New partnership enables Australian industries to enjoy world class water monitoring solutions

Aquaread and HydroTerra formed a partnership in 2019 whereby HydroTerra became Aquaread’s exclusive distributor for the Australian market. Through technical experience and knowledge, HydroTerra specialises in the implementation of customer environmental monitoring solutions. HydroTerra provides end to end solutions for the environmental monitoring industry, to ensure that their customers receive the best monitoring solution for their specific needs. HydroTerra do not only offer equipment sales and rental of some of the most respected brands in the business, they also carry out field data collection, online data visualisation, custom monitoring solutions and specialist training.

HydroTerra’s vision is to create innovative monitoring solutions for environmental monitoring challenges through connecting great minds to great technologies. HydroTerra’s role is to identify best of breed technologies and support services to fit their clients’ needs for environmental monitoring data collection, acquisition and reporting. 

HydroTerra’s decision to be the exclusive distributor of Aquaread in Australia nearly two years ago has proven to be an excellent choice. The reasons HydroTerra were delighted to work with Aquaread was because of the price-point, user-friendly instrumentation, workmanship, reliability, sensor range and technical support.  HydroTerra and their customers have not been disappointed, as annual sales continue on an upward trajectory.  

In 2019, Aquaread’s Sales Director, Ryan Cox, made the trip out to Australia to visit the team and a number of key clients. This visit set HydroTerra up for success, with a series of technical and sales training sessions held over 10 days.  Over the past 12 months, with the on-set of Covid-19, Aquaread has participated presented in two remote webinars for HydroTerra’s customers.  These sessions have been vital to keeping end users up to date with the product range, along with addressing key technical questions on application.  

In Australia, Aquaread has a number of competitors, some of which have dominated the market for many years. Despite this, Aquaread has been able to make significant inroads across a number of industry sectors, including mining, natural resource management and environmental compliance monitoring. There is no better marketing tool than being able to demonstrate successful application of a product in the local environment. For example, HydroTerra recently installed two AP-2000 multi-parameter probes, with turbidity sensors, measuring the waterway conditions upstream and downstream of a major construction site as part of the licence conditions. The success of this project has now led to another tier 1 contractor selecting Aquaread as the water quality monitoring instrument provider of choice for its construction projects. 

The suite of ISE and optical sensors available is also a very attractive offering to HydroTerra’s customer base.  Turbidity and chlorophyll are two common parameters sought, however there has also been interest in the ammonia, nitrate and refined oil sensors.   

HydroTerra likes to work with its suppliers to respond to the needs of their customers and as a result of feedback received from their clients, they are about to embark on a trial utilising two AP water quality sondes with refined oil sensors to manage discharge from an industrial site.  HydroTerra will also use the level sensors to calculate flow from the site and the refined oil sensors will be used for compliance purposes against regulatory licence conditions. 

Aquaread has assisted HydroTerra to navigate the limitations with ISE and optical sensors, particularly in relation to shelf life and interference caused by baseline water quality conditions, such as the salinity of the water or the turbidity of the water.  These insights have enabled HydroTerra to guide their clients to ensure that the Aquaread product and suite of sensors was fit for purpose. 

HydroTerra retains a full fleet of Aquaread products in its rental division. These units are used for both short-term and long-term applications. The versatility and reliability of these products means that HydroTerra can provide this service with confidence knowing that the units will work first time even for the harshest environments.  

The hand held Aquameter water quality meter is simple to operate, and offers a step by step guide to obtaining critical water quality measurements and calibration. The addition of in-built GPS within the Aquameter as standard has been an attractive tool to many clients looking to plot data across site maps for monitoring analysis and is a welcomed standard in the range.  Aquaread has supported HydroTerra’s workshop team to ensure that most technical enquires can be addressed locally.  When travel restrictions are lifted, HydroTerra intends to send its technicians to the UK to undertake further training which will enable them to be certified and further strengthen their capability to service and address technical considerations abroad. 

HydroTerra have found that one of the key benefits of working with Aquaread has been the after sales support.  Aquaread promptly respond to all requests and are more than willing to speak with Australian clients to walk through any technical queries.  For example, HydroTerra has journeyed with a client seeking to utilise the AP-2000 as part of the operation of a modular water treatment plant.  The application of the sensor will be the first of its kind in Australia, and has involved numerous discussions including emails and video meetings as the client has taken the product from design through to production. This process has shown us that despite the challenging circumstances in both in the UK and in Australia, Aquaread is still willing to go above and beyond to ensure that their international partners have all the tools needed to represent their products with the highest standard and competency.       

HydroTerra has really enjoyed working with Aquaread to develop new technologies and find solutions to the many environmental challenges facing their customers. But this is just the beginning! With a shared philosophy of constant improvement and open communication there is a lot more to be done together that will benefit both HydroTerra’s clients and the environment at large.