Salinity Question

David J

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So I did some tank maintenance tonight, I got a new Hana salinity tester digital. Someone told me on here to get it. My zoas have been not really opening up. They had some green hair algea but long store short I fixed that. So I bought it and never calibrated it. I thought it came pre calibrated. So at the end of the night I said what the heck I'll open up the 35PPT bag and calabrate it quick just to make sure its working good. Well it picks it up at 68 degrees as 1.026. which I think is fairly accurate. However my refractometer reads it as 1.020 so my tanks been about .05 low this whole time I think.


What do you guys think is the hana one accurate. Should I raise the levels by adding in some higher level salt mixed water ?
 
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David J

David J

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No I never calibrated it, thought it came pre calibrated. Bought it 2 months ago when I was starting out. No the temp of the calibrating solution is only 68.. my tank is 78.
 
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David J

David J

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No I never calibrated it, thought it came pre calibrated. Bought it 2 months ago when I was starting out. No the temp of the calibrating solution is only 68.. my tank is 78.
I guess my question is Now that I have the Digital hanna one, that came with the calibrating liquid and calibrated. I probably need to bring up my salinity correct ? I'll also have to adjust the refractor. There is a screw I'm guessing thats how oyu do it.
 

AcroNem

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if it actually is down about .05 then I would just topoff with saltwater until it is corrected, but definitely make sure they are properly calibrated and accurate before taking any further action.
 
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David J

David J

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1.0264 found a calculator. So thats what the hanna reads now that its calibrated. Before it was reading 1.031
 
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David J

David J

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So I'll just make the adjustment over the next 2-3 days... its reading 1.023 now in the tank so its not too low. Probably don't want to shock the system by raising it .02 instantly
 
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David J

David J

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Well im confused..... So I tried to adjust the refractor and calibrate it. Set it to 1.026. Tested my tank water, its reading 1.03 , the digital reads 1.021, Not sure what to do.
 
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David J

David J

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not sure which 1 to go with for a reading.... they don't match when I test my tank water.
 
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David J

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Testing my Tap water which has a 5 stage filter comes from a well. Hana digital is 1.0 the refractor is 1.08ish which is the basic diffrence im reading between the 2. If I zero it out on the tap water to read 1... the calabration soltution reads 1.020 so I'm guessing its junk and I'll use my hanna.
 
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David J

David J

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yeah going to go with that. I think I have to pick 1. To me the fact that my refractometer is so far off just blows my mind. I thought my tank was running a bit high at 1.026 but in reality it really was more like 1.023, I lowered it a bit today when I did my water change to get it to 1.025, if I didn't check my calabrations probably would have been sitting around 1.20, trying to calabrate it I think just made it more out of wack. Funny thing was then I first used the hanna, with out calibrating it both read about the same as 1.026.
 

infinite0180

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Do NOT calibrate a refractometer with the hanna stuff. Its only for the hanna meter! They are two completely different thing!
 
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David J

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Ok I just read that on another site bah wish it said that on the packet
 

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