New to Salinity

[Woody777]

Hello All!

I’ll be brief:

I picked up a adolescent F8 puffer about 6 weeks ago. I confirmed that he was shipped and kept in FW at the store, so I simply acclimated him to regular FW tap water as I would any other fish.

Now that I have had my F8 for some time, I am going to begin the acclimation to 1.008 SG (planning to increase by 0.002 every3 weeks until I reach 1.008)

Today I took a hydrometer and tested the current tank water (FW tap - never added any salt) My tank water is reading 1.010 already.

I understand that hydrometers are not always very accurate, so I would like to think that I need to take the 1.010 as a baseline reading an assume that my hydrometer should show 1.018 in order to arrive at a true SG of 1.008.

But this is an assumption from an inexperienced brackish/marine aquarium keeper, so I see it as a reckless assumption

So my question is: if my SG is truly showing 1.010, is this due to actual SALT in my tap? (Like if it were being softened), or is it simply being skewed by a high level of TDS?

Thanks in advance!
Woody

[Pufferpunk]

Hydrometers are extremely inaccurate. Check it by pouring distilled water into it & see if it measures 1.000

library/puffers-in-focus/fig8/

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=19348