Help with refractometer.

[Ninong]

Looks like I did something to mess up my refractometer. It was probably OK before I started messing with it. My eyesight is so crappy that at first I couldn't recognize the blue/white boundary line that I was supposed to line up with zero. Anyway, I got the distilled water out and put a few drops on the prism and then started adjusting the itsy-bitsy adjustment screw. It was probably pre-calibrated and I probably just messed it up fooling with it but it took me some time before I could recognize a boundary line. At first everything was blue.

So now I have a slanted boundary line that crosses the scale at an angle. I calibrated it with distilled water so that the boundary line crosses zero on the salinity ppt side of the scale even though it is higher on the sg side. When I tested my saltwater, the reading on the ppt side of the scale is correct but I have a false high reading on the sg side because the boundary line is not level.

Does anybody know how I managed to do this and how to fix it?

Thanks!

[scubadude]

weird! I know that there is a focus knob on mine and it is very hard to tell unless you get your focus straightened out first....also are you holding the refractometer up to real good lighting? you get a slanted line in both the pure water as well as saltwater? Maybe call/email the manufacturer of the refract. and tell them your experience. The reason why i mention the focus knob is because the way they designed mine is that you have to hold the focus knob while looking through it and if you arent careful then it falls out of focus Who the heck designed it that way i dunno!

[Ninong]

Well, it took me forever to figure out how to see anything. I was able to focus it OK and see the numbers but the scale was upside down and I didn't see any boundary line between blue and white because all I saw was blue all over.

I fooled around with it for more than an hour and I don't have any idea what I did but I finally got the scale right side up but by the time I could see a blue/white boundary, it was slanted instead of level. I think I twisted too many different things at the same time, sort of like a Rubic's cube.

I emailed the vendor who replied within minutes but he doesn't know what's wrong either and he no longer carries that manufacturer.

I'll have to play around with it when I'm in a better mood to see if I can undo whatever it is I messed up. Right now I'm NOT in a good mood. I'm trying to decide whether to turn on the pumps and skimmer right now or wait until early tomorrow morning. I don't want the skimmer overflowing during the night. The tank is completely full with saltwater and it's just a matter of clearing up the Southdown milkshake.