subject: Aquarium Refractometers, A Must For Maintaining Your Aquarium [print this page] Aquarium Refractometers, A Must For Maintaining Your Aquarium
To ensure a thriving marine life in your saltwater aquarium, regular aquarium maintenance is a must. You have to make sure that water in your aquarium meets the requirements of the fish, plants, and other organisms living in the artificial environment you've recreated. Aside from making sure that live aquarium rocks are cured and safe for your fish and that the water is free of chloramines and other contaminants, another crucial part of aquarium maintenance is to make sure that the salinity of the water is at its proper levels. Needless to say, maintaining the water parameters at its optimum levels help ensure a healthy and thriving aquarium. In which case, refractometers are the best tools for measuring the gravity and salinity of aquarium water. They are easy to use and do provide an accurate results from readings compared to hydrometers.
How does it work?
Even at low salt levels, serious aquarium hobbyists have proven that refractometers do work. This precision optical instrument is used by placing one to two drops of sample water into the prism glass of the optical instrument. A syringe without the needle or a drop can be used for taking a sample and placing it onto the measuring surface. The light that passes through it will bend, and the bent light is then reflected on an internal scale that you can check through the eyepiece, with lenses that magnify the tiny scale. Depending on the refractometer you're using, you can turn the knob until it becomes visible and the scale appears more clearly.
The top of the scale or meter is blue, and the lower portion is white. The part where colors meet, where blue turns white or white turns blue, determines the gravity and salinity, depending on the refractometer model you're using. You can easily control the salinity level by adding distilled or R.O. water to reduce it should the reading tell you that it's too high, or add synthetic or natural saltwater to raise the level. Of course, the water change, as a standard for aquarium maintenance, should be limited to 20% saltwater.
