Aquarium Water Hardness Test Kit

[Tener ds]

hi all,wots the best kit to get for testing water hardness please?

 

[Lornek8]

A digital TDS meter.

 

[Tener ds]

like this:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Mini-Digital-TDS-Meter-Tester-Hydroponics-Fish-Aquarium-/260500703700?pt=UK_BOI_Electrical_Test_Measurement_Equipment_ET&hash=item3ca70d49d4
is this a good one?

 

[RobHarrison]

best place for a TDS meter is on the RO Man website

http://www.ro-man.com/shop/index.php?cPath=29&osCsid=ac28452e26f3150de12d9e070fb10a58

 

[Lornek8]

Think Scatz was selling some at one time. Don't know if he still is though.

Hanna Instruments makes good ones. Just be sure the one you buy can be calibrated & possibly get some calibration solution as well.

 

[Brengun]

There is triangle of water tests to make sure its good water suited to you particular fish and it stays stable.

GH will measure general hardness and you can buy a kit to monitor it.
KH is carbonate hardness and test kits are also available for that as well.
Then you have a pH kit which most ppl have.

KH and GH interact with the pH and if too little of either are present (in particular the kH)you can have wild ph swings.

A TDS kit measures total dissolved solids in the water. Best not to use one after feeding the fish as the food particles in the water will distort your readings. Rising nitrates and high pH also affect the TDS test.

I hadn't heard of it being used as a general hardness meter though. Tell me more.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

like this:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Mini-Digital-T...item3ca70d49d4 is this a good one?

This one really has too wide a range to be very accurate, the solutions you use for hydroponics would often be in the range of 2500 - 4000 microS (2.5 - 4 milliS). However even if you have very hard tap water you are only looking at about 800microS. Straight R.O would be reading in the 0 - 5 microS. range.

You really want a "low range" meter that reads from 0 - 1999 microS.
Have a look a this post it covers most of the area of TDS/Hardness/Conductivity
<http://www.plecoplanet.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1017>

cheers Darrel

 

[macvsog23]

I seem to remember you divied the TDS as a PPM with a value to get a GH reading
1 dGH = 17.848 ppm.
PPm can be coverted in to TDS

 

[macvsog23]

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[dw1305]

Hi all,
Bob is right it is microS x 0.64 = TDS (so a 100microS is 64ppm TDS). If you think it is almost the same as converting kilometers to miles - 100KPH is 62 MPH.

GH is measure of the 2+ ions (calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg)), but conductivity will measure all the ions, so if you think your water has sodium (or you add "tonic salt") the conductivity will rise, but the GH won't.

cheers Darrel