Is this tank cycled.

salt/salinity refractometer = ebay $30 shipped..

im going to get one too. both of my hydrometers are off from each other by .002 ,
10 year old one says 1.024 other 2 year old one says 1.026

go figure..I guess i need to start tasting my tank water..

 

I bought my refactormeter from here:
Refractometers

Seems to do the job and they have solutions available for calibrating it for purchase on the site. It's 50$ but a good solid one.

As for this tank, 2 weeks is very short time, especially since you also did a water change during the cycle time. If you do have to add fish to the tank I think you could do 1 of two things IMO:

1-I would suggest buying a small quarantine tank to put them in for a day (walmart sells small tanks for 15 bucks) and while doing that use bio-spira or some kind of beneficial bacteria additive. Some of them only take a few hours and while the results are mixed, I have personally had it work for me before but even then I still waited 6 weeks to cycle the tank.

2-Put the fish in your tank and use a chemical such as Amquel+ to make sure the levels do not get too high for the fish. Unfortunately this method kind of delays your cycle a lot longer and adding chemicals cannot be done for too long without adverse effects on the fish, so you need to slowly ween off the chemical while the biological filtration takes place.

Either method, I would certainly be very vigilant because the chances of your fish becoming victims of new tank syndrome are very high :-/

Good luck!

Edit: I typically keep the water I add at 1.022 and then let the tank slowly rise to 1.024-1.025 and then add freshwater to bring it down before a water change.

 

Sybon Refractometer - Water Test Kits - Refractometer at BigalsOnline

If you buy this, make sure to put "3reef" as your coupon code and you'll get 10% off. Order just a big more and you'll get free shipping too.

If BA had been a sponsor before, I wouldn't have bought the one from marindepot. It's their own brand and works flawlessly as well but I didn't get a discount :-X

 

A few things...

First and foremost, please THANK your friend for his service to our country deploying.

Everything pales in comparison to that.



Second, the salinity question in this thread.... here's a link to my blog, I am gradually doing "knowledge captures" on what the "best practices" are amongst 3reef members. Here's the link on salinity and specific gravity. You'll find that 65% of 3reefers target 1.025. You'll also find other data that may help you.

Mark

 

Great info! Thank you!