money isnt exactly my strong point at the moment I had my hydrometer compared to a refractometer though and its .003 high

Good point
Now I feel bad for not even spotting that
You're @ 1.023
You know that's low right?

see now big als told me 1.023.. they are the reason I am failing at this! you guys are the reason I am correcting my mistakes. thanks so much so should I mix up some fresh saltwater at a higher salinity say around 1.026? to start raising it?

If you've been running it for awhile @ 1.023 I'd suggest you bring it up slowly. Like over the next week. Otherwise you'll just upset everyone
Remember, nothing good in a SW tank happens quickly

so if I have a 20 gallon tank, and I do a 20% wc at a salinity of say 1.024-1.025 is this too much? or should I do like 10%

Hopefully someone more experienced than myself will chime in here...
I'd think you'd want to change small amounts daily with a higher SG
How much I can't say, my reef is still on the drawing board

And stick to your regular WC routines
Don't go nuts...slow changes :lol:

ok well since my tank is small, I think I will do one gallon tonight at a salinity of 1.0245 that way its just a small increase I'm also going to test my fresh batch to make sure that my tank really isnt screwed this bad lol.. I'm so agravated lol

No, don't find them, measure them. That way you know how accurate your test kit is.

I did the same, but it will drift on you. Trust me. A refractometer is an essential piece of equipment :)

That won't do anything bad, but the values people post for Ca and Alk are for natural seawater conditions, which, on most equatorial reefs, is 35ppt at 80 degrees F