falconut
New member
I've been using an Instant Ocean Hydrometer for years, which I figured giving me accurate numbers for my reef tank.
I finally purchased a refractometer from Premium Aquatics along with a bottle of Sybon Standard Seawater Saline. Out of the box, the meter read the 35ppt Sybon at 40ppt (after letting it sit for 30 seconds), so I adjusted the calibration screw until it was 35ppt.
I'm assuming that this now has my meter reading very close to seawater at 35ppt. So, I tested my display tank and it was reading 1.029, wasn't expecting this. My hydrometer was reading around 1.0245. I then tested my QT tank water with the refractometer and it read 1.0275.
Confused by this I tried calibrating the refractometer with RO/DI water at 0.00. Then tested my DT and it read 1.030. Oh, and the RO/DI water read -0.1. So the adjustment was slight. From my understanding, if I use RO/DI to calibrate, shouldn't my test be 1.7ppt higher?
I want to make sure it's high before I start lowering the salinity.
I finally purchased a refractometer from Premium Aquatics along with a bottle of Sybon Standard Seawater Saline. Out of the box, the meter read the 35ppt Sybon at 40ppt (after letting it sit for 30 seconds), so I adjusted the calibration screw until it was 35ppt.
I'm assuming that this now has my meter reading very close to seawater at 35ppt. So, I tested my display tank and it was reading 1.029, wasn't expecting this. My hydrometer was reading around 1.0245. I then tested my QT tank water with the refractometer and it read 1.0275.
Confused by this I tried calibrating the refractometer with RO/DI water at 0.00. Then tested my DT and it read 1.030. Oh, and the RO/DI water read -0.1. So the adjustment was slight. From my understanding, if I use RO/DI to calibrate, shouldn't my test be 1.7ppt higher?
I want to make sure it's high before I start lowering the salinity.