Gordonious
Active member
Any one have any standard solutions or something they know of salinity of that I could use to test my refractometer besides RO/DI. I have had it for about a year now so it is time to check.
Calibrating my refractometer
- Thread starter Gordonious
- Start date
Tbor
New member
If you're not using RO you can just get some distilled water at the grocery store. You can't really do a two-point calibration anyway since most of them only have one adjustment (screw) AFAIK. If you want to cross check it, bring a water sample to the next meeting. There's also a home brew shop off Elkton Rd., Brew By You I think, that might have some higher salinity solutions for testing against winemaking, etc.
logans_daddy
New member
i have my old faithful instant ocean hydrometer. it is very accurate especially if it is not used often. i compare my refractometer to my hydrometer every few months. you can also simply buy a 1 gallon jug of distilled water and use a kitchen scale or measuring cup to make up exactly 1 gallon of saltwater.
when i do a water change i always add the same premeasured amount of salt to the same premeasured amount of water and always get the same SG.
shawn:bum:
when i do a water change i always add the same premeasured amount of salt to the same premeasured amount of water and always get the same SG.
shawn:bum:
Gordonious
Active member
I like testing it with something besides just 0ing it out. I dunno why exactly, but just could see it being dead on near the low range around 0, but being off near the 30s-40s. The things to be pretty solid, works well, and many people approve of it, but it is still one of the cheaper ones out there. (Portable Refract from Forster and Smith)
Gordonious
Active member
I've tried to figure out exactly how much salt to water I would use, but I always end up doing different size water changes and my salinity has gone up and down in my tank in the past so I've wanted to make it up a little higher or lower to get things back to where they should be.
I have an "Aquarium systems SeaTest" hydrometer which I have had had from the start. I use my refractometer one every other time I do a water change(When I test everything else as well) to check the salinity in my bucket and in the tank to compare it with the hydrometer then use the hydrometer the rest of the time.
I have an "Aquarium systems SeaTest" hydrometer which I have had had from the start. I use my refractometer one every other time I do a water change(When I test everything else as well) to check the salinity in my bucket and in the tank to compare it with the hydrometer then use the hydrometer the rest of the time.
Gordonious
Active member
"you can also simply buy a 1 gallon jug of distilled water and use a kitchen scale or measuring cup to make up exactly 1 gallon of saltwater. " Do you mean by weight of the water? Or a specific amount of salt?(wouldn't that change with brand of salt?) Sorry I'm being a little slow tonight.
logans_daddy
New member
i only mean as a one-time testing reference. it wont matter what brand you use.
1gal distilled + premeasued amount of salt = same SG everytime
just follow the directions for the brand salt you use. for example, 1/2cup of instant ocean with 1 gallon water will give you an SG of 1.025 everytime if you measure precisely. you can use this as a benchmark.
i know what you mean when you say you are trying to adjust your SG but i thought you were asking for a way to calibrate your refractometer.
usually what i do when i do a water change is test my SG, change my water with 1.025 saltwater, check my SG again and then add 1 gallon of higher SG water at a time until my SG reaches 1.025.
shawn:bum:
1gal distilled + premeasued amount of salt = same SG everytime
just follow the directions for the brand salt you use. for example, 1/2cup of instant ocean with 1 gallon water will give you an SG of 1.025 everytime if you measure precisely. you can use this as a benchmark.
i know what you mean when you say you are trying to adjust your SG but i thought you were asking for a way to calibrate your refractometer.
usually what i do when i do a water change is test my SG, change my water with 1.025 saltwater, check my SG again and then add 1 gallon of higher SG water at a time until my SG reaches 1.025.
shawn:bum:
Gordonious
Active member
You know Shawn, that way of doing water changes may work a lot better. I usually have to lower my salinity. I believe one of the things that messed me up in the past when I was doing FOWLR was my engineer gobbies moving every piece of sand in the tank because I touched it and they were no longer happy with the way it worked. I believe at times my flow wasn't high and there may have been a bit of salt accumulated in the aragonite. Not sure, but possible. At the time I was leaving this system for 3-4 weeks at a time with just my father occasionally topping off with distilled and feeding.
Tbor
New member
If you have any evaporation to speak of, and are not topping off the same amt lost, your salinity is going to tend to get higher. salt doesn't evaporate - it's much more noticeable in smaller tanks. I have a level marked in my tank and always make sure I top off to there before doing a water change. I also like to test a sample of change water when I get a new bucket, I've found some variability in the results w/ IO.
Gordonious
Active member
I top off often. Usually just set up a little 2L bottle to drip in some RO. My father and I made some lids for the tanks out of acrylic that covered the whole top of the tank, but I was afraid it would distort the light to much so I haven't used them.
seattlerob
New member
Here's a link to a reefkeeping.com article about salinity and homemade calibration:
Reef Aquarium Salinity: Homemade Calibration Standards
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-06/rhf/index.htm
hth,
rob
Reef Aquarium Salinity: Homemade Calibration Standards
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-06/rhf/index.htm
hth,
rob
Gordonious
Active member
One more reading to add to my HW list, lol. Thanks rob.
