How do you measure the salinity of your reef?

Taste. Add salt and pepper as needed.

Swing Arm Hydrometer. It was actually given to me as a gift from a local nano reefer here. But i heard those Refractometers are really good and accurate. I want one of those.

Refractometer... they aren't cheap though, but once calibrated are fast and very accurate. I think it's pretty important to have a really accurate reading when ur dealing with such a small amount of water. It's a good investment I think.

Swing Arm Hydrometer. I am to cheap to buy a Refractomeater

hydrometers are not expensive at all when you look at the overall amount you've spent on ur tank. 40-80 bucks..no biggie

Floating glass. it was 2 bucks and I can afford to loose it.

Hi..I am a totally new to this and started out with a refractomer. Love it...very easy to use and they aren't THAT expensive. Drs. Smith/Foster have a very affordable one at $40. The wing arm was off multiple times by almost .004. I think that's alot considering there is a big difference between 1.019 and 1.023. SH

when i buy them @ the LFS, i get it checked by the refratometer a couple o' times. need to check out smith/foster for that cheap refractometer

I use a refrac and wouldn't feel confortible using the swing arm. Like steelhear said above. With a .oo4 difference your measuring 1.025 when in actuality it is 1.029, not good IMO. $40 and you know that what you are using is one of the top of the line instruments. What is $40 but 2 fish or 1 fish and coral, or half an acan frag!

I love my refractometer, I paid $35 for mine from fosters and smith.

I'm too cheap to buy a refractometer, however I won one in a raffle at my club's meeting so I use that:)

oh, i use the glass floting thingy that was 16 dollars at drsfostersmith.com. works great. only drawback is there can be NO current whatsoever. other than that never needs calibration, and is very accurate (i think)

I use a deep six... but I calibrate it weekly with a refractometer.

I use the foster and smith refracto, and I am glad I got it. I was trying to raise salinity based on my swing arm hydrometer readings (read 1.022 wanted 1.025-1.026). Before I did this I decided to get the refractometer and once I got it I found my level was actually closer to 1.030 so I actually wanted to lower my level. I would have wiped out my whole tank if I hadn't listened to those here that praised refractometers so much and led me to the $35 one at foster and smith. I highly recommend it and thanks all for the great recommendation.

For anyone who doesn't think its worth $40 for a refractometer, you need to try one.

Here are my reasons:

1) You only need a few drops of water to put on it. No need to submerge it like you do hydrometers (very handy since many of us only prepare a gallon or two of water at a time).

2) No need to worry about junk accumulating on the arm or glass tube.

3) No messing with tapping to get all the bubbles off the arm or glass tube

4) Works the same with ALL temperature of water.

5) Only takes about 10 seconds to check.

I used a hydrometer for a short period of time. I would NEVER go back. Best investment ever made for my tank.

any one have the coralife deep six hydrometer?

it has the little 1.020 - 1.023 thing that tells you were it should be/ someone told me that that was wrong what do you think it is?!

I have the same one you have. I like to keep my water between 1.023 to 1.026 Every thing runs fine for me It has been said that most snails need a salinity level of 1.024-1.026 to live long term...Just a thoght.

I use a glass bubble hydrometer, and it worked great until I dropped it X) I calibrated my new one against a refractometer, and it's off by .001. The thing is, it will ALWAYS be off by .001, regardless of what salinity I'm trying to acheive, so I'm still getting results that are just as accurate. I just can't justify paying 10x as much to get the same results. You don't have any issues with gunk building up on the glass if you don't leave it in the tank. I can't think of anything easier to clean salt off of than the outside of a smooth glass cylinder.

The floating glass hydrometers sometimes arnt very good b/c if the salt creep starts to grow on the top of the floating glass hydrometer the hydrometer with sink a bit and u will think u will need to add more salt and then have to high of a salt level.

Do you read? You're not really supposed to leave it in the tank.

I have been reading for 3months. Ive heard of people leaving them in the tank and not leaving them in the tank.

Also dont overstock your tank with these. People have a tendancy to follow the 1 per gallon rule when they first start thier aquariums. There really isnt enough algae for them at this point, not to mention most snails pretty much only eat diatoms which can be scarce if you dont use tap water. Read Ron Shimeks new Invert book for more detailed info on snails.

This is not directed at you Travis, but just a tag along to what you stated.

-peace

I've been using a swing arm for the last year and have never had any issues.

I voted refrac because I just bought one and its in the mail right now. I was using an IO hydrometer, but I cant wait to get my frefrac and im not touching anything with my tanks till I do. I dont trust it as sometimes I get weird readings after trying 3 times with my hydro and they are all wayy different, lol. POS.

Chris

I use the deep six swing arm and it works great. Very consistant readings, none of the whacky stuff that people tend to talk about on this site... just my experience.

REFRACTOMETER >>>>>>>>> hydrometer

never will i waste money on the swing arm hydrometers ever again. if you're serious about reefing, it's worth the investment. after all, each piece of coral will cost $30-50, refractometers range from $40+, it's definitely worth saving for!

Refractometer-got it from the back of Tigah's tank....

You mean we're supposed to have *salt* in the water? WTF?

-q

has anyone compared accuracy between a refractometer and a floating glass hydrometer? if so, please post your results.

mine was tested against the LFS refractometer, and it's off by 0.001. Accuracy isn't as important as consistency if you can calibrate it against a refractometer like I did. My hydrometer measures a sg of 0.001 when I measure pure water, and reads 1.027 when the sg is 1.026. The thing is, it's always off by the same amount..you just have to calibrate it. One other thing, some glass bubbles, like mine, have the measurements on a peice of paper stuck inside the tube. I've never seen it move, but I check it every so often against pure water to be certain.

Swing Arm Hydrometer

I use a refractometer.

Bob

Hi, I was able to get a refractometer from my teacher, but it only has the refractive index not SG. Could any of you with a refractometer tell me the appropriate ranges of the refractive index for SG from 1.023 - 1.026. Thanks a lot.

refractometer.....

used to use a swing arm when I got my refracto I tested it against my swin arm and well the swing arm said .023 and the refracto .025

Refractometer from Drs Foster and Smith- SG is consistantly
between 1.024 and 1.026. I wish some of the other water chemistry
tests were as easy to use.

i bought a refracto from drs foster and smith after i broke 3 glass hydrometers. I love it.

I finally broke down and bought a refractometer from Foster and Smith. Thanks to all for convincing me.

JBJ-TSS.... REALLY GOOD PRODUCT...MAKES TESTING EASIER!! AND REALLY ACCURATE.

Going to p/u my refractometer today! I guess its time to come out of the dark ages...

Refractometer - I used to have a swing-arm and it was cool at the start, but after a few months my tank just didn't look as healthy as it had, and I had algae problems. I ended up getting a Refractometer and found my tank was really at 1.034 not 1.025 (deposits on the arm) - you can always check your swing-arm against a refractometer every few months, or you can do it the right way and just buy one when they're pretty cheap compared to the rest of this hobby

Pinpoint salinity monitor

~randy

swing arm SUCKS....I hate them the calibrations are all off. I had it reading 1.024 and it was actually 1.031.....6 months I had it like that. Lost two shrimp and a coral beauty.

I hate, hate, hate, hate, HATE my deep six swing arm. I have to measure my SG 3 or 4 times, then when I get 2 readings that are close I assume that hopefully that will be correct. WTF? I spend at least 5 minutes tapping bubbles before I can get any kind of a reading. I'm ordering a refractometer asap!

I really like my deep six swing arm... right in line with the Milwakee refractometers we use at he LFS I work at. Still, I think a Milwakee refractometer would be an awsome stocking stuffer this x-mass! lol!

Jared

Bought refractometer after using areometer (floating glass tube hydrometer), comparing:
1. Glass cylinder is used.
2. It will accumulate on the prizm. Everything needs cleaning, reftactometer - most jentle cleaning.
3. Same bubbles in refractometer are more frequent than on glass tube.
4. Correction tables.
5. Sorry, mine is required 30 sec only for temperature adjustment, plus cleaning.

Seriously, I still don't know which of them shows truthful data, both are supposed to be very accurate. Still, they show different data: same water, SG 025 by refractometer, 020 by areometer, instructions for IO salt mix preparations (1/2 cup per 1 gal of water will give around 022 SG) support areometer measurements. Hmmm?

Did you calibrate the refractometer with distilled water?

Yes, with ultra-pure water for refractometer calibration, not precisely at 20C but fairly close. Floating glass hydrometer was created precisely too, still so big difference. I wouldn't like to buy another refractometer from different manufactirer just to check accuracy of the first.
Link of interest:
http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...09&hl=calibrate

floating

Swing arm.