So the problem starts with the brand new Hanna Salinity checker I got from BRS yesterday. This morning I went through the proper setup protocol for calibrating it in the provided 35ppt solution. After calibrating it I put it back in the solution just to double check it was correct and it was only off by 0.01 reading 35.01 so I felt like this was more than an acceptable margin of error.
After finishing this I was exited to test the salinity of all my tanks with my new toy. To my surprise the salinity was extremely low in my tanks. So low in fact that I could not believe it. So I tested each five times and they all came back with 32.04ppt every time.
My next step was to compare this to my supposedly trusted refractometer I calibrated it and then tested my tanks with it and it read 35ppt witch has been my tanks salinity according to that refractometer for more than a year.
I typically would tend to believe the refractometer more than the Hanna because it’s not a piece of technology that has more possible things that could go wrong with it.
I am now taking this into question though because my corals have not been very happy this year with little to no growth for no apparent reason as I have been extremely consistent with my tank parameters.
Another fact that leads me to believe this is my tropic marine pro reef salt has been low on Alkalinity when I batch it up. This would make sense because tropic marine is known to have a alkalinity of around 7. But has been consistently low every time at an average of better 5 and 6 so I have to manually add more to it. This makes sense because if I am reading the salinity of my salt in my fresh batches as higher than it is. This would reflect in all the other parameters showing lower than they should be. When In reality they where probably right on but for a lower salinity level.
Am I going crazy? I don’t know what to think? Should I trust the refractometer or the Hanna?
After finishing this I was exited to test the salinity of all my tanks with my new toy. To my surprise the salinity was extremely low in my tanks. So low in fact that I could not believe it. So I tested each five times and they all came back with 32.04ppt every time.
My next step was to compare this to my supposedly trusted refractometer I calibrated it and then tested my tanks with it and it read 35ppt witch has been my tanks salinity according to that refractometer for more than a year.
I typically would tend to believe the refractometer more than the Hanna because it’s not a piece of technology that has more possible things that could go wrong with it.
I am now taking this into question though because my corals have not been very happy this year with little to no growth for no apparent reason as I have been extremely consistent with my tank parameters.
Another fact that leads me to believe this is my tropic marine pro reef salt has been low on Alkalinity when I batch it up. This would make sense because tropic marine is known to have a alkalinity of around 7. But has been consistently low every time at an average of better 5 and 6 so I have to manually add more to it. This makes sense because if I am reading the salinity of my salt in my fresh batches as higher than it is. This would reflect in all the other parameters showing lower than they should be. When In reality they where probably right on but for a lower salinity level.
Am I going crazy? I don’t know what to think? Should I trust the refractometer or the Hanna?
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