Hydrometer vs Refractometer

[Paul B]

I have been using this swing arm hydrometer since they invented the things. They are way in accurate but that doesn't matter. You don't even need numbers on it. Every time I go to the tropics I bring the thing with me and stick it in the sea. Wherever the float stays I stop and ask my wife for a towel to dry the thing off. Then I find an accountant and borrow a Magic Marker and draw a line in it to mark the spot. Been doing that for fifty years.

The things are off, but they are always off the same amount so deal with it. You can of course find someone with a refractometer and test it against that, but that is the Sissy way of doing it and the salinity doesn't have to be close to anything anyway as the sea varies a whole lot and the fish don't really care as long as they don't hear RAP music.

The Long Island Sound in back of my house reads about 1.06 or something like that, I could keep kissing gourami's in it.

I do have a hydrometer but I use it to look out the window at night to find stars with planets that may possibly have water on them.

 

[HunterW]

I have been using this swing arm hydrometer since they invented the things. They are way in accurate but that doesn't matter. You don't even need numbers on it. Every time I go to the tropics I bring the thing with me and stick it in the sea. Wherever the float stays I stop and ask my wife for a towel to dry the thing off. Then I find an accountant and borrow a Magic Marker and draw a line in it to mark the spot. Been doing that for fifty years.

The things are off, but they are always off the same amount so deal with it. You can of course find someone with a refractometer and test it against that, but that is the Sissy way of doing it and the salinity doesn't have to be close to anything anyway as the sea varies a whole lot and the fish don't really care as long as they don't hear RAP music.

The Long Island Sound in back of my house reads about 1.06 or something like that, I could keep kissing gourami's in it.

I do have a hydrometer but I use it to look out the window at night to find stars with planets that may possibly have water on them.

Too funny...lol

 

[Joedubyk]

I really like my Milwaukee digital refrac... it IS expensive, but every time I go the cheap route on anything ever in this hobby I pay for it one way or another. I end up buying the nicer things anyway..

 

[Jon Fishman]

I’m going with the hydro. After 30 years I just don’t trust those things. They need calibration and hard to see. I have a vertex refract and calibration solution in my closet. When I first got it I used it a lot. That stopped after the readings were the same.

The only thing to be super careful with on the hydro is if bubbles are on the arm it will raise the reading. Also they should be changed out after a while. Minerals can build up holding the arm down.

I’m going to be the only one though to say this. I’m a loner. Everyone else with say refrac, which isn’t a bad thing. Just me being old and stubborn

Interesting you say that....... I have thrown all sorts of money at all sorts of things, but whenever I see a refractometer I just think “do I really need that?”. My tank has been running great, and I rinse out my hydrometer every time, and it gives me what I guess is a “good enough” reading for my coral to do well.

If it ain’t broke....