them try with your test kits. I don't know if you're supposed to count drops or just wait for the water to change color. But I've never used those. You can have high calcium. Remember, those test are only good up to a certain level of calcium then they don't work very good.

 

[happy hopper]

ow i know what it is the red pink that turns purpel/// #2 dropin the hagen test you have to shake it well

 

[mr hanky]

maybe a long shot. i use seatest cal test. the lighting(flor.tube) in my house sucks. the first time or 2 i tested i saw no color change. i figured out to put under the fish lights to see it better now its very drastic color change! i have metal hal./actinic pc 610w in one fixture. maybe different under your lights depending on what you have! good luck!
mr hanky