- Joined
- Jun 11, 2018
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Disclaimer - I am probably doing something wrong here, I have not had a salt tank in over 30 years. Hopefully it's something simple
I bought a Red Sea Reefer 350 with the lights, then got a Neptune Apex system with the salinity, pH, ORP and temp probes (with WAV pumps, all that). I set the tank up, put a few inches of aragonite in the bottom, filled it with water, and added reef salt slowly, monitoring the level using the salinity probe that comes with the Apex system. I did the auto-calibration on the probe prior.
After a while I noticed that I was adding waaay too much salt, and the probe never registered anything over 25.
I grabbed my daughter's specific gravity meter, and the salt was off the charts - so I dumped a bunch and filled it up with R/O until her sg meter looked like things were back in line.
Apex probe was still sticking around 25, so I did the manual recalibration. It was a bit higher, maybe 28, but nowhere near it. I have about a week before my live rock arrives, so no big deal, I ordered a refractometer online and picked up another different branded sg meter at the LFS.
A few days later my refractometer arrives, as well as more calibration fluid - I checked 4 different things, and the readings are all over the map.
Refractometer is showing about 1.028 or 37, Fluval SG meter shows 1.021 or 28.5, Aquarium Products SG meter shows 1.029 or 39, and the Neptune Apex probe shows 32.4, but it has been going up every day slowly.
So... I have no idea what it really is. I did calibrate the refractometer and have calibrated the Apex probe a few times now (mostly manual calibration), and I do soak the calibration solution in the water, but I don't know which thing to trust.
I bought a Red Sea Reefer 350 with the lights, then got a Neptune Apex system with the salinity, pH, ORP and temp probes (with WAV pumps, all that). I set the tank up, put a few inches of aragonite in the bottom, filled it with water, and added reef salt slowly, monitoring the level using the salinity probe that comes with the Apex system. I did the auto-calibration on the probe prior.
After a while I noticed that I was adding waaay too much salt, and the probe never registered anything over 25.
I grabbed my daughter's specific gravity meter, and the salt was off the charts - so I dumped a bunch and filled it up with R/O until her sg meter looked like things were back in line.
Apex probe was still sticking around 25, so I did the manual recalibration. It was a bit higher, maybe 28, but nowhere near it. I have about a week before my live rock arrives, so no big deal, I ordered a refractometer online and picked up another different branded sg meter at the LFS.
A few days later my refractometer arrives, as well as more calibration fluid - I checked 4 different things, and the readings are all over the map.
Refractometer is showing about 1.028 or 37, Fluval SG meter shows 1.021 or 28.5, Aquarium Products SG meter shows 1.029 or 39, and the Neptune Apex probe shows 32.4, but it has been going up every day slowly.
So... I have no idea what it really is. I did calibrate the refractometer and have calibrated the Apex probe a few times now (mostly manual calibration), and I do soak the calibration solution in the water, but I don't know which thing to trust.