salt mix with VERY high salinity

[pgolbus]

I am using Red Sea Coral Pro Salt. The bucket says to use 40g / liter and mix for 20 minutes to an hour. I have something along the lines of this which is not aquarium specific and I use it to make 20 liters of distilled water. I add 800g of salt and point a powerhead at the bottom. I move the powerhead around partway through until there is no visible salt and then let it go a while longer. What I get comes out to about 1.04 according to my refractometer. The water is at the reference temperature and the refractometer reads 0 on the distilled water.

I can try adding 600g, mixing and testing and keep going, but if it only takes 3/4 of the recommended amount to get to the right salinity, won't all the other trace elements be missing? I can dose for the big things but not for everything.

 

[KrisReef]

Mix it to the ocean salinity and then test all , Ca, Mg and see what you get. If it is marine salt for aquarium use then those parameters should be good. If they are not then I would not use the salt for an aquarium.

 

[Psyduck]

Check your water temp too. Lower the temp the lower the salinity it reads. I am guessing 20l is roughly little over 5g and under 6g? Each 1g i add 1/2cup if that helps.

 

[rtparty]

Refractometer is wrong. If you weighed it all properly with the right amount of water, your refractometer is out of calibration

 

[redfishbluefish]

I'd highly recommend picking up calibration solution for your refractometer. Using water is not the right thing to use to calibrate.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Check your water temp too. Lower the temp the lower the salinity it reads. I am guessing 20l is roughly little over 5g and under 6g? Each 1g i add 1/2cup if that helps.

Actually it's just the opposite. The colder the water the higher the refractometer will read. It has to do with the density increasing as the temperature gets colder.

 

[Psyduck]

Actually it's just the opposite. The colder the water the higher the refractometer will read. It has to do with the density increasing as the temperature gets colder.

Thank you for the correction! My bad.

 

[ScottJ]

Agree, the refractometer should be calibrated with the correct fluid, not RODI water. Check Randy's homemade fluid or buy a pre-made solution.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Check your water temp too. Lower the temp the lower the salinity it reads.

Not all devices have a temp relationship. Salinity itself does not change with temp.

 

[SergioFelix]

I am using Red Sea Coral Pro Salt. The bucket says to use 40g / liter and mix for 20 minutes to an hour. I have something along the lines of this which is not aquarium specific and I use it to make 20 liters of distilled water. I add 800g of salt and point a powerhead at the bottom. I move the powerhead around partway through until there is no visible salt and then let it go a while longer. What I get comes out to about 1.04 according to my refractometer. The water is at the reference temperature and the refractometer reads 0 on the distilled water.

I can try adding 600g, mixing and testing and keep going, but if it only takes 3/4 of the recommended amount to get to the right salinity, won't all the other trace elements be missing? I can dose for the big things but not for everything.

Hi, I have the same issue. I checked the calibration of the ref and checked with Apex. What do you find in the end?