Lesson Learned

[68 Stang]

Years ago I purchased a H2 Ocean precision (auto temp compensation) salinity refractometer. This tester came with a vial of calibration fluid. I constantly checked the calibration and this unit was rock solid every time. I never had to recalibrate it. Fast forward to late last year. I made a new batch salt water, 90 gallons that I have a doser performing an AWC of 1 gallon a day. I noticed my 5 inch round WWC Bounce coral beginning to like melt away from the center out. I dipped it several times and it just kept melting away. I checked all parameters a number of times and saw nothing out of the ordinary. As a last resort I took a sample of water to my LFS and they checked salinity first. To my amazement salinity was at 1.017. I took a vial of calibration fluid home and sure enough my refractometer was way of. I slowly brought salinity back up to 1.026. A month or so I noticed several very small new babies of my WWC Bounce coral growing on the same rock where I thought all was lost. Today I have 7 WWC Bounce corals corals all about the size of a 50 cent piece. Moral of the story always calibrate your testers and if you believe a test is out of range verify that test before adding anything to your tank.

 

[SaltISlife]

I have two refractormeters and calibrate often.. but latetly ny refractomerers the screws have rusted.. stupid design making it steel vs say aluminum or even plastic.

Wasnt sure my salinity was right.. brought it into a store eith a digital hanna checker last night. Salinity was fine.

But yea. I hate refratometers because they always rust

 

[68 Stang]

I’ve never had one rust, I must have been lucky so far

 

[Gtinnel]

Always good advice to regularly check your test equipment. I use a regular and a digital refractometer and homemade test solution. With a cheap kitchen scale it's easy to make a diy 35ppt test solution.

 

[Jedi1199]

Always good advice to regularly check your test equipment. I use a regular and a digital refractometer and homemade test solution. With a cheap kitchen scale it's easy to make a diy 35ppt test solution.

Really? How? details please?

 

[Gtinnel]

Really? How? details please?

So that I don't accidentally give you wrong information I will just link the thread I saw it in. In Randy Holmes-Farley's post he lists how to do it. Also, I multiplied the amount of salt and water by 10 so that any error in my measurements would be less detrimental to the outcome.

DIY Salinity calibration solutions

Randy, In light of another post on calibrating a conductivity meter, I decided to give it all a shot on my own system. I read through your article on DIY salinity calibration (http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-06/rhf/) and have a few questions for my simple brain. 1. Is the Brand MORTON...

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