Refractometer
- Thread starter Jilly92
- Start date
- Tagged users None
Yes it does give inaccurate results in most refractmeters
Gtinnel
10K Club member
Dissolve 3.65 grams of salt into 96.35 grams of fresh water. You just want to use table salt instead of aquarium salt since you are only wanting NaCl. Don't forget you can scale it up to make any inaccuracies in measuring less noticeable.
Here is the link to the article
Cantusaurus
Well-Known Member
It depends. Most of the time it can help and be somewhat accurate. But not completely, and it can be different from time to time. You need to make sure you rinse it off under the sink, and then dry it with a paper towel. ALSO have a soft cloth. A glasses cleaning cloth should work great. Then try and calibrate with RODI water.
BUT, I would just use Calibration Fluid. Honestly it's just better to spend $12ish or however much it costs, and you can just not have to worry as much. Plus it will last a long time. Solution is pretty accurate as long as you shake it A LOT, and wait 30 seconds to a minute after applying it.
BUT, I would just use Calibration Fluid. Honestly it's just better to spend $12ish or however much it costs, and you can just not have to worry as much. Plus it will last a long time. Solution is pretty accurate as long as you shake it A LOT, and wait 30 seconds to a minute after applying it.
Gtinnel
10K Club member
Honestly, calibrating from zero isn't ideal but you probably wouldn't see much of a difference. The Milwaukee digital refractometers have you calibrate at 0 from distilled water.
It amazes me that people buy it. With a cheap kitchen scale you can make a huge bottle of it for pennies.
don't be too upset, 35ppt is only an average of the salinity of the oceans, as long as your salinity is consistent is the main thing.
But yeah I found my refractometer was inaccurate when using rodi water, I then changed to salt water, I found that was very accurate (using Randy's diy recipe) but that I needed to calibrate the refractometer regularly.
I now use a Tropic Marin hydrometer, no calibration needed and extremely accurate.
Cantusaurus
Well-Known Member
Haha. I would try to do that, but I do not trust myself, and I feel I would mess it up. Plus I did not think of that. 
I just feel if you pay for something that is going to help, and will last then it is not completely a waste.
I prefer to do my share of DIY stuff in the back of my AIO tank with making media baskets, and modifying a skimmer. But that is very smart creating that DIY concoction, and I may have to try that if I run out of calibration fluid.
KrisReef
10K Club member
If you want to measure ro water then calibrate with ro water!
If you want to measure salt water, calibrate with salt water.
If you live near the ocean you can grab a FREE sample of sea water in a jar and use that to calibrate going forward. Just make sure that you grab it away from rivers and other fresh water sources that could throw the free sample off.
If you want to measure salt water, calibrate with salt water.
If you live near the ocean you can grab a FREE sample of sea water in a jar and use that to calibrate going forward. Just make sure that you grab it away from rivers and other fresh water sources that could throw the free sample off.
