Help! Please! Saltwater specific gravity?

[Smoke Reefer]

Hello everyone. I have a 15 gallon Column tank that just finished cycling. I bought just bought a fish today and he is not looking very good or active. I can't figure out my specific gravity. I have two hydrometers. One says 1.024 and the other says 1.026. So I used my refractomiter and it says 1.017. If it is in fact 1.017 will my fish servive untill I bring my water into my local fish store? Any advise?

 

[raulgoron]

yes, the fish will survive, ….the problem is how you acclimated it , and that you can't go from .017 to .023-.026 too fast…..
I suggest to check the others parameters too.
What fish?

 

[MinnFish]

Was the refractometer calibrated with a calibration fluid?

 

[raulgoron]

for a quick calibration try distilled water ( reading should be 0 )

 

[Fallling]

Was the refractometer calibrated with a calibration fluid?

+1. Make sure to calibrate it EVERY time. The one time I didn't, it ended up being way off. Fortunately, it was just for cycling live rock, but the rock was super premium with tons of life, and I lost couple gorgonians (1 survived).

Fish stores / vendors often keep salinity for fish lower, so it may not be too bad... still not good, but not as bad as going from 1.026 to 1.017. If you didn't calibrate, I'd be more inclined to go with the hydrometers. If it was correctly calibrated, the refractometer is going to be more accurate. It's always important to check you salinity vs the bag water. If it's from a lfs and more than 0.01 off, you need to drip acclimate in the future. If it's from an online vendor and more than 0.01 difference, it's better to set the quarantine to match the bag water, and then slowly raise the salinity over the course of several days while in quarantine (ammonia builds quickly once the bag is open from overnight shipping).

Sounds like the fish will be ok.

 

[MinnFish]

Calibrating with distilled water will not be accurate either. You will need a solution that register 1.026 to be accurate. Anything else is a shot in the dark.

 

[Smoke Reefer]

Thank you for the replys guys. If it turns out to be that low I will make sure I slowly raise it then. I have a fire fish and a 3 striped damsel as of today. The damsel is really small and his colors have faded quite a bit since yesterday when I got him. My ammonia is zero nitrites are zero but nitrates are around 20ppm. This is my first saltwater tank but I think I am getting the hang of it. I recalibrated it (using directions from videos on youtube, so I hope I did it right) using distilled water. I turned the screw untill it was at zero. That's when I tested my water and it only said 1.017. Great to know they will survive the night.

 

[Smoke Reefer]

MinnFish that makes sense. I will check and see if I have the solution. I never thought I that.

 

[Smoke Reefer]

Falling, Checking the lfs bag, awesome advise. Thanks.

 

[MinnFish]

How often are you doing a water change? 20 ppm?

 

[Smoke Reefer]

My tank was a bit more than half fulll when I added the fish. Tonight I filled it up a few more gallons. I was waiting because I wanted to get more live rock and that would raise the water line. I figured adding that water would be equal to a water change. Do I need to do a wc tomorow? Is 20 ppm bad?

 

[Titans_Reef]

If your tank does not have corals then 20ppm nitrates is not bad, fish tolerate nitrates better then corals do.

 

[rocsec1]

Why do LFS keep their specific gravity low?

 

[thegrun]

Why do LFS keep their specific gravity low?

Most fish stores keep the salinity low to save on salt costs. It also make acclimation easier for them since most major distributers also ship their fish in low salinity water which reduces the effects of ammonia poisoning while the fish are in plastic bags.

 

[fifthtoe]

I recalibrated it (using directions from videos on youtube, so I hope I did it right) using distilled water. I turned the screw untill it was at zero. That's when I tested my water and it only said 1.017. Great to know they will survive the night.

If you have a the refractometer that I think you have, you should not calibrate it using water. Those need to be calibrated using a calibration solution (35 ppt). If you calibrated with water, your readings are going to be way off. I think they will actually be lower. The refractometer that you are most likely using is not linear throughout the entire range, thus it needs to be calibrated at the level you want to read at.