Milwaukee salinity tester

allieW · Aug 18, 2025

Is there anyone that can help me with a Milwaukee salinity tester? I keep getting crazy readings? I calibrate often and no scratches on the tester? My tank looks great but I need to do a water change but I’m not trusting whatever is going on. I can’t use a refractometer because I’m visually impaired.

smitten with ocean life · Aug 18, 2025

do you make sure it is sitting on a level surface and has no bubbles in the water on it? have you zeroed it out with rodi water?

allieW · Aug 18, 2025

Yes on both. The one thing I think I have figured out is to let the sample sit for one minute before reading. Apparently it’s letting the water temp adjust. I’ve had this tester for over a year now and that was never a problem I had so I guess it’s something new?!?

X-37B · Aug 18, 2025

Get a TM hydrometer and a 500ml plastic cylinder.
I tried the Milwaukee and sent it back. Never got it to be consistent.

A_Blind_Reefer · Aug 18, 2025

allieW said:
Is there anyone that can help me with a Milwaukee salinity tester? I keep getting crazy readings? I calibrate often and no scratches on the tester? My tank looks great but I need to do a water change but I’m not trusting whatever is going on. I can’t use a refractometer because I’m visually impaired.

What exactly do you mean by crazy? I’m severely visually impaired as well. I had an issue once with mine where salt deposits built up around/under the chrome trim around the lens. Took awhile to figure out. I now flush the lens under ro water for quite some time after each use. I also found the squeeze dropper would build up salt as well. Even placing it in a cup of ro water and squeezing/shaking repeatedly didn’t really help. I now use a regular syringe that I can pull the plunger out to clean. I haven’t had any issues since. As long as it hasn’t been dropped, nothing should go wrong.

As a sanity check, you can make Randy’s diy salinity standard to verify the meters calibration. I have a talking scale, but to be honest it’s just way too slow to respond so making accurate measurements is not possible. I had to borrow someone with eyes to make the solution. For instance, my Milwaukee reads 1.027sg when verifiying against the diy 1.025sg standard (36/35ppt). It always reads this same amount when checking and as there’s no way to actually calibrate it (it can be zeroed, just not calibrated) I know that 1.027 on my Milwaukee equates to 1.025.

I’ll look up Randy’s diy and post it after this message. The solution keeps indefinitely when stored in a closed container so you only need sighted help to make it once every couple years or so. Don’t get the hydrometer……us blind folks are not able to use those types of devices without help from sighted people.