Salinity Sanity Check/ Am I measuring/ reading this wrong?

[TinyReefObsession]

Hi All, I have an 8 year old, established, BioCube 14 (fish, softies, CUC), given to me 2 mos ago, by a neighbor who couldn’t bring it along on his move. I just bought the Tropic Marin High Precision Hydrometer, since i’ve been using a (who knows how old) swing arm one, given to me with this tank. I thought the salinity was too low (it was always 1.021ish on the old one), and have been trying to (SLOWLY) bring it up, but after reading so many stories about inaccurate salinity readings on here, I wanted to be sure I had an accurate number before bringing it up any more… and to my horror, I’m not even in the blue bar on the Tropic Marin (TM) I’m way over at just below 1.029; IF I am reading this correctly >.< Tank temp is 76, and I measured salinity twice, spun the hydrometer multiple times (since I didn’t believe the reading lol), and using the wider portion of the square plastic holder it comes in as a beaker. Pics attached FYR… was just about to do a water change but now I feel stuck since I don’t know what to mix it to! ugh. Does the beaker make a difference? and i did check- this one says in blue “sea water specific gravity” on the back…). I did think my condy looked a little off the last couple of days, hence the small, early, water change today… crabs keep gathering around the powerheads, maybe it’s not just for snacks... facepalm here..

 

[shwareefer]

Hi All, I have an 8 year old, established, BioCube 14 (fish, softies, CUC), given to me 2 mos ago, by a neighbor who couldn’t bring it along on his move. I just bought the Tropic Marin High Precision Hydrometer, since i’ve been using a (who knows how old) swing arm one, given to me with this tank. I thought the salinity was too low (it was always 1.021ish on the old one), and have been trying to (SLOWLY) bring it up, but after reading so many stories about inaccurate salinity readings on here, I wanted to be sure I had an accurate number before bringing it up any more… and to my horror, I’m not even in the blue bar on the Tropic Marin (TM) I’m way over at just below 1.029; IF I am reading this correctly >.< Tank temp is 76, and I measured salinity twice, spun the hydrometer multiple times (since I didn’t believe the reading lol), and using the wider portion of the square plastic holder it comes in as a beaker. Pics attached FYR… was just about to do a water change but now I feel stuck since I don’t know what to mix it to! ugh. Does the beaker make a difference? and i did check- this one says in blue “sea water specific gravity” on the back…). I did think my condy looked a little off the last couple of days, hence the small, early, water change today… crabs keep gathering around the powerheads, maybe it’s not just for snacks... facepalm here..

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If the hydrometer is floating freely (not touching the sides or bottom) then the reading is correct. Mix your next few water changes at 1.023 to slowly bring it down. That's what i would do but maybe someone else would suggest being more agressive.

 

[Rmckoy]

Hi All, I have an 8 year old, established, BioCube 14 (fish, softies, CUC), given to me 2 mos ago, by a neighbor who couldn’t bring it along on his move. I just bought the Tropic Marin High Precision Hydrometer, since i’ve been using a (who knows how old) swing arm one, given to me with this tank. I thought the salinity was too low (it was always 1.021ish on the old one), and have been trying to (SLOWLY) bring it up, but after reading so many stories about inaccurate salinity readings on here, I wanted to be sure I had an accurate number before bringing it up any more… and to my horror, I’m not even in the blue bar on the Tropic Marin (TM) I’m way over at just below 1.029; IF I am reading this correctly >.< Tank temp is 76, and I measured salinity twice, spun the hydrometer multiple times (since I didn’t believe the reading lol), and using the wider portion of the square plastic holder it comes in as a beaker. Pics attached FYR… was just about to do a water change but now I feel stuck since I don’t know what to mix it to! ugh. Does the beaker make a difference? and i did check- this one says in blue “sea water specific gravity” on the back…). I did think my condy looked a little off the last couple of days, hence the small, early, water change today… crabs keep gathering around the powerheads, maybe it’s not just for snacks... facepalm here..

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Does this container you have it is come with the hydrometer ?

 

[TinyReefObsession]

If the hydrometer is floating freely (not touching the sides or bottom) then the reading is correct. Mix your next few water changes at 1.023 to slowly bring it down. That's what i would do but maybe someone else would suggest being more agressive.

thank you! ok let me look more closely at how it’s floating next time… my salt is mixing now! I just had a little heart attack there - I’m SO GLAD i got a second salinity reader to double check things … phew.. my mushroom corals have looked AMAZING! haha but the condy is definitely looking a little off..

 

[TinyReefObsession]

Does this container you have it is come with the hydrometer ?

it is the container they ship it in, and I think it’s more designed for storage, but I saw comments in another thread, that people were using it to float the hydrometer and check their salinity that way.. Tropic Marin makes and sells a separate beaker, but that could just be because this container doesn’t have a foot to balance it so we have to hold it.. i’m just guessing here though..

 

[tstor]

Hey, just a sanity check here, does the hydromoter measure in standard salinity units/ppt? Cause 28 ssg/ppt salt is about 1.021 sg. I don't own either of these I just thought I'd double check before you did a water change and made it even worse?

 

[Rmckoy]

it is the container they ship it in, and I think it’s more designed for storage, but I saw comments in another thread, that people were using it to float the hydrometer and check their salinity that way.. Tropic Marin makes and sells a separate beaker, but that could just be because this container doesn’t have a foot to balance it so we have to hold it.. i’m just guessing here though..

I’d use the storage container for the same reason .

 

[shwareefer]

Hey, just a sanity check here, does the hydromoter measure in standard salinity units/ppt? Cause 28 ssg/ppt salt is about 1.021 sg. I don't own either of these I just thought I'd double check before you did a water change and made it even worse?

The hydrometer shows the safe zone on it in pale blue. I do think the markings are weird though.

 

[Garf]

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-06/rhf/index.php

 

[Rusty_L_Shackleford]

I have one of these. If the hudrometer is floating freely and has no air bubbles, the reading is correct. Ignore the swing arm, theyre garbage. Just adjust the salinity slowly. Although i would do yourself a favor and get a plastic 500 mL graduated cylinder on amazon for $10. I got one when i ordered mine and cant imagine trying to do it in the case.

 

[Reef.]

Get your self a 500ml measuring cylinder, they come in plastic or glass, Amazon or eBay, around $20.

 

[TinyReefObsession]

I have one of these. If the hudrometer is floating freely and has no air bubbles, the reading is correct. Ignore the swing arm, theyre garbage. Just adjust the salinity slowly. Although i would do yourself a favor and get a plastic 500 mL graduated cylinder on amazon for $10. I got one when i ordered mine and cant imagine trying to do it in the case.

Thank you so much!! I will continue to use the swing arm to stir my salt haha ;D it really IS useless - i could have crashed my tank if i continued with it! phew! thanks, I will check on Amazon. I bought it on BRS and checked again for a beaker last night but they didn’t have one there grrr Looks like I got the salinity down a reasonable smidge with this small water change… fish were fine the whole time, mushrooms were looking fantastic and 2 split - now I wonder if that was stress induced…

 

[TinyReefObsession]

Hey, just a sanity check here, does the hydromoter measure in standard salinity units/ppt? Cause 28 ssg/ppt salt is about 1.021 sg. I don't own either of these I just thought I'd double check before you did a water change and made it even worse?

what an interesting coincidence! You totally just made me wonder if I misunderstood the instructions for a minute there (because they are NOT included with the hydrometer & had to be found online..) hehe luckily I noticed the very top of the hydrometer says 1.021 and the bottom reads 1.031 phew! but I appreciate you asking the question- exactly why I posted here

 

[TinyReefObsession]

thanks everyone for your replies! Crisis averted! I managed to reduce the salinity by about .0005 (i think I got that right) which I think should be a small enough change for these guys. before and after attached possibly in reverse order lol I wonder what the high salinity changed in the tank - my hermits and emerald crab have been spending a LOT of time gathered around, & climbing all over the power head, & climbing the back wall to eat the algae (they cleared part of the wall!)… thanks again everyone - off to buy a measuring cylindar on amazon!

 

[bushdoc]

To complicate things a bit, Tropic Marin Hydrometer is calibrated to 25 C or 77 F. If you are doing your measurements in different temperature you need to use correction factor. Below is the link to a table BRS provided to me:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-07/rhf/table1.pdf

 

[TinyReefObsession]

To complicate things a bit, Tropic Marin Hydrometer is calibrated to 25 C or 77 F. If you are doing your measurements in different temperature you need to use correction factor. Below is the link to a table BRS provided to me:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-07/rhf/table1.pdf

Thanks! Haha I know! Just one more layer! Since my tank temp was only 1 degree off (76 vs 77) it shouldn’t be much deviation.. but to make myself feel better earlier, I was telling myself that since it can deviate up to .0001, maybe mine was that much lower lol math is not my strong point, but i will find one in Fahrenheit tomorrow and see how much of a difference it makes. Thanks for the reminder! I figured for now i had a ways to go anyway…

 

[TinyReefObsession]

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-06/rhf/index.php

Wow! What a gold mine!!! Thank you!! This answered so many of the questions I had on my mind and many that I hadn’t thought of yet! Guess I’ll be making calibration fluid tomorrow - good thing my beaker should be here by then! Haha

 

[TinyReefObsession]

I’m not gonna lie- I was losing sleep this morning afraid I was going to come out to a retracted, unhappy, anemone… but I came out to happy green tips all around and some nice puffy ones on top! Nemy is looking great this morning; body looks smooth instead of the odd puffiness (partially deflated?), look I have been seeing lately. It seemed like the nem was spending all day struggling to expel waste and would look good again by evening - this morning Nemy‘s already expelling waste but is already looking good in the process ..small tank + big tentacles means Nemy gets some of whatever the clowns/ crabs do, so it does eat a little daily, even if I turn off the powerheads (will get a bigger space soon)… still going to make the calibration solution from that amazing reefkeeping.com article (working backwards here ) for my own sanity... and that will give me the opportunity get more familiar with the hydrometer, keeping the top dry, etc, per the article. THANKS AGAIN EVERYONE! I appreciate the R2R crew immensely!! Happier Nem photos attached