Salinity testing

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dlsrks

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Dec 26, 2010
Messages
331
Location
Anniston, Alabama
To those just getting started with SW tanks. Please do not trust the hydrometers. I had three of them. Each were giving me different readings on the same tank. I know they are cheap but spend the extra money and get you a salinity refractometer. It is very accurate and save you a lot of grief.
 
There are 2 types of hydrometers and the inaccurate ones are the floating needle style. The float inside the hydrometer will trap small bubbles giving a false reading. Almost always. They are fine where accuracy is not important like the S.G of a car battery. The other type are quite accurate and are the floating bulb hydrometer. The entire bulb floats higher or lower depending on the S.G. Unfortunately I have never seen one scaled for aquariums. The ranges we are interested in are about 1/4 inch or less on the scale. That
Makes it hard to tell the difference between 1.02 and 1.03.
Refractometers come in a variety of scales including the aquarium range.
 
Ingy said:
There are 2 types of hydrometers and the inaccurate ones are the floating needle style. The float inside the hydrometer will trap small bubbles giving a false reading. Almost always. They are fine where accuracy is not important like the S.G of a car battery. The other type are quite accurate and are the floating bulb hydrometer. The entire bulb floats higher or lower depending on the S.G. Unfortunately I have never seen one scaled for aquariums. The ranges we are interested in are about 1/4 inch or less on the scale. That
Makes it hard to tell the difference between 1.02 and 1.03.
Refractometers come in a variety of scales including the aquarium range.

Awesome thanks for explaining it
 
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