Should I get a new salinity probe for my Apex?

[stanleo]

After having my Apex for four years I am in the process of upgrading it. I already installed the Trident and I am waiting for the DOS and Auto Feeder to arrive. When I set it up four years ago, I calibrated the salinity probe wrong and never fixed it so it has read wrong and is useless and now I want to fix it. Should I shell out 200 bucks and buy a new one or can I just get the calibration fluid and recalibrate the one I have?

 

[Mark Goode]

Mine was calibrated correcly, and worked well for a while, but now it insists my salinity is 54-55. I wouldn't bother with a new one because they're not very good. Okay for showing trends and sudden changes, but I wouldn't trust one.

 

[stanleo]

Mine was calibrated correcly, and worked well for a while, but now it insists my salinity is 54-55. I wouldn't bother with a new one because they're not very good. Okay for showing trends and sudden changes, but I wouldn't trust one.

You are not the first I have seen say that. Mine says the same salinity. I think you're right, I won't worry about it. It's not like it's hard to read a refractometer but the gearhead in me just loves seeing those numbers on the screen lol

 

[Saltyanimals]

My original salinity probe has been running on the original calibration for about 6 years. Reliability and reads accurately against a refract. I however decided to clean it. It soaked in citric and brushed off junk. Rinsed in rodi (read 0 ppt correctly) and now air drying as I type this. 53k packet floating in tank water waiting to be use in a few hours.

Maybe I shouldn't have tried to fix something that is not broken, but we'll see. The probe is reliable even as a very old probe caked in sump junk. Will see if cleaning it takes it in a different direction.

 

[Ziggy17]

My probe is about 5 years old and still reads true against my glass hydrometer. For me though, it doesn’t calibrate correctly when I use the fluid. So I calibrate it with my tank water every 6 months and it keeps it steady. I would suggest spending the $40 and buying the Tropic Marin glass hydrometer. 100% accurate. As stated by another, I just use the apex to track a swing usually caused by the ATO sensor.

 

[Saltyanimals]

My original salinity probe has been running on the original calibration for about 6 years. Reliability and reads accurately against a refract. I however decided to clean it. It soaked in citric and brushed off junk. Rinsed in rodi (read 0 ppt correctly) and now air drying as I type this. 53k packet floating in tank water waiting to be use in a few hours.

Maybe I shouldn't have tried to fix something that is not broken, but we'll see. The probe is reliable even as a very old probe caked in sump junk. Will see if cleaning it takes it in a different direction.

Update afterwards.

I did not destroy my trusty probe. After calibration, I rinsed in rodi, towel dried and retested it in the already opened calibration standard. Read 34.9 which is 0.1 off. That's a huge relief that I didn't break what was not broken.

Immediately back in my tank read 34.7 which in itself was a huge surprise that I was running that close to 35 ppt already. For those interested, plugging these numbers back into the Hamza's Reef calculator, anything above 34.4 ppt is 1.026 which is NSW. Interesting insight and yes this is on hobby grade gear. Nonetheless, it is satisfying for this reefer.

Take away is it's okay to clean your probe and try and recalibrate. Even a 6 year old probe. No need to replace a probe unless it can't be calibrated. Don't abandon your probes.

 

[Amstar]

Mine to has been true against my tropic marine hydrometer and I like to have my salinity to easily check if there are swings or if my ATO has gone nuts and is dropping RO/DI water into the sump/tank

I saw somewhere here on reef2reef that some have said this salinity probe works with apex

 

[RoanokeReef]

Mine to has been true against my tropic marine hydrometer and I like to have my salinity to easily check if there are swings or if my ATO has gone nuts and is dropping RO/DI water into the sump/tank

I saw somewhere here on reef2reef that some have said this salinity probe works with apex

I have one of these probes and it works great. Plus, it doesn't catch bubble due to the tip design.