The Puffer Forum

changed my tank to brackish 2 days ago - did as via sticky instructions -measured SG said 1.003 all ok!
Measured today and it said 0!!!!!! re tested the same so over the day have added another 6 tablespoons of salt mixing well and its still reading 0!!!! sounds silly i know.

i have checked salinity metre and it is working - honest!!!!!!!!!!!!

would it have anything to do with carbon in the filter?

No, the carbon shouldn't have any effect, although I have recently learned that carbon is not really necessary unless removing meds etc from the water. So, what salt are you using & do you leave the newly mixed water overnight/a few hours or add immediately?

using red sea salt and leaving for a few hours till disolved with airstone and heater

Do you mean 1.000 or just 0?

I know there are lots of opinions on the best way to mix the salt into the water. I can only tell you my experience though! I use AquaOne salt. When I first started using it (before I got fish) I did a few little experiments to see what worked best - I found that it made no difference if I took the SG straight away or if I left it overnight. I use a refractometer rather than a hydrometer - could yours have become uncalibrated for some reason? Can you re-calibrate with FW & then check the SG of the BW?

What kind of measuring device are you using?

See the sticky on raising your SG, in the BW Puffers forum.

using a hydrometre - hubbys just ordered a different one today

I would save your money on the Hydrometer and buy a refractometer. You can get them on Ebay for pretty cheap and the cost of one vs the headache of a hydrometer is well worth it.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Salinity-Refractome ... 286.c0.m14

yes thats what hubby has ordered - have added a little more salt today..... thanks all x