Warning to all who are having problems and can't figure out what the problem is

knotsmart

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Note to self: make sure my Hydrometer is accurate!..

I have been banging my head against the wall for weeks now trying to figure out why I have a 50% success(at best) keeping any coral.. I've been testing very often and have been do a ridiculous amount of water changes. I bring home a something new from the lfs and it opens ,closes and dies.. it dawned on me to ask my lfs for a water sample so I could test it all their parameters. When the sample tested 1.018 sal i thought "wow , that's low" , I called them and told them my test results. Immediately they identified that was my problem because they had a really good hydrometer and apparently mine is a 15yo point of sale and off by 9 degrees.. I brought my water sample and tested it to be 1.035..ouch.. I've spent the last few days slowly bringing it down to 1.025.

Anyway..Thought I'd share.. moral of the story, if you're having trouble, test everything with someone else's test to verify yours are accurate
 

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bfam4t6

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I did the same thing a few years back. Going off a suspicious hunch, I bought a refractometer, and my tank tested between 1.031-1.032. Needless to say, I tell people to NEVER by a hydrometer. Just go straight to the refractometer. It'll save a lot of trouble.
 

glb

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Refractometer all the way. Hydrometers can get bubbles on the needle that knock the readings off. Refractometers can also be calibrated with RO water so you know your reading is correct.
 

moulton712

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Its good to double check. I had a swing arm running on 3+ years. Things were getting funky so I bought a hydrometer. **** thing was still accurate. Problem not solved. Still good to test.
 

acidtablockshifty

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i had the same issue before i got a refractometer, and i put my hydrometer back in the cabinet but i think im just going to throw it out. i was very good with rinsing it out after use and everything, and getting air bubbles of the swing arm still ended up with a tank at 1.030, only thing that i think helped was my water change water i just went by the calculation, so i was doing water changes with 1.026. but hey if you want to keep tunicates, barnacles they seemed to flourish in 1.030
 
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