Should I trust my calibration fluid

ryshark · Nov 16, 2020

LxHowler said:
Just thought I'd update this again. I made some of the solution linked above and that read the same as my previous acurasea solution which leads me to believe the brightwell is the issue, I'm guessing a bad bottle as all the reviews say its good. Is there anything else I should try before returning this for my money back?

Good to know, I'm looking forward to trying this today too.

ryshark · Nov 16, 2020

ryshark said:
Good to know, I'm looking forward to trying this today too.

Here is my update, the Randy's Recipe is actually much closer to my new Brightwell Solution (1ppt difference) than the older solution which I thought was correct. This would explain why I've been struggling with acropora lately with very stable parameters, otherwise perfect ICP results and diligent maintenance. With Randy's Recipe and with my new bottle of Brightwell to calibrate my refractometer, my tank is actually closer to 30ppt when I thought I was at 35ppt. I feel like such an idiot, but it is now time to move forward and should be an easy fix. What I have done is add saltwater to my ATO reservoir and plan to do this until I reach my goal salinity. Is this a fine plan? Should I use water in my ATO that is the true 35ppt until I reach my goal? Or is it better to go slow and dilute it? Or will this take so long adding 35ppt to my ATO top-off water that I can just double up the on the salt in the water and put like 70ppt into the ATO? @Randy Holmes-Farley what do you think is the best way to safely get my salinity up, considering I do still have some acros living? Thanks

ryshark · Nov 16, 2020

ryshark · Nov 17, 2020

This calculator is perfect, if I mix my ATO at 35ppt and knowing my average amount of top-off, it should take me less than 2-weeks to go from 30 to 35, that should be plenty slow enough.