Refractometer

[Nalaundi]

ok guys. gunna get a refractometer but am not sure to which one I should get. Ive looked on drfostersmith.coma and ebay and have looked around a bit... but it seems Im more confused and not less... the price differences and the quality Im not sure what to trust. any help here would be loved

aslo has anyone tried the hydor flo attatchment to turn your reg water pump into a wave maker?

 

[SkiFletch]

The cheaper ones (think ebay) will NEED to be calibrated at a reef salinity and will be accurate around that range. Calibrating the cheap ones at 0sg is a BAD idea as they will likely be inaccurate up at 1.026 area if you do so. The expensive ones (think milwaukee) can be calibrated at pretty much any known salinity (even 0) and be pretty darned accurate. That's of course a generalization but should give you an idea of what you're looking at.

I myself use a cheapy ebay model, calibrated it at 1.026 and it works great.

 

[Musho3210]

i use the milwaukee that ski talks about (it was about 70 buckaroos in aquacave) and i calibrated it at 0, well i cant say on accuracy cause i havent cross checked it yet, but it works great.

 

[kj23502]

The cheaper ones (think ebay) will NEED to be calibrated at a reef salinity and will be accurate around that range. Calibrating the cheap ones at 0sg is a BAD idea as they will likely be inaccurate up at 1.026 area if you do so. The expensive ones (think milwaukee) can be calibrated at pretty much any known salinity (even 0) and be pretty darned accurate. That's of course a generalization but should give you an idea of what you're looking at.

I myself use a cheapy ebay model, calibrated it at 1.026 and it works great.

Don't mean to hijack, just want to clarify and add a site for calibrating solution as I've been thinking about refractometers also. Is it the right solution? It says 35ppt. Would we use something like that? If not where can we find one?

 

[dilbert]

At this moment, I cannot check out the Vernier site as I see only their main Web page and all links lead to errors, only.

But as far as I remember they do actually a calibration solution useful for reefers.

Only, I think it was a bit pricy.

Today, I got bottles from Pinpoint and it says +-1% on the bottle. Search for "PINPOINT™ Salinity Calibration Fluid".

And yes, I read on a Web page that cheap refractometers are actually often calibrated for use with brine and show about 1.5 ppt more than it is. So, if they show 35 ppt it's only 33.5 ppt. Calibration with a salinity standard makes sense here.

 

[SkiFletch]

The cheaper ones (think ebay) will NEED to be calibrated at a reef salinity and will be accurate around that range. Calibrating the cheap ones at 0sg is a BAD idea as they will likely be inaccurate up at 1.026 area if you do so. The expensive ones (think milwaukee) can be calibrated at pretty much any known salinity (even 0) and be pretty darned accurate. That's of course a generalization but should give you an idea of what you're looking at.

I myself use a cheapy ebay model, calibrated it at 1.026 and it works great.

Don't mean to hijack, just want to clarify and add a site for calibrating solution as I've been thinking about refractometers also. Is it the right solution? It says 35ppt. Would we use something like that? If not where can we find one?

That solution will work for sure. Or you can make your own for the cost of free...