Hi and Thanks!

[Delphinus]

A refractometer is a VERY cool toy .. er ... tool.

I guess I should mention, that when I say "roughly one cup per two gallons" I really mean "ROUGHLY one cup per two gallons." Always measure your specific gravity to be certain. But for me, it's quite like how Canadian_Man put it, when I mix up 30 gallons of salt water I find myself using about 15 cups to get to my target SG (I go with 1.025).

Also. .. On the topic of mixing up saltwater ... add the salt to water, not the water to salt. This way you start at 1.000 and gradually ramp up to 1.025. Mixing the other way you start at 1.XXXX (something very high, basically a super-saturated solution) and then you gradually ramp DOWN to 1.025. You want to avoid supersaturated solutions because it is in those cases that you precipitate out stuff you don't want to have precipitated out. Basically you get these little calcium snowflakes in your saltwater and they never dissolve back into the water. Once they're out, they're out; kind of thing. So always add the salt to the water as your mixing.

I went and bought me a big whomping drywall mixer attachment for my drill. That makes for mixing saltwater a whole lotta fun, beleive me! The only catch is the real big ones havea 1/2" shaft, and not many drills except for the very expensive drills have a 1/2" chuck, most are 3/8". So check your drill, if you have the 3/8" go for the "semi big" mixer instead of the "Really big" mixer.