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After the swap...Ya’ll need to calibrate your refractometers!

So I just finished acclimating and dipping all corals from the swap. All I can say is calibrate your refractometers.

Some of you had salinity of like 1.019 and others up at 1.030

I know things will live in these conditions, but I don’t know any coral keepers who will run there tanks like that on purpose.

All my reading were taken with a freshly calibrate Milwaukee digital refractometer.

Either way, it was a great swap. It was great seeing everyone and continuing to build relationships. It was also great to put more faces to names.

Thanks to all you volunteered and very special thanks to Tim. Your beer is very good!
 
Yeah I don’t plan on naming people here. Just wanted people to know that their tanks are in need of a check up.

I hope it didn’t come off stand-off ish. Just more of a PSA

And you were not one of them. I got one of your torts
 
I think it’s a good and useful post, and I’m glad I can uncross my fingers now. I also think it can be helpful if people find any pests while dipping or during quarantine to let the person you got the frag from know.
 
There are so many problems with measuring salinity, I bet only 2 people out of 10 (using their own equipment) get the same salinity readings from the same tank.

I've had several bottles of bad calibration solution.

I mix my own calibration solution now and compare it to my friends digital refractometer.

If mine was off, let me know.
 
I’ll notify the people who were at the highs and lows. If you don’t here from me by the end of the day you are good.

I know the Milwaukee is sometimes off by .001 every now and again, so I’ll just let people know who were way off.
 
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At one of our meet-ups we should have a "secret santa" water testing thing. We all bring our test kits and then pull two or three peoples names and test their water. We'd see the variance from different testers and then could compare to our own results. :)
 
Good reminder... I’m going to double check my calibration today.

But the more amazing thing to me is that you check the salinity of the water of every frag? For me it wouldn’t change my acclimation process if they were high or low, that’s the point of acclimation. Same logic for why I don’t check all the chemistry parameters of the water of every frag.
 
Good reminder... I’m going to double check my calibration today.

But the more amazing thing to me is that you check the salinity of the water of every frag? For me it wouldn’t change my acclimation process if they were high or low, that’s the point of acclimation. Same logic for why I don’t check all the chemistry parameters of the water of every frag.


Yes I do. If I get frags all are only about .002 difference I throw them all in one big container acclimate at the same time. I had to do 3 separate acclamations for this batch.

Plus the Milwaukee takes 2 seconds to take a reading.
 
Yes I do. If I get frags all are only about .002 difference I throw them all in one big container acclimate at the same time. I had to do 3 separate acclamations for this batch.

Plus the Milwaukee takes 2 seconds to take a reading.

My dirty little secret. I don't even acclimate swap frags anymore, I throw all the frags in the same bag with all water, then temp acclimate, then into the dip with my tank water (without frag plugs/rock of course).

Natural selection! Only the tough survives. Honestly though, started doing this a 2-3 swaps ago and haven't had a loss yet. Your mileage may vary.
 
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My dirty little secret. I don't even acclimate swap frags anymore, I throw all the frags in the same with all water, then temp acclimate, then into the dip with my tank water (without frag plugs/rock of course).

Natural selection! Only the tough survives. Honestly though, started doing this a 2-3 swaps ago and haven't had a loss yet. Your mileage may vary.

I do the same thing unless it's a valuable or touchy species. A nice long temp acclimation and then a nice dip. No other way to do it when you come home with 10 corals in 10 different types of water. Truth is corals are pretty hardy and it's usually not acclimation that kills them. Better just to bring them to temp and get them in clean water.
 
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