Pro tip: Buy a scale

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

One of the things that has changed the most in recent years with respect to reef aquarium chemistry is how inexpensive high quality scales have become.

I recently bought:

a 1 kg scale with 10 mg precision for $18.88

and

a 17 piece weight calibration set, 10 mg to 100 g, to verify accuracy ($8.44)

With it, making DIY additives and standards, and even measuring liquid volumes by mass, is much more accurate and stress free.

 

[JayM]

Yep. I've got a 5kg scale that claims .1g accuracy and I paid about $25 bucks for it. Although I don't really use it much as the only mixing I do regularly is AFR powder. I just use my reloading scale for that. It's smaller (not really a big deal) and accurate down to .001g (probably unnecessarily accurate for AFR).

 

[19Mateo83]

Yep. I've got a 5kg scale that claims .1g accuracy and I paid about $25 bucks for it. Although I don't really use it much as the only mixing I do regularly is AFR powder. I just use my reloading scale for that. It's smaller (not really a big deal) and accurate down to .001g (probably unnecessarily accurate for AFR).

Same here. Reloading scales are nice :beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes:

 

[exnisstech]

Same here. Reloading scales are nice :beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes:

Agreed. I use a little Lyman portable powder scale. Seems very accurate when checked with a calibration weight.

 

[BR260354]

One of the things that has changed the most in recent years with respect to reef aquarium chemistry is how inexpensive high quality scales have become.

I recently bought:

a 1 kg scale with 10 mg precision for $18.88

and

a 17 piece weight calibration set, 10 mg to 100 g, to verify accuracy ($8.44)

With it, making DIY additives and standards, and even measuring liquid volumes by mass, is much more accurate and stress free.

Have a brand you recommend?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Have a brand you recommend?

I've not actually used the one I bought yet to recommend it, so no. Amazon has a large number.

Just make sure it can readily read the smallest amount you want to measure accurately. For me, that was ability to read something a bit less than 0.1 g accurately. Hence 10 mg precision and calibration weights starting at 10 mg.

Same for the high end. if you want to make a 500 mL dosing solution, reading to 1 kg is a good higher end so you can also measure the water.