Salinity

Hello all
I have A question on salinity, My tank has been cycled for two months now and was thinking about getting some frags,all test are great,with my water top off my readings have been steady at 1.025-1.026 for two weeks now, so went to LFS and had water tested they said every thing was good salinity 1.024, ok so stopped by another LFS on way home and he said every thing good but salinty was 1.030 so who do I believe and if salinity was around 1.030 what would this do to corals and fish
Thanks
Fishlips

 

What did the LFS's test the salinity with? Was it a regular hydrometer of a refractometer? I personally never like to go above 1.024 since higher it isn't necessarily good on fish. Why do you think that a treatment for crypt is hyposalinity? Inverts like crabs,snails, many parasites, etc like higher salinity, while fish like it a little lower. I have found a happy medium at 1.024. I would always trust a refractometer because hydrometers do wear out over time. The wear is generally from salt and other deposits forming where the arm of the hydromter pivots.

 

what are you using to test your salinity? As lotzofish said, a refractometer is the most reliable tool to use. However, if you salinity is a 1.030 I wouldn't worry too much. Fish and corals can actually tolerate a wide range of salinity so long as it is raised or lowered slowly. It is hard to say who to trust because it depends on the tool used. Was there any chance that some of the water evaporated while in the car?

 

Thanks All
I bought A deep six hydro the same one the one LFS used the one that read 1.030 used A refractometer. guess I need to buy A refractometer befor any corals
Kfishlips

 

Yup!

 

The deep six is calibrated to 60 degrees I believe. For each ten degree increase, you need to subtract .001 from the reading to get the real value. So at 80 degrees and a reading of 1.030, the real reading would be a SG of 1.028.

I keep my SG at 1.026. Corals tend to like it a bit on the higher side and the fish don't care.

 

This is a link to the refractometer that I have. I love it, and I got it from the site I linked to, a great company to work with. IMO a refractometer is a must and well worth the initial cost, it should last a lifetime!

Hope I helped, and BTW I keep mine at 1.025 or close...