Hydrometer use

[Ssdangeranger]

Which hydrometer would you trust until I get a refractomter

 

[Redfoxtang]

Honestly I trust no hydrometer. But I would use both until your refractometer comes. I use the Hanna salinity test and I always calibrate and then match up with a calibrated refractometer!!

 

[Ssdangeranger]

One is reading 1.024 the othe 1.028

 

[nereefpat]

If you have a kitchen scale, table salt, and some liquid measuring cups, you can make your own standard and see what the hydrometers read.

Add 35 grams of table salt to a large liquid measuring cup. Add water until the 1 L mark. Stir up until the salt is dissolved. It will be about 1.025 s.g. or 33 ppt salinity.

 

[Spare time]

I have seen coralife ones read high before.

 

[Ssdangeranger]

If you have a kitchen scale, table salt, and some liquid measuring cups, you can make your own standard and see what the hydrometers read.

Add 35 grams of table salt to a large liquid measuring cup. Add water until the 1 L mark. Stir up until the salt is dissolved. It will be about 1.025 s.g. or 33 ppt salinity.

You do mean 1 liter rights. 35 grams to 1 liter

 

[Reef.]

You do mean 1 liter rights. 35 grams to 1 liter

yes.

 

[Ssdangeranger]

yes.

Ok I did the test not thinking you could do that. But the coralife one is dead on the other is off by 2.5 ppt. Thanks for the advise

 

[nereefpat]

You do mean 1 liter rights. 35 grams to 1 liter

L = liter, yes. 35 grams of salt in the solution. So measure out the salt first, then add water...so you will have a little less than 1L of water. Salt + water = Total volume of 1 Liter.

Ok I did the test not thinking you could do that. But the coralife one is dead on the other is off by 2.5 ppt. Thanks for the advise

That was quick. Sounds good.

 

[Ssdangeranger]

Probably gonna be how I measure out my salt from now on 9.35 pounds of salt to 32 gallons of ro water. That’s what it will take to fill my trash can up that will get me close so I don’t have to second guess my hydrometer

 

[Reef.]

Probably gonna be how I measure out my salt from now on 9.35 pounds of salt to 32 gallons of ro water. That’s what it will take to fill my trash can up that will get me close so I don’t have to second guess my hydrometer

you still should check as you don’t know exactly what the container holds, just because it says 32g doesn’t mean that’s to the very top of the barrel.

You only have to be off a little to throw your salinity off by quite a bit.

 

[nereefpat]

That pencils out correctly, as long as the salt mix is anhydrous. Best to check after with your hydrometer, or a calibrated refractometer.

 

[Ssdangeranger]

Yeah I still will check but it’s a faster way to get close instead of just adding salt measuring then if I go over I gotta take some out in a clean bucket and add some more water.

 

[Reef.]

Yeah I still will check but it’s a faster way to get close instead of just adding salt measuring then if I go over I gotta take some out in a clean bucket and add some more water.

that’s how I do mine, weight it out then check it’s correct, normally is or I may have to add a couple of grams more of salt.

 

[WVNed]

Or you can calibrate your hydrometer and make a line on it with a sharpie.
Then you can drop it on the floor or in your tank or mixing bucket. You can do that hundreds of times. You can stick it in a drawer for years as I have two. Clean it a couple of times a decade.
It will always read the same. Mine has for more than 10 years.

I used a conductivity meter to calibrate mine. Dip it and knock it to get the bubbles off. Takes 5 seconds to get a reading.

 

[Thalia]

If you have a kitchen scale, table salt, and some liquid measuring cups, you can make your own standard and see what the hydrometers read.

Add 35 grams of table salt to a large liquid measuring cup. Add water until the 1 L mark. Stir up until the salt is dissolved. It will be about 1.025 s.g. or 33 ppt salinity.

What if you only have sea salt and not table salt? I tried this and my hydrometer reads 1.024 (32ppm) and refractometer 1.031...

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

What if you only have sea salt and not table salt? I tried this and my hydrometer reads 1.024 (32ppm) and refractometer 1.031...

Then get some table salt to make a proper standard. It may be your cheapest reef purchase ever.

Reef salt is not suitable unless you can somehow confirm its salinity some other way because it has variable amounts of water in the solids.

One can easily make enough to test any sort of hydrometer.

Recipes are here. Make sure to use the one appropriate for your device type.

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