Let me ask all of you guys how you do it? For years I always calibrated mine ro water. I ended up winning a bulk reef supply refractometer awhile back, it says do not calibrate with ro water, use solution. When I use solution I get a totally different reading than I would with ro. Curious what all of you use?
Calibrating refractometer
- Thread starter scoly
- Start date
psykobowler
New member
Ro/di water per the instruction. FYI , I have always mixed a bag of salt in a 45 gallon brute container and it keeps my salinity consistent without testing my water. The salt always mixes at. 1.025. Using a ca Rx instead of 2 part helps keep it stable.
fishnerd
Active member
Glenn,
Your calcium reactor keeps your salinity stable? Am I understanding this correctly?
Bryan
Wills612
Active member
Last edited:
psykobowler
New member
Bryan, the ca Rx does not add additional sodium Na and chloride Cl like two part solution does. Using two part makes the water saltier in the long run if water change is not significant to rebalance it weekly unless you use balling salt.
Second this. Dosed 2 part for 3 weeks and seen a substantial increase in salinity.
79chopperdr
I killed ALL that Coral!
RO water and $20 eBay refractometer.
Saltwaternooby
SPS junkie
I use the fluid, always have. I do it monthly.
psykobowler
New member
FYI, I accidentally dropped my refractometer in my frag tank before. Haha. Not sure about its accuracy anymore. I onced got lectured by that Stevie t guy back in the day that a calibrating solution is a must or else?. Maybe for a nano but for 500+ system it is not as critical to be super accurate. I once accidentally emptied 40 gallons of ato water in my system but it did not affect anything.
Saltwaternooby
SPS junkie
Dont think ro/di should read 1.024?
Sorry... it's a little unclear... that's what my tank shows when I have my refractometer calibrated to 1.026 with the Aquacraft fluid...
edit: argg... all wrong... what i meant to say is my tank reads calibrated according to:
RO/DI: 1.028
Pinpoint: 1.024
Aquacraft: 1.026
So Pinpoint shows its low, RO/DI shows it's high, and Aquacraft is right in the middle
psykobowler
New member
Rodi probably read 0.
yeah that's what i calibrated ro/di to... just saying that the difference of measurement is .002 between each of these.... The difference quite big with Pinpoint fluid and RO/DI at .004... With aquacraft it's only .002 difference... not sure which one is most accurate but Tom Blevins uses RO/DI and his tank looks fantastic... Makes me worry that if you're going with Pinpoint, your tank may be too salty...
Paulca916
Retired Reefer ;-)
From what I learned:
It's better to calibrate using solution close to what your going to be testing. 1.026 will be more accurate in the long run than using RO/DI and calibrating to 0.
I liked Pin Point the best I floated the bottle in my sump before using FWIW
But I've always said any where between 1.024 to 1.026 is fine with me.
It's better to calibrate using solution close to what your going to be testing. 1.026 will be more accurate in the long run than using RO/DI and calibrating to 0.
I liked Pin Point the best I floated the bottle in my sump before using FWIW
But I've always said any where between 1.024 to 1.026 is fine with me.
I just use Aquacraft now... it's right in the middle... with RO/DI and Pinpoint, it seems you are either too high or too low... 0.004 is a big difference... Joe from O st mentioned that When he calibrated with Calibration fluid, everything started dying in his tank... and when he recalibrated with RO/DI, everything came back to life. He said the difference he got was .004 so i suspect he was using Pinpoint...
Paulca916
Retired Reefer ;-)
That's very interesting never heard of anything like that.
I know if I used Pin Point and calibrated it to 1.026 then tested RO/DI it tested 1.002.
I always kept my salinity around 1.025 to 1.026 according to my Millwaukee refractometer.
Strange seeing how long Pin Point has been around.
