The Puffer Forum

Would someone in the know be kind enough to tell me if this looks any good?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Salinity-Refr ... 45f99efb76

It says it goes up to 1.070, and I'm only likely to need 1.022ish at the most. Is there a catch here I'm missing though? It seems awfully cheap!

It's not bad for a starter refractometer. I had one similar to that for about 2 years and the hinge rusted and froze on one side. It didn't make a difference in performance, just made it a little more difficult to use. Also the ambient light capture on these more inexpensive models can be touchy at best. I have found that taking it outside or on my sun porch helps dramatically. This is the one I stepped up to http://www.marinedepot.com/Captive_Puri ... RF-vi.html . After a while the eyes started getting a little old and I needed to switch to the same model with a light.

Lovely, thankyou. I reckon it should do nicely to begin with until I've got the pennies for a decent one

Cheers!

It will be fine. I have a refractometer bought on Ebay myself, and I am very satisfied with it.

You must calibrate the refractometer with calibration solution, for it to be correct: http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/25 ... a_7c254711

I didn't know that, thankyou PP. How often does that need to be done? And will it need to be done with it when it's new?

Absolutely when it's new! And then again every few months.

I've tried to get that calibration solution around here. It's not a single shop in Norway (AFAIK) that has it. Nobody has even heard about it! The shop in Germany I often buy my tank stuff from doesn't have it either.

Someone else has actually recommended either deionised or distilled water to me for calibrating. I'll have to check which it was. Either way, it's sold in supermarkets for irons and things!
Any one else use something similar?