Salinity fluctuating during cycle

[Benny Morosco]

I just adjusted my tank water to 35 on my calibrated refractometer and then used the tank water to calibrate the Apex salinity/conductivity probe. Been pretty accurate ever since. I would never use the probe for anything important, more just a good read of short term issues like ATO malfunctions.

Can you give more detail with that?

 

[Benny Morosco]

Cycle has begun ammonia on the rise!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Ok so this is weird I tested my water with reafactometer and it is 30 1.024

What does that mean? Seawater at 30 ppt does not have a specific gravity of 1.024. It is more like 1.0226.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Won't fluctuations in temp effect salinity?

No. It may impact some (not all) measurement methods, but not the actual salinity.

Certainly, folks need to understand how the method they are using responds to temperature and whether it is automatically corrected or not.

 

[Rick Krejci]

Can you give more detail with that?

It's quite simple. First get your aquarium water to 35ppt using a well calibrated refractometer. Then go through the normal calibration routine and instead of using calibration fluid, use your aquarium water. Since doing this, and turning on temperature compensation, I've found to probe to be stable.

 

[Benny Morosco]

Day 2 just making sure we are going in right direction!!

 

[Benny Morosco]

What does that mean? Seawater at 30 ppt does not have a specific gravity of 1.024. It is more like 1.0226.

I know Randy... sorry just a mistype!

 

[Benny Morosco]

Looks like a EKG this is driving me crazy! Lol

 

[Rick Krejci]

Looks like a EKG this is driving me crazy! Lol

Do those pulses correspond with your heater/chiller turning on and off. Overlay temperature and see if the deflection point correspond.

You can enable Temperature Compensation in the advanced tab of the salinity probe. I set TC factor to 2.2 and that's about right for me. Mine still fluctuates a few tenths here and there, but it's good enough I can see major changes or trends.

 

[Benny Morosco]

Do those pulses correspond with your heater/chiller turning on and off. Overlay temperature and see if the deflection point correspond.

You can enable Temperature Compensation in the advanced tab of the salinity probe. I set TC factor to 2.2 and that's about right for me. Mine still fluctuates a few tenths here and there, but it's good enough I can see major changes or trends.

Thank you!!

 

[Benny Morosco]

Do those pulses correspond with your heater/chiller turning on and off. Overlay temperature and see if the deflection point correspond.

You can enable Temperature Compensation in the advanced tab of the salinity probe. I set TC factor to 2.2 and that's about right for me. Mine still fluctuates a few tenths here and there, but it's good enough I can see major changes or trends.

I would say yes!!

 

[Benny Morosco]

Huge rookie mistake I can not believe! I used a refactometer that I never calibrated! Yep just a dumb move I had thought I did it .. now it’s calibrated so it was the human error!