Community Help for New Aquarists: Input Needed!

I think a lot depends on where you live and other factors. After you wrote this I realized that a Chiller didn't even make the initial list (though I think it would have rated lower than a heater).

You can make up for not having a heater by having a higher temperature in your house during the winter. I just moved from Florida and until my last tank I hadn't owned a heater in 20 years because the temperature in the house stayed relatively constant. It was only when I set up a remote sump in our unheated garage that one became necessary.

 

By the way, keep the comments coming. I'm going to compile the salient ones into the post for the New to Hobby forum.

 

How in the world is hydrometer on this list? There is no such thing as a "quality" hydrometer.

JMO

 

I suppose a hydrometer is better than not knowing or measuring your salinity at all.

One thing to keep in mind.... If you ask me what I consider to be the key ingredients to a good reef tank, I could give you a list. If you wanted me to prioritize that and tell you where it is most important to spend the money, I could do that too.

If you had already spent the money and asked me what were the key points in MAINTAINING a system, well then I would give you a list. If you asked what key components are necessary in that maintenance, then I could tell you those items as well.

I think there are disparities on this list because some are tied to maintenance and some are tied to system comonents. Perhaps we could focus in on both. Like to me RO/DI, water changes, test kits, refractometers are all tied to maintenance. LR, skimmers, lights, fuges are all components to a life support system.

 

My point was that using a hydrometer is not any different than not knowing or not measuring your salinity at all.

There's several threads on the topic. Hyrdrometer = guessing.

It's like using test strips. It's false information.

I just wish for the list we'd put hydrometer and refractometer separately; not on the same line with a slash. It suggests they are equal.

 

Would "Refractometer>Hydrometer" be more appropriate?

I'm stuck using an old brewing glass hydrometer with a digital thermometer and hydrometer temp correction calculator until I can get a saline refractometer. I've used RO/DI and distilled to check the hydrometers accuracy. I've used the same hydrometer for brewing along with a brix refractometer. I won't say the hydrometer is exact but it's fairly accurate and better than guessing.

I will agree the plastic swing arm hydrometers and the cheap petco glass hydrometers are junk.

 

This is probably going to get me in trouble but. The absence of a skimmer is not going to cause the demise of a balanced system. There are hobbyist that have large tanks that are dominated by sps and run the system without a skimmer. It is not a deal breaker, yes it is very important to a system carrying a higher bio-load or one that requires more frequent feedings. I would advice all newer hobbyist to get a skimmer, but you can run a tank successfully without one. I have done it both ways, currently no skimmer.


Hydrometers: Plastic hydrometers are used in medical laboratories. They are tested for accuracy and maintained and occasionally retested. It is reported that they show little failure rate. Having a refractometer is always better, but unless calibration is done routinely their margin for error is significant as well. The best back up plan is to have at least 2 hydrometers and one refractometer and check their results against each other occasionally.

Not playing devil advocate just pointing out that rarely in this hobby are things absolute, someone it always going to say yea but, which has driven my crazy.

 

some hydrometers are accurate; they do exist. The problem is that you don't know if it's accurate unless you check it against a refractometer. At which point...

 

There is no way I would calibrate my refractometer using a hydrometer if that's what you mean.

I have never seen two hydrometers agree.

You can easily calibrate a refractometer using RO/DI. You can't calibrate a hydrometer in this way. They may show 0, but that doesn't mean they'll measure salt correctly.

You can't even calibrate a hydrometer; it either works or it doesn't. And the only way (I know of) to find out is by using a refractometer. It's circular, IMO, to say they are useful.

 

No my intent was not to suggest calibrating a refractometer against a hydrometer in any way.

I have worked in medical labs and had heated debates regarding the accuracy of hydrometers. After much convincing and actually seeing the results I have to agree.
The issue may lie in the defective manufacturing of some brands of hydrometers. Some brands are definitely better than others.

My point is that both can fail and that having more than one way to measure SG is more reliable than assuming one is always correct.