LOL I laugh because I knew they would never take responsibility for failing their customers. Most of you reading this already know the story, but I’ll tell it here so others will understand the issue.
Hach a well known and highly regarded product manufacturer of water testing supplies has a brand of test strips called Aquachek test strips it comes an a bottle of 50 with a vial I’ve been using this product for 3 to four months on my ponds and fish tanks I raise Koi and had a few show Koi and a ton of pond Koi, normally I feed my fish 1-2 times a day but due to it being spawning season I started a fattening up regiment to get my Girls up to spawning weight feeding 3 times a day no less that 2 feedings, I needed to insure they where egg heavy, I started this in April so I needed to test my ponds twice a week to insure there was not any unusual Ammonia spikes. And I did my Koi seemed happy outside of a few Flashings [when the Koi go sideways and rubs agents the media along the pond bed] my test always came up 0.0 to 0.5 max, it never went over, so I was surprised when my farther came in and informed me my Koi were all dead.
I tested the water only to see it was 0.5, but that did not sit well with me. I did not distrust the results but my strips for PH, Nitrites, Nitrates and others was limited in my view and hard to read, so I grabbed the API liquid kit and began testing all parameters to see if maybe something else was a fault when every this what good till I got to my Ammonia and Nitrite test, nitrites was mid to high and the ammonia was off the charts, I could not get a reading it was dark green so I divided the test 1:1 pond water:tap water, and it was still off the charts I could not get a reading so I further diluted the test 1:3 Pond:Tap and it finally charted, it was at the top of the chart coming in at 8.0, that’s lethal, that’s like someone tossed in a bottle of ammonia in my pond, but obviously what happened was the water had accumulated Ammonia due to the heavy feedings or 2-3 times a day
I contracted HACH and gave them my results, and filed a complaint, the claimed to have tested the batch and there was nothing wrong, so we went through a lengthy correspondence over this and I even submitted a video [http://blip.tv/file/3736579] proving the strips I had where faulty, they dodged it with half cocked notions so they asked for me to send the remainder to them, and I did same day, really same hour, and emailed them the tracking # on 6/10/10 and today 7/1/10 I received a call the man Ron Merwin, RMerwin@hach.com said “the Desiccant was at 15% moister” and kept repeating this, so I asked “so your saying this was why my test failed” he repeated this 15% business and gave a list of plausible answers, now every strip I tested did the same thing, all of the strips I had 49 in all I used did not work, and I asked him, “so did you test the one I sent back?” Ron stated “yes it worked” so I asked “why would you have to tell me anything about the Desiccant, all you need to say is the Strip you sent back was working and you must have done something wrong” he said “I see” can you the reader of this post tell me why do you think he mentioned the desiccant? Why would he need to if the strip I sent back was in working order? Does this hold water?
Can you do me a favor? Message Mr. Ron Merwin RMerwin@hach.com at HACH and tell him what you think about this post and whether or not you would in trust your Pond, Swimming Pool, or drinking water to a company that well if something comes up DEAD because you trusted them, they would treat you as they did me. Please, repost and contact HACH on this subject, and guess what the drinking water you drink is tested with these strips, because HACH is highly trusted
Thank you so much for reading this and God bless
Juanell Primus at 1L’s Koi Food Challenge
