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Re: Calcium test kits



> Our Reef Status: Calcium kit is (like the magnesium kit) marketed 
> toward the saltwater hobbyist, but can be used in freshwater just 
> as well. In fact it could be used in the same manner as the other 
> kits you described, i.e. you can skip the magnesium precipitation 
> step to get a total hardness,


I must apologize for relaying the above information with respect to 
the total hardness testing ability of the Reef Status Calcium kit... 
I had assumed this was possible without any test kit modifications, 
however upon actually trying to read total hardness with the calcium 
kit I found that no reading is possible with the current formulation 
of the kit. Further investigation revealed that this dye is actually 
quite insensitive to magnesium.

Anyway, I apologize for posting misleading information... guess this 
will teach me not to go and shoot my mouth off before I have _fully_ 
investigated any ideas ;-)

But as a follow up (something I have fully investigated now ;-) our 
magnesium kit will read total hardness if the calcium precipitation 
step is skipped, with the difference giving you a calcium reading. 
However, as that kit exists right now (targeted at the saltwater 
hobbyist) it would mainly be useful only for measuring total hardness 
as the resolution is rather low (for freshwater, not for saltwater) 
at around 50 mg/L per drop of titrant.

-Greg Morin

Gregory Morin, Ph.D.  ~~~~~~~Research Director~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Seachem Laboratories, Inc.      www.seachem.com     888-SEACHEM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~