We operate two rotating-compensator alpha-SE® ellipsometers (wavelength range 380 – 900 nm, J. A. Woollam Co. Inc., Lincoln, USA) for routine determination of thickness and refractive index of thin polymer films as well as in-situ measurements in aqueous media: pH, salt and temperature dependent. We couple the alpha-SE® with a QCM-D ellipsometry module (Q-Sense, Biolin Scientific Holding AB, Stockholm, Sweden) to obtain simultaneous spectroscopic ellipsometric and quartz crystal microbalance data.