minireef isnt talking about a swing arm hydrometer, the tropic marin drop in hydrometer is good, you do need a large graduated cylinder, glass, or bucket to use it though as you cant read it in the tank with water flow
@MaxTremors yeah it’s not one of the swing arms and it’s supposed to be super accurate. Still definitely going to look around for others.
It’s $51 for salifert and $53 for RedSea. Going to go with RedSea.
You have researched well, the Tropic Marin are extremely accurate, just make sure to pick up a 500ml measuring cylinder too.
Man, I haven’t seen one of those glass thermometer/bobber style hydrometers in probably 20 years. But, yes you’re right, they are accurate.
There is a good thread on this were a test was carried out regarding what colour to look for, the salifert instructions show a bright pink but apparently it’s the violet (could be wrong on violet) which is the correct end point, i find the aqu forest slightly easier, that kit has a calibration solution in it so you can run that first see what colour you need to look for then it becomes a lot clearer, either way as long as you stop at the same colour each test it’ll be a constant reading which is the main thing.
www.reef2reef.com
Going to copy this for my build. Thanks, great thread!
From my experience (and I’m just a little under two years into the hobby) I also at first tried doing on a budget but in the long run using api test kits for example as I did as well will just cost you more money time and frustration in the end and you’ll end up buying the better/more expensive test kits/checkers. Me I wish I’d of just chinged up and bought all Hanna checkers from the start or if could afford it the apex and trident set up that’s the best of the best IMO. I think some Salifert test kits are really good as well but for me Hanna checkers are best. No color charts to try and get into perfect lighting to try to match up to closest color no swirling for x amount of seconds, no setting timers either.
