bad hydrometers

[whitey_028]

How many have killed your stuff with bad hydrometers? I bought a new one when my kid stepped on my old one and the new one was a really nice oceanic but it was .004 to high...luckily iknew enough to take it back to fs and have them test it before i did some serious damage to my fish tanks...Im curious as to how many new hobbyist have failed in their setups due to this issue...I can't be the only person this has happened too and hopefully it will save the lifes of many a coral and many dollars of people who trust these products...

 

[payton 350]

instead of wasting your money on the Unrealiable hydro's spend the extra money now and pick up a refractometer....hydro's are almost always inaccurate....and the cost is not that much considering what you might lose in the tank hydro 7$ decent refract 50

 

[viper_930]

Sounds like a refractometer should be your top priority.

 

[whitey_028]

this post was for new hobbyist that dont pend 70 dollars on a salt meter...most new hobbyist try to get away as cheep as possible because this is an expensive hobby.

 

[sinner's girl]

that would be me. My swing arm fell in the tank...I didn't want to move all the lr to get so husband picked me up a hydrometer...I was in the middle of a water change, so I didn't know it was off...I just mixed the new salt with the hydrometer...I even followed instructions...I had heard they were better than the swing arm....anyway...after testing EVERYTHING more than once...someone at a fish store asked me if I was sure it wasn't my sg...he tested my sample and I deadly off...kill my brittle star...the water change made too big of a swing too fast...even though I slowly fixed the problem...I went back to my swing arm (I know how much it's off) and I'm getting a refractormeter soon...I have the money, I just have to get somewhere to buy one (not an easy task...I was going to order one from here, but don't want to pay shipping).
evil things... Don't know how they can sell a product that's so off...

 

[mark_d]

i dunno... i got a coral life hydrometer.. and my readings where the same than those of the LFS.... followed instrruction that came with the thing and it works well... readings are accurate, etc... but i do test with my LFS regularly to make sure everything isi n order

 

[viper_930]

Why spend $70 bucks on two corals that will die because of sg problems, when you could've spent that money on a decent refractometer? I thought that was something like what your first post was like.

I got my refract for $35, but actually in my tank that means less than 1/2 a frag of a coral.

 

[stanlalee]

I have been using the same swing arm hydrometer for about 10yrs now. It could be inaccurate all to hell but it is consistant. At this point I'm just going to do what I've been doing because I think its fairly accurate still (based on salt companies salt:h2o ratio specifications) as long as the water temp is proper but I am aware all it takes is a little friction where it aint suppose to be or a little unseen matter stuck to the arm to change the results. I always repeat readings 3 or 4 times watching the arm carefully for free movement. Once day I'll get one of those fancy thingy's.

 

[shrimpdady]

I have had my water tested at the lfs with a refractometer.
I had measured 1.026 with my floating hydrometer and after mtesting at the lfs, I learned that I was only .001 off.
Floating hydrometers work, you just have to know how to use them and make sure the temperature is right.

 

[wilsonreef]

I know refractometers are a bit high, but not in comparison to livestock. A swing arm that is consistantly off is none the less off. I bought my refrac from the big auction site for about $35. It has automatic temperature control so you don't have to have exact water temp to read it. For me, it was money well spent. Yes, this is a expensive hobby, but even more so when things start dying.

 

[unleashed]

Originally Posted by ShrimpDady
I have had my water tested at the lfs with a refractometer.
I had measured 1.026 with my floating hydrometer and after mtesting at the lfs, I learned that I was only .001 off.
Floating hydrometers work, you just have to know how to use them and make sure the temperature is right.
i have purchased several brands of hydrometers just to compare them each gave different reading ,so which one was correct? then i purchased a refractometer and guess which hydrometer was accurate ...none of them gave me an accurate reading.as stated in above quote temp does make a dif with hydrometers,refractometers it makes no difference.

 

[mrdc]

Just remember to calibrate your refractometer ever so often. I didn't and my salt went up because I was getting a low reading so I added more salt (when doing water changes). It finally hit me that it seemed like I was adding more salt than usual so I recalibrated it and that's when I noticed it was off. Stupid me

 

[lazarus]

am i just lucky....or ignorant? i get my water from Scripps which offers free marine water. its the original water in my tank. i top this off with tap water that i leave standing overnight (i dont have an RO system). for water changes, i go back to scripps (most aquariasts and LFS here use the same water) i use a swing arm hydrometer that consistently shows i am in the safe range. i am just starting with corals now but never had a problem losing livestock.

 

[sethspst]

I lost a cleaner shrimp cause my hydro was .006 low. I was reading 1.024 and when the shrimp died I took him and a water sample back to the store. They refunded my money because I bought the hydro from them even though technially it was my fault he died (or I killed him?).

 

[whitey_028]

Good post guys i think alot of people could learn from our mistakes such as this. Anyone make anyother common mistakes that would save a new hobbiest a lot of time and money.

 

[fishguy84]

Not happened to me, but I've heard lighting. I was shopping in the LFS, and some guy came in with a dead coral (wasn't into reef at the time, so I didn't pay attention to what it was). Turned out he had a single florescent over the tank (75gal), and that it was a GE bulb or some cheap piece of crap like that. So I definately think that RESEARCH, or lack therof is probably a big mistake a lot of new hobbiests, or even

[hr]
hobbiests, can make.

 

[philgmiami]

Originally Posted by whitey_028
How many have killed your stuff with bad hydrometers? I bought a new one when my kid stepped on my old one and the new one was a really nice oceanic but it was .004 to high...luckily iknew enough to take it back to fs and have them test it before i did some serious damage to my fish tanks...Im curious as to how many new hobbyist have failed in their setups due to this issue...I can't be the only person this has happened too and hopefully it will save the lifes of many a coral and many dollars of people who trust these products...
yep, 4 points to high on my old one.. i have an instant ocean one now..it measures the same as my friends $70 expensive one

 

[lion_crazz]

I agree with this.
Hydrometers, no matter the brand, should not be trusted. TOO many times they are incredibly inaccurate.