1.1 Preparing the Biofilter

1.1.3.a Parameter 2: Salinity

Besides temperature, salinity is also an important parameter to follow when preparing your biofilter. In the following exercises you will learn different methods to measure salinity.
Note: we assume that you have natural seawater at your disposal to run the inoculated biofilter.

To make a rough estimate of the salinity of this water, we can use two different methods:

METHOD 1 You could measure the weight of your sample and compare it with the weight of distilled water. The salt in the water will make it heavier than distilled water. By using the following formula we have a measurement of the salinity: Density= weight of 1 liter seawater * 1000 weight of 1 liter distilled water This principle is used in a densimeter (see picture, click to enlarge).

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