Salinty spike

[ReeferRookie]

Very lucky i caught it in time my rbta and sebae were looking funny i checked params which i had checked the day before everything normal but my salinty spiked to .029 from my normal .023. I dont know how the suddent spike happened. I have an open top 36 g bowfront is it possible the salt that accumulates on my light fell intp the water ? Spiking my salinity


UPDATE : child got into saltwater cabiney thought salt was fish food. Cabinet has been locked

 

[vic67]

Hydrometer or refractometer for your salinity test?

 

[Ibassfsh]

Bring down slowly. Testing equipment out of calibration?

 

[ReeferRookie]

3 different hydrometers. All read .029

 

[Finnaddict]

Never trust a Hydrometer. They are always wrong. Use a refractometer. I doubt the salt creep from your light caused the shift. But if you had that much creep developing on your light your gonna have other problems.

 

[ReeferRookie]

I doubt 3 seperate ones were all wrong together. Also i discovered the problem and it was none of the above
Kid got into the cabinet and thought salt was fish food. Needless to say cabinet is locked

 

[Finnaddict]

LOL that's a good one.

 

[tyler1503]

Never trust a Hydrometer. They are always wrong. Use a refractometer. I doubt the salt creep from your light caused the shift. But if you had that much creep developing on your light your gonna have other problems.

I've found hydrometers to be incredibly reliable, especially the floating glass ones. I've never had a bad one. You just have to calibrate it against water with a known SG of 1.026 or a refractometer or something. I trust my old glass hydrometer completely and it's never steered me wrong!

 

[ReeferRookie]

Yeah luckily my fish are all doing good my rbta is back to normal and !!! It has decided to host my clown super excited. Minus im forced fo move and scared of the consequences

 

[Redseadragon]

Salinity doesn't spike... It is user error.. either you are topping off with saltwater by accident, not adding topoff water, or your equipment is not calibrated correctly. You could buy a reference solution to keep sure your salinity is being accurately measured.

 

[ReeferRookie]

Ill update. The post since no one read what happened

 

[Redseadragon]

Ill update. The post since no one read what happened

Sorry missed that and good idea to upgrade the original thread. Ok then problem solved salinity of 1.029 isn't event that high coral and fish will both thrive at that salinity. You can slowly lower it back down (take a gallon of water out.. add a gallon of freshwater). The reason they were stressed is more from the change in salinity rather than it being at 1.029.

 

[ReeferRookie]

I did. Yeah. Everyone in.this hobby has the one thing they believe in the most. For me. Its salinty it has to no excuses has to be 1.023 idk why. Also although another issue hydrometers ive heard bad things about i have three all which were free i counter check every time i do my checks so far ive never had one read higher or lower then the other

 

[tyler1503]

I did. Yeah. Everyone in.this hobby has the one thing they believe in the most. For me. Its salinty it has to no excuses has to be 1.023 idk why. Also although another issue hydrometers ive heard bad things about i have three all which were free i counter check every time i do my checks so far ive never had one read higher or lower then the other

The thing is people say they are inaccurate. Which they can be, but they are very consistent. If it's off by say 0.002 this time, it will be off by 0.002 next time and the time after and so on. That's why I say you need to "calibrate" them. Test them against water that is actually 1.026 (or in your case 1.023, pretty much the salinity you keep your tank at) or test them against a refractometer. When you know the margin of error, write it down, or put a mark on the hydrometer at where it's at the right salinity.
If all three of yours are reading the same, I'd say they're all right. It's a bit hard to believe they're all wrong and the margin of error is the exact same in each one.

 

[fishroomlady]

the Update sentence gave me a chuckle

 

[Finnaddict]

Like I said their wrong. If you have to get a refractometer to calibrate your cheap hydrometer then why bother. Just get a refractometer and be done with it.
Just my 2 cents

 

[tyler1503]

Like I said their wrong. If you have to get a refractometer to calibrate your cheap hydrometer then why bother. Just get a refractometer and be done with it.
Just my 2 cents

Each to his own I guess. But your right, if you owned a refractometer to calibrate a hydrometer with, you'd be silly not to use the refractometer in the first place. I calibrated mine with the LFS 1.026 guaranteed water. I don't have to worry about recalibrating it every so often and risking the reading changing over time with my glass hydrometer though

 

[ReeferRookie]

Like I said their wrong. If you have to get a refractometer to calibrate your cheap hydrometer then why bother. Just get a refractometer and be done with it.
Just my 2 cents

Im on a tight budget with this build the hydrometers are free and i highly doubt all three are wrong. Besides when i brought my water into my lfs (first cycle ever i had them test to makw sure i was doing it right ) his refractometer gave the same reading. Ive headd way to many stories on here and other forums of people neglecting to recalibrate. I rather do my three check system. Its like t5 vs led. Pay once or keep paying to replace. Unfortunately if i did that itd be one less dollar for salt filter media ect

 

[ReeferRookie]

Although i appreciate everyones opinions very much

 

[mrcoffee2]

Wait… hold the phone coach...

People still use hydrometers?

You gotta be joking right? Whats next, are you guys going to tell me that tap water is better than RODI now?

I'll ship you a refractometer if you really want it. heck I have a perfectly fine digital milwaukee MA887 reader... the one for $90-100 online I could sell you for like 30 bucks. <--- You can't go wrong with that price. I'll even pay the shipping to help you out. PM me if your interested.