I have had my 13.5 gallon Fluval Evo running for about a month and currently have 2 clowns, 5 hermits, and a peppermint shrimp who are all doing great. I’m planning on adding coral soon and have previously been mixing my own salt water with conditioned tap water but am moving towards using pre mixed saltwater from my LFS. Yesterday I picked up some jugs of saltwater there to slowly add during weekly water changes. Today before I did my water change I checked the salinity of the LFS saltwater out of curiosity to see how different my current salinity was. When I tested it to my surprise it read as 1.030. I knew that couldn’t be right so I then recalibrated my refractometer with tap water and realized it was way off when it read as 1.010. After readjusting it so the tap water read as 1.000, I finally tested the salinity of my tank which read 1.012. If that is the true salinity of my tank, I must’ve forgotten to recalibrate my refractometer during the last water change I did. If that’s the salinity of my tank, how have my clowns and inverts survived for a week in this water? I am quite frankly baffled and am not sure if my refractometer is broken, and how I managed to get the salinity so off in my tank. Any ideas what my issue could be? I’m hesitant to change the water any time soon because the fish are doing fine with the current water and don’t want to shock them. Please help!!!
**Edit: Due to the advice of one user I watched a video on the calibration of my refractometer and realized I wasn’t supposed to be calibrating it using tap water which sets my reading way off. It may be possible that I was simply getting faulty readings but my salinity was stable and my fish are safe. I am planning on slowly raising the salinity and hoping all goes well. I appreciate your replies!
**Edit: Due to the advice of one user I watched a video on the calibration of my refractometer and realized I wasn’t supposed to be calibrating it using tap water which sets my reading way off. It may be possible that I was simply getting faulty readings but my salinity was stable and my fish are safe. I am planning on slowly raising the salinity and hoping all goes well. I appreciate your replies!
Last edited: