Salinity of the water?

[Gregsf66]

Right now I tested and it is 1.030, All i have to do to bring it down is put some fresh water right? Please help asap. dont want to kill anything.

Greg

[Gregsf66]

instant ocean hydrometer it is now 1.027, that was w/ 2 gallons of fresh water

[jc]

Invest in a refractometer. It's one of the best pieces of equipment you can buy.

[Ram_Puppy]

most people run at 1.023, but 1.026 is the actualy strength of real seawater - so 1.027 is w/in safe parameters... so you can go very slow and patient now.

remember - no good things happen fast in the marine hobby. (except winning the lotto so you can buy the tank of your dreams)

[matt]

The cheapest, easiest way to accurately test your salinity is with a large glass floating hydrometer, like the tropic marin. You just have to adjust for temperature. If you buy a refractometer, like most of us eventually do, you need to calibrate it with pinpoint 53ms conductivity calibration fluid; it just so happens that that particular brand of conductivity fluid is exactly 35PPT salinity, which is natural seawater strength. (One of the chemists on RC tested it with some very expensive lab equipment)

There's a long somewhat complicated article explaining why the refractometers we use in this hobby can be really off at NSW range when calibrated to zero with R.O. water. Part of the answer is that the refractometers are designed to measure the light refracting properties of straight NaCl, not the complex collection of salts that make up seawater.

Anyhow, the easy fix is to calibrate at 35 PPT (about 1.0265 S.G.) with the pinpoint fluid, then you're basically sure your refractometer is accurate for what we need.

[jc]

Where do you get that pinpoint fluid at?

[matt]

premium aquatics, marine depot, champion lighting

[alton]

I agree with Matt on the glass hydrometers, also as the Instant Ocean Hydrometers get old they start to lie a little bit

[Willow]

I agree with Matt on the glass hydrometers, also as the Instant Ocean Hydrometers get old they start to lie a little bit

do the Instant Ocean ones tend to lie on the high side or the low side?

Mine probably has a few years on it (it was given to me, used, when I bought some live rock last fall...)

[Ram_Puppy]

when in doubt, replace.

[Willow]

when in doubt, replace.

lol.. good point!