For a saltwater tank, salinity is quite literally the most important measurement we can make, yet the entire hobby basically treats salinity as an afterthought. Since a proper salinity measurement can give you a basic overview of all of the elements…
Benefits to Using a Refractometer versus a Hydrometer
After temperature, Salinity is the most important measurement of seawater you can make for your tank. Therefore, refractometers and hydrometers are the most used tool in the hobby, or at least they should be. Both hypersaline and hypo saline environments make unsuitable…
Salty Q&A: How Do You Make Small Salinity Adjustments?
Saltwater Smarts visitor Andrew had the following question about our post titled “5 Tips for Maintaining Stable Salinity in a Saltwater Tank.” Since we get similar questions quite frequently, we thought it might be helpful to elaborate on our response…
AccuraSea salinity reference gives you no excuse not to calibrate refractometers
For a hobby that is founded on reproducing the needs of saltwater animals, reef and marine aquarists are woefully undereducated about what salinity actually is, and how to accurately measure it. So many problems with chemical and mineral imbalances in…
Using the Dupla Marin hydrometer as a hardware salinity reference
The Dupla Marin high resolution Hydrometer came along at a time when we are really becoming quite critical about salinity measurement. This large, oversize hydrometer is specially designed to measure seawater salinity at 25C/77F but only between 33 and 38 parts…
Dupla Marin calibrated hydrometer reads specific gravity in high resolution
It’s been a looooong time since Dupla made waves in the reef hobby outside of Europe but its new Dupla Marin Hydrometer, a new high-precision and accurate hydrometer, might get them back on the map. You may be asking yourself “why…
Hikari AccuProbe’s unique calibration method revealed
When we first discovered that Hikari’s AccuProbe Hydrometers were each individually calibrated, we had to find out how they were doing it with such an apparently simple plastic measuring tool. Low and behold, we got our first look at Hikari’s…
Accuprobe Hydrometers from Aquarium Solutions are individually calibrated
The AccuProbe Hydrometer and Mini Hydrometer are an interesting take on the old plastic specific gravity tester. At first glance the full size AccuProbe looks more or less like the Coralite Deep Six hydrometer which was introduced over a decade…
Marine Salt Testa from Trans Instruments is a waterproof salinity pen
The Marine Salt Testa is a three-in-one electronic testing pen that measures conductivity, temperature and salinity. And it floats. The new testing device from Trans Instruments can easily be calibrated, it is water proof and has a replaceable electrode tip.…
Antique marine aquarium equipment
While on the second day of our local fish store crawl we noticed an aquarium antique which will be familiar to reefers with more than a little salt creep around the edges. Surely the antique hydrometer in the image above…
