Maintaining the Salinity for a Newb

[deathdealerdelta]

Hey all, so I picked up my 5gal container of saltwater from Fish Gallery near Houston so I wouldn't have to worry about RO water and making my own, since this is an aquarium on my desk. I was just going to add my first coral and I checked the salinity real quick on the tank and it is at 1.04. I changed out 1/3 of the water with what was left in the 5 gal container I got a week or 2 ago and checked the salinity out of the container and it too is at 1.04. It's a tightly sealed container that the LFS provides, could the salinity increase that much or are LFS not known for having good sw parameters?


As an alternate can I just buy water and mix my own with distilled since I don't have an RO system if the LFS isn't a reliable source? Or do I need to see where I can pick up RO water?

 

[deathdealerdelta]

Ok so apparently you have to calibrate the refractometer so I'm hoping that is my issue. I'll know tomorrow.

I also called Fish Gallery and they want me to bring in some of the water to test. They said I would probably be better off mixing my own so I would always have RO water for top offs so I think that is the way I'm going to go.