Exact iDip Test kit

[lnevo]

I saw this at MACNA but didn't pay it much mind until after I got back and started digging deeper. Anyway I saw a post they were honoring their MACNA discount till the end of the week. I just received the aquarium bundle. It came with ammonia, ph, nitrate, phosphate alk and total hardness (high range). I added a calcium kit as well. Supposedly it will calculate the magnesium once you've measured alk and total hardness. Well, it arrived today. The bundle was $200 and the special on the calcium was $10. You need the tests on your phone as well. They're roughly $5 each the ph is free...woohoo. It seems I bought the freshwater nitrate test in the app so it was only $5 I overspent. I'll take it up with them later.

So overall this is an easy test kit to use. I did the following tests w results: ph 8.2, calcium 520, alk 148, nitrate 15 and phos .26. Only the calcium seemed high and the nitrates were the lowest the meter goes but it seems an accurate number based on what I get from Red Sea and Salifert. Hanna had my phos at .56 but that seemed high to me. The total hardness registered "Hi" and the app is a little limited so I wasnt able to get the calculated magnesium. I made a few mistakes grabbing the wrong test strips, but with practice I should get a consistent result. Took about a half hour to run through it all my first time. I'll be able to cut that in half. So much easier than measuring though!!

 

[b-ridge]

Looks cool. May have to do some research on this. Where did you order yours?

 

[lnevo]

Direct from the company. I think it's sensafe.com

 

[oh207]

This looks promising. So it's about $210 for the tests and another $30 for the apps? Is it one app with individual parts or 5 separate apps?
How many strips each?

 

[lnevo]

The test strips come in bottles with 25-50 tests depending. The $210 was the MACNA pricing which also included the case ($60) but normally the tester is $180 i believe with the bundle. I think I only needed to pay $25 for the app. The app is free (and just one) but the tests in the app are a one time in-app purchase.

 

[Bogie]

Looks easy just dip and get results.

 

[lnevo]

You have to swish the strip twice per second for 20 seconds then wait for a reading. The nitrate you have to wait 10 minutes and phosphate 2, but the rest were pretty instant like a hanna test

The results show up in the app and on the device. You can save all the results once you are done m, but whats wonky is you can't remove one test. So if you redo one you either have to keep it or scrap the whole set which I think you need to have all the results together for it to auto calculate magnesium. There also is a history section which you can sort by test type or date range but there's no graphing or export that I can see. The app could definitely use some work. It's designed for pool service companies or aquarium service companies, not really individual hobbyists. So far I'm pleased, I'll most likely try another round next week.

 

[Aquadicted]

anyone know how accurate it is exactly?

 

[greenstreet.1]

I have this kit so far it's on point with my salifert kits but I did notice it was a little more accurate when it comes to alk. As for the mag results there software can not read our levels as of yet they told me they are working on it and it may be in the next app update. It only reads up to 1000ppm.

 

[Lenny718]

Looks promising. I wouldn't worry about the nitrate, it's the same thing in either FW or Sw as far as I know.

 

[lnevo]

Cool that its just an app update hopefully. If you look at the comments on the Reef Builders article on it, Richard Ross said the % is not that far off from our current kits. The accuracy does vary by kit.

There is a different kit for freshwater nitrate. It goes to 4ppm.

 

[lnevo]

Did my second round of tests today. Was so much easier now that I know what I'm doing. It's really is a super easy way to do tests! I'm loving it.

Tests were 5 days apart. I did not do the ph or thh test again. I've also never tried the ammonia test. I'll probably remove it from my case and put the ph back in.

Ph - 8.2
THH - High
Calcium - 521ppm / 545ppm
Alk - 148ppm / 145ppm
Nitrate - 15ppm / 15ppm
Phosphate - .23 / Lo

A few things to note. For phosphate, I tested twice tonight and both times were Lo. I plan on running a test with my hanna again. My last hanna was .52 on 9/21. I moved my vinegar dosing over to my controller from a wall timer and having a nice bacteria bloom, so who knows. I'm really not that worried though about the phosphate as much because I know how difficult it is to get accurate results at our concentrations.

The second thing to point out is the increase in calcium. The best accuracy for this test is 10% and the delta being only 5%, I'm not that concerned until I get a few more results.

Alk being a touch lower is what I'd expect though with my current dosing. I'll confirm that next time with hanna as well.

What I'm most concerned about so far is the calcium test. Compared to my red sea titration test I was getting was 450, but my hanna was always higher or too high and it's so hard to gauge when to stop anyway. I'm very curious to hear other peoples results on this one.

 

[lnevo]

I've been following the thread on Reef2Reef and the magnesium calculation will be fixed in the next app update. They are also working to lower the range on the nitrate test but it will take time to implement.

Supposedly the great thing about this tester is that all the logic is in their app so they can update pretty much everything within the app. This is cool, but by far for me it's the ease of use and overall consistency (as much as can be seen by doing two rounds of testing) but alk was a 3ppm delta, calcium was within margin of error, phosphate when run twice back to back both yielded under their range which is less than .09, nitrate was 15ppm both times which is again the lowest range for now but which is comparable to my Red Sea and Salifert test.

So far I'm a happy camper. Hope it continues to impress. Might be too good to be true.

 

[lnevo]

Did my 3rd round of tests today. It's really a piece of cake. Tests again were pretty consistent. Alk came in a bit high but its not far from what my hanna had before I moved to the idip. I measured alk a second time because I wanted to verify and the 2nd test was 1ppm different. So twice now I've double checked a result and got pretty much the same number. I should have verified calcium last time too because this time it was 3ppm from my first result. Either way with three rounds down I'm seeing decent consistency. And ease of use is the killer.

Ph - 8.2 / / 8.3
THH - High / /
Calcium - 521ppm / 545ppm / 524ppm
Alk - 148ppm / 145ppm / 165ppm, 164ppm
Nitrate - 15ppm / 15ppm / 15ppm
Phosphate - .23 / Lo, Lo / Lo

 

[oh207]

Thanks for sharing the updates. I'm thinking of getting a different test kit for Alk & Cal. And this might be it.
My Red Sea is giving wacky results.

 

[lnevo]

Means your reagents are done. This is a bit of investment but you'll have more than just cal and alk. Hopefully soon they'll put out the magnesium fix. It's gonna take more time for the nitrate range to be lowered but if I stay at 15 or below I'll be pretty pleased.

 

[oh207]

Well my last Reef Foundation kit expired in August. So I went out and got a new kit (Expires 8/2017), and same issues.
So I'm fed up.

Is there a link for this iDip? I Google and found mostly photometer and pool stuff.

 

[lnevo]

Yes they started as a pool water tester but they are looking to expand out of that. They are pretty established in that space supposedly.

http://www.sensafe.com/exact-idip-570nm/

http://reefbuilders.com/2015/09/14/exact-idip-smart-photometer-type-digital-water-test/

http://www.reef2reef.com/threads/exact-idip-digital-water-testing.212829/

The reef2reef link has the product manager participating and some back and forth with RHF. So far I'm confident in my purchase.

http://www.sensafe.com/exact-idip-570nm/

 

[prattreef]

This did look promising at MACNA. Good to see it getting some real world testing. Tagging along for now.

 

[b-ridge]

I see the price has went up to $299. Still not bad for everything you get with it. Also has 35 other things you can test. Wondering what the other 35 are. Is this just a macna/reefapalooza thing that it could be bought cheaper or possibly will they have it available at the frag swap?