Sg 1.028

[Pigpen17]

Alright. So I have been using a 10 year old Hydrometer to measure my salinity. I recently bought a new one, and the reading was way higher than my old one. Not knowing which to trust, I bought a Refractometer, and yes, I have been running my tank at 1.028! For almost a year.

Now I know I need to being it down slowly, but the thing is that everything has been doing very well. Great even. Now I don't have a bunch of fish or coral, but I am curious what affect bringing down salinity will have on my system. Will I have an algae bloom? Bacterial? How will my inverts fair? Will I go through another round of “the uglies”? Will I have some deaths? What should I expect, if anything.

 

[clownfish06]

Just lower it slowly when doing water changes or leave it alone

 

[MinnFish]

Did you calibrate the refractometer? And, with what?

 

[Pigpen17]

Did you calibrate the refractometer? And, with what?

Yeah. It came with a bottle of distilled water (zero) and a test fluid (1.025). Calibrated perfectly. In fact, the two new Hydrometers I bought tell me I’m at 1.028 as well. Only my old Hydrometer is off saying 1.024. Yeah. The one I have been using.

So I brought it down to 1.026 today. Still not sure if anything will go crazy (PH or ALK). It's been so stable.

 

[Sk8r]

I'd say just lower it very, very gradually and it won't give you problems.

 

[Pigpen17]

Thanks. Will do. I am not going to mess with it again until next weekend on my next water change.

 

[reepher315]

Hydrometers slowley build up film and salt on the swing arm after time causing it to read lower. My swing arm read 1.025 meanwhile my sg with a refractometer was closer to 1.030. Crazy that nothing died lol.