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JT101

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Location
Hicksville, NY
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yea well i never dropped mine and mine is off all the time. it is good for a month or two then it whacks out and gives me crazy readings.

Is there an adjustment screw in it somewhere? Is it loose perhaps? Or maybe the actual glass plate is loose. That's the only things that could cause it to go out of cal.

If you wanna borrow mine PM me.
 

Jarrett

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Bethpage
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yea the screw is in it. and the glass plate closes fine. i ended up bringing a sample to the LFS and they tested my water and theres said is was 1022 so its pretty close to my 1021 reading so i am just going to go ahead and raise the salinity and just have to figure out why it is dropping.
 

JT101

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Hicksville, NY
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yea the screw is in it. and the glass plate closes fine. i ended up bringing a sample to the LFS and they tested my water and theres said is was 1022 so its pretty close to my 1021 reading so i am just going to go ahead and raise the salinity and just have to figure out why it is dropping.

Does your skimmer skim very wet?
 

Jarrett

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Bethpage
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can anyone recommend a somewhat cheap reliable good brand refractometer i might just have to buy a new one, i am starting not to trust the one i have. i just dont see SPS showing no negative effects to being kept at a salinity as low as 1020
 

JT101

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Hicksville, NY
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can anyone recommend a somewhat cheap reliable good brand refractometer i might just have to buy a new one, i am starting not to trust the one i have. i just dont see SPS showing no negative effects to being kept at a salinity as low as 1020

I forget where I bought mine but I think it's a real cheap Chinese import. I'm thinking I got it on ebay. It has a backlight!!
 

KathyC

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Location
Barnum Island
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http://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calculators/TargetSalinity.php

since you have 75G tank and 20 G sump..and I will assume you have a typical amount of rock in there (yes? no?)
Then you probably have a total of about 50 ACTUAL Gallons of water. (40Dt & 10 sump)
Change the Target & Current Salinity values to sg rather than ppt - since that is how you are measuring
Under 'Salinity Unit for Schedule' - change that also to sg
It will tell you exactly what you need to do to get your water back to the sg you want
 
Last edited:
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BTW, next time when you going to an LFS, why not carry your meter over and show them the unit and the way you use it. Compare yours to theirs and check whether any abnormality happens.

You can follow the method outline by Kathy in raising the SG in the meantime. But for the long run, I suggest you to use PPT so that you can calculate the results much faster by eyeballing things.
 

KathyC

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Location
Barnum Island
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nid0RgMkVPI&feature=youtu.be

and its weird i never would of thought that water was displaced that much i have been doing all my dosing against 70 gallons but all my levels are stable there so i guess no harm no foul.

Yeah, I just found it...lol
It is amazing how much water rock will displace. I will stick with my original estimate above...you can always tweek it after you do what the calculator says.
The displacement really needs to be taken into consideration when figuring out dosing and such :)

..and one more thing..stop calibrating the refractometer. It is not something that should need to be done often. You will make yourself insane. :spin:

One more suggestion...tomorrow - go out and buy yourself a cheap half gallon pitcher that has the measurements printed on it and measure out exactly 5 gallons of water into one of those pails you have and then MARK your bucket so you know for sure that you are making 5 gallons of water. ;)

I'd also suggest (hard to stop me when I get on a roll...lol) that you get the instructions for your salt mix to see what sg it mixes to..it's probably available on the net..so try and Google it first.
 

CHEMCHEF

PERMANOOB
Location
westbury ny
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I have a fifty gallon cube with 12 gallons of water in my sump. 62 Gallons
I used distilled to fill it and it took 42.5 gallons
19.5 gallons diplaced on 62. I was suprised
 

Jarrett

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Bethpage
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figured id update you guys since i was freakin yesterday lol. i think what happened was my GFO reactor had a small leak and that was causing the ATO to kick on to frequently which then resulted in a drop in my salinity. i woke up this morning looked at the reactor and noticed the water level in it was really low and fluctuating which i never saw before. and then i looked at the seems and there was little droplets coming out of it. i guess i didn't tighten it enough from my previous water change.
 

strgazr27

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Location
Kings Park, NY
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You need to take into account what type of rock you are using when "Guesstimating". Pukani rock will take up about twice as much area pound for pound as something along the lines of a MArco or Primo base rock. Much lighter and displaces much less water.

Glad you seem to have it figured out J!
 

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