New Grower TDS meter help.

[Dr Who]

I'm more than happy to publicly defend any statements I made, and those that made it to the second page of said instructions will already have discovered the following:

Total Dissolved Solids correlates to the ability of water to conduct electricity.

No meters have the ability to distinguish between different types of ionic salts

Conductivity measurements are also complicated by the fact that not all salts conduct an electric current equally

TDS meters are, in reality, conductivity meters.

This meter is built and calibrated according to an NaCl standard

...the TDS meter itself may yield results of 1 or 2 ppm even from pure water

 

[Son of Hobbes]

I'm more than happy to publicly defend any statements I made, and those that made it to the second page of said instructions will already have discovered the following:

Total Dissolved Solids correlates to the ability of water to conduct electricity.

No meters have the ability to distinguish between different types of ionic salts

Conductivity measurements are also complicated by the fact that not all salts conduct an electric current equally

TDS meters are, in reality, conductivity meters.

This meter is built and calibrated according to an NaCl standard

...the TDS meter itself may yield results of 1 or 2 ppm even from pure water

Hey bro; I'll trade you a public explanation for a public explanation if you fancy?

You offered some advice on calibration that some members found to be a bit questionable. They reported the post (which means it pretty much immediately comes under review.) Your information was reviewed by our moderators and was deemed that it was confusing and misinforming.

No one here is going to tell you how to calibrate and check your math if that's what's been working for you; but when there is an easier-to-follow and recommended-by-the-manufacturer way to do things with a product that's been engineered and designed to work in a standard way; why deviate from that and confuse new members and new growers who are just looking for an easy-to-follow answer?

Briman, I defer to your vastly superior knowledge on the finer points of freshwater analysis and its associated instrumental calibration.

If you would like to explain your points because you feel like they are valid and you can do so in a civil manner; then please do so! Maybe we can all learn something today! But, to be clear, you're not arguing against briman, you're arguing against the manufacturers recommendation for the product (which I believe was his whole point.) Please keep that in mind when typing your talking points about freshwater analysis and its associated instrumental calibration.

:karma Cloud:

 

[Dr Who]

I think that the point I would like to make is this, there are clearly some limitations to the calibration of these types of meters when they are to be used to take readings of different types of solutions from the calibration solutions. A different solution being one with a different ionic composition. Anyone wishing to use or calibrate one might be well advised to be aware of the limitations of the calibration and its associated measurement given that nutrient solutions are very unlikely to be NaCl based.