Extremely frustrated by the salinty measuring tools available. Does anyone REALLY know what their salinity level are?

[stephj03]

Do you have an Auto Top Off? If so, what is the need to test so frequently with such accuracy?

Are you having salinity swings in the tank?

Are your corals and fish having issues?

If the cal on your tool drifts up in Sal are you sure you are not leaving behind any saline water after use? I've had this happen on my Milwaukee


I get it that we all have a hobby within the hobby (lighting, diy, photog, gear, Acros etc).

If your hobby within the hobby is data and instrumentation, most of the testing and measurement available provide more acuity than accuracy.

You can certainly purchase less common, more expensive tools, but you may be dissapointed with the difference they actually end up making in how healthy, colored, fast growing your fish and corals are.

 

[flyfisher2]

My Milwaukee never lies to me!

Mine neither but I use it to measure the water my corals or fish come in as well and then I know there's consistency. (Just in case)

 

[CMMorgan]

Use rodi to check zero every month.

 

[MuscleBobBuffPants]

Do you have an Auto Top Off? If so, what is the need to test so frequently with such accuracy?

Are you having salinity swings in the tank?

Are your corals and fish having issues?

If the cal on your tool drifts up in Sal are you sure you are not leaving behind any saline water after use? I've had this happen on my Milwaukee


I get it that we all have a hobby within the hobby (lighting, diy, photog, gear, Acros etc).

If your hobby within the hobby is data and instrumentation, most of the testing and measurement available provide more acuity than accuracy.

You can certainly purchase less common, more expensive tools, but you may be dissapointed with the difference they actually end up making in how healthy, colored, fast growing your fish and corals are.

Well, to be honest I filled up my tank for the first time after a restart and still don't know if the salinity is correct. It's that simple. I do have an ATO, I am just trying to get the correct baseline in the tank to begin my cycle and first fish. I can't risk putting a fish in a tank that I don't know the salinity to. Then there is water changes, mixing up new batches of saltwater, acclimating coral. There's a lot of reasons why an accurate measurement is important.

I respectfully disagree with your assessment on coral health and coloration. I'd actually go as far to say that many problems that exist in our reef tanks are probably from the fact that our salinity could be off by a few points every time we do a water change. I feel that salinity is the most basic part of this hobby. To have success it needs to be constant and non-fluctuating.

 

[Jekyl]

I use an ATC refractometer with their calibration liquid and have never had issues. I just calibrate it every time

 

[brandon429]

I use oceanic swingarm hydrometers, the kind not supposed to work


but what did half the hobby use from 1980 to 2000, after all we had reef tanks then


refractometers are the skinny jeans of today’s reef world.

Okaye okaye I get if you are raising basket stars or linkia we need the good stuff


aside from those two groups, any dang good reef you ever saw in the 90s came by that mode of salinity as the dudes and ladies using float hydrometers were too cool for school anyway. The day swingarms are bad salinity tools is the day I haven’t been using them in my reef sixteen straight years.

getting a swingarm to work correctly merely requires some good thumping then you’re all set. Every five years I check it against a lfs refracts, it’s still .001 too high as always but I adjust for that in water changes.

 

[Kaiser]

I use an ATC refractometer with their calibration liquid and have never had issues. I just calibrate it every time

Agreed. Early on in my reefing adventures, I was having a hard time keeping euphyllia and I went to my local store to have my salinity checked, they said it was fine and I went home. I got sick of going in so I bought my own refractometer and some solution, tested my water and found out it was pretty high. Brought it in to compare to their refractometer and found out they'd been using tap water to calibrate. They adamantly defended their readings but ever since I've been able to keep and grow euphyllia like crazy. Probably had lost almost $200 of coral because of it.

 

[flyfisher2]

Well, to be honest I filled up my tank for the first time after a restart and still don't know if the salinity is correct. It's that simple. I do have an ATO, I am just trying to get the correct baseline in the tank to begin my cycle and first fish. I can't risk putting a fish in a tank that I don't know the salinity to. Then there is water changes, mixing up new batches of saltwater, acclimating coral. There's a lot of reasons why an accurate measurement is important.

I respectfully disagree with your assessment on coral health and coloration. I'd actually go as far to say that many problems that exist in our reef tanks are probably from the fact that our salinity could be off by a few points every time we do a water change. I feel that salinity is the most basic part of this hobby. To have success it needs to be constant and non-fluctuating.

I understand what you're saying but I believe consistency is vital. My 1.025 could be your 1.026 or my 1.026 could be 1.027 at my LFS. But by testing in coming water I know if we are in the ball park. I'm not worried about a small difference and who's actually right? If I'm in the ball park and maintain my salinity at a my 1.025 or 1.026 consistently I'm content and I think my corals are too.

 

[jskoms]

I do not trust my refractometer. I use calibration fluid and still get fluctuations, and have confirmed this with a few LFS’s. My Petco swing arm seems to be the most consistent.

 

[CanuckReefer]

A ten dollar hydrometer by coralife has always worked well for me and I’ve tested it against more expensive refractometers and it’s accurate.

Yup same. Test it occasionally against my LFS refractometer (because its been dropped about 20 times over 20 years lol) and still comes up accurate.

 

[RobB'z Reef]

I use oceanic swingarm hydrometers, the kind not supposed to work


but what did half the hobby use from 1980 to 2000, after all we had reef tanks then


refractometers are the skinny jeans of today’s reef world.

Okaye okaye I get if you are raising basket stars or linkia we need the good stuff


aside from those two groups, any dang good reef you ever saw in the 90s came by that mode of salinity as the dudes and ladies using float hydrometers were too cool for school anyway. The day swingarms are bad salinity tools is the day I haven’t been using them in my reef sixteen straight years.

getting a swingarm to work correctly merely requires some good thumping then you’re all set. Every five years I check it against a lfs refracts, it’s still .001 too high as always but I adjust for that in water changes.

Bravo! Only one OCD losing their mind does not make for a disruption in the hobby. Nature endures variability. We often like to think we're in control. Some things are just good enough and don't warranty a return from better. Go by your results when in doubt.

 

[Snoopy 67]

High Precision Hydrometer

Ensure that your equipment is reading correctly and your aquarium is at the right salinity with Tropic Marin's High Precision Hydrometer. Many tank inhabitants are sensitive even to minor changes of the water conditions. Unfortunately as we've all experienced, salinity reading equipment as...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

Use the tube it comes in to float & read salinity.

 

[InactiveAcct]

Yeah all of the salinity tools lack precision. Honestly the most stable is my old hydrometer. I also think the salinity calibration solutions have issues too. The high precision hydrometer is the way to go - it’s how wineries / breweries do it too

 

[MuscleBobBuffPants]

Honestly might go the hydrometer route. Even though it's a bit more time consuming, I'd rather have the correct number.

 

[Bo.]

I just taste it to verify my salinity.

 

[CanuckReefer]

I just taste it to verify my salinity.

Yes this ! When I mix my Bloody Mary or Ceasar with my tank water, and its got significant zip, I know I am dialed in. If its kinda tepid it's definitely time to add more mix to tank or vodka....usually both.

 

[Bo.]

Yes this ! When I mix my Bloody Mary or Ceasar with my tank water, and its got significant zip, I know I am dialed in. If its kinda tepid it's definitely time to add more mix to tank or vodka....usually both.

Gotta get that anchovy flavor!

 

[rusty hannon]

I have tried The Hannah salinity tester (actually I have 2 of them), the brs refractometer, my lfs refractometer. I can't find a tool that makes me feel 100% confident in my salinity. The drift that I have from my Hannah is absurd. After 3 days of use and another calibration my salinity was apparently 4 points higher than what it had originally told me was 35 ppt. I honestly would calibrate the meter every time I used it if it didn't cost $1 per packet of calibration fluid! The refractometers need to be backlit by the sun and the line value changes based on what angle you are looking through it.

Then there is that Milwaukee Instruments meter with amazing reviews, but the issue is that it only has a resolution of 1ppt and an error of +/- 2 ppt! How do you know if your salinity isn't 33 or 37 ppt? How does it have such amazing reviews when your salinity could in actuality be between a range of 33-37 ppt?

Glass hydrometers are a pain because I'd have to completely turn off all my flow every time I want to check salinity.

My desperation is making me look into industrial solutions. I found a $500 industrial salinity meter at Grainger that I might have to suck up and buy. It's so difficult to measure one of the most fundamental parts of this hobby. We have tools for flow, Par, and everything else. No one has been able to make a salinity meter that actually works and you can be completely confident in.

Does anyone have thoughts on this? How do you measure the salinity for your tank? How do public aquariums and food manufacturing facilities measure the salinity of their water? That's what I want. Confidence I can put money on. In this case, its thousands of dollars of quarantined fish and coral.

Grainger meter

Honestly I've been using an old plastic hydrometer since I got into this life. Everything I've put up to compare with , Hanna digital and a salinity pen, have been the same or the hydrometer was right n had to recalibrate digital. Just to have more than one opinion. Purchased my wife a hydrometer n it's off by a point and a half though. Good luck

 

[Jekyl]

I do not trust my refractometer. I use calibration fluid and still get fluctuations, and have confirmed this with a few LFS’s. My Petco swing arm seems to be the most consistent.

I calibrate mine before every use and has been consistent for 2+ years

 

[SauceyReef]

I can testify with 4 different calibrated refractometers all using calibration solution and they were all different results. They are junk! Get a Milwaukee