Anyone watch thier conductivity numbers?

[DB junkie]

Like I said, I'll be going back to manual changes. I'll just rig up the RO on a float valve to fill up tubs that sit above the filters on ball valves, and just use an auxillary pump to pump water out. Could stick a bead filter on it in the future but after UVs this guy's tapped.....

Wish I would have done this years ago.

 

[tonyt]

Are we talking about TDS? My tank is around 260 with make up water going through a huge di filter around 20


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[Reedmaster16]

Great thread lots of good info posted by calgaryflames. I run a similar setup/routine as he described without any RO.

As I said in the PMs the accuracy & quality of my meters is not the best but here's a few numbers for reference from this weekend.


Conductivity around 220 µmhos/cm (micromhos)

TDS around 180-200 ppm


I wont be able to afford a good quality meter until around Christmas time but this is generally the range I see across the tanks with current meters.


Another thing to think about is the impact temperature has on conductivity & measuring it.


The quote below is from a Reefkeeping article by Randy Holmes-Farley.

"One final complication is that the conductivity of ions in water depends upon temperature. There are a number of factors that cause this effect, but one big one is simply that the ions are naturally moving around faster as they get warmer. When the same numbers of ions are moving faster, the apparent conductivity is increased. The relationship between conductivity and temperature is complicated and dependent on the solution being tested.


Pure water responds fairly linearly with temperature, with its conductivity rising by 4.55% for every degree centigrade (2.5% per degree Fahrenheit). Sodium chloride solutions have a smaller change, about 2.12% per degree centigrade. Tap and other natural waters have many different ions in them, and such systems sometimes respond nonlinearly with temperature changes, but not typically to as great of an extent as does pure water.


For this reason, nearly all conductivity meters simultaneously measure the conductivity and the temperature. The internal electronics then take the temperature into account, and normally provide a value that is "corrected" to what the conductivity would be at a standard temperature (25°C). Some use a fixed correction (for example, one manufacturer uses 2.1% per degree centigrade, another uses 1.9% per degree centigrade). More expensive units often allow the user to select the temperature coefficient (I'd use about 2-3% per degree centigrade for tap water). Others even allow nonlinear corrections to be used. If your meter allows that, I'd pick that option as it is likely a fixed correction that is optimized for fresh water systems (often called nLF). Some very advanced meters also allow nonlinear correction for ultrapure water. If your meter uses either of these nonlinear corrections, it will clearly say so in the provided manual.

In short, since conductivity meters typically correct for temperature changes, the conductivity of the water sample can be measured regardless of the temperature of the sample."

 

[DB junkie]

Soooo jealous of you guys with such low numbers in the source water.

My source water (tap) TDS is usually well over 300. The RO conductivity even tests high like it's stained from the tap water. TDS out is 3PPM yet conductivity is 47.

http://www.americanmarineusa.com/ These are the meters that were recommended to me by Mr Webber......

The Conductivity auto compensates for temp.

Really glad I got this figured out BEFORE the rebuild.... lol. Hoping this is the last one. Now I just need to find another 300 gallon tub.

Big tank is under 1400 for the first time this morning......

 

[keepinfish]

Soooo jealous of you guys with such low numbers in the source water.

My source water (tap) TDS is usually well over 300. The RO conductivity even tests high like it's stained from the tap water. TDS out is 3PPM yet conductivity is 47.

http://www.americanmarineusa.com/ These are the meters that were recommended to me by Mr Webber......

The Conductivity auto compensates for temp.

Really glad I got this figured out BEFORE the rebuild.... lol. Hoping this is the last one. Now I just need to find another 300 gallon tub.

Big tank is under 1400 for the first time this morning......

i dont have a conductivity meter, but i can test tds, just never have. i will test it tonight.

i bought a meter from that company to monitor PH and it is great for the price.

 

[calgaryflames]

Great thread lots of good info posted by calgaryflames. I run a similar setup/routine as he described without any RO.

As I said in the PMs the accuracy & quality of my meters is not the best but here's a few numbers for reference from this weekend.


Conductivity around 220 µmhos/cm (micromhos)

TDS around 180-200 ppm


I wont be able to afford a good quality meter until around Christmas time but this is generally the range I see across the tanks with current meters.


Another thing to think about is the impact temperature has on conductivity & measuring it.


The quote below is from a Reefkeeping article by Randy Holmes-Farley.

"One final complication is that the conductivity of ions in water depends upon temperature. There are a number of factors that cause this effect, but one big one is simply that the ions are naturally moving around faster as they get warmer. When the same numbers of ions are moving faster, the apparent conductivity is increased. The relationship between conductivity and temperature is complicated and dependent on the solution being tested.


Pure water responds fairly linearly with temperature, with its conductivity rising by 4.55% for every degree centigrade (2.5% per degree Fahrenheit). Sodium chloride solutions have a smaller change, about 2.12% per degree centigrade. Tap and other natural waters have many different ions in them, and such systems sometimes respond nonlinearly with temperature changes, but not typically to as great of an extent as does pure water.


For this reason, nearly all conductivity meters simultaneously measure the conductivity and the temperature. The internal electronics then take the temperature into account, and normally provide a value that is "corrected" to what the conductivity would be at a standard temperature (25°C). Some use a fixed correction (for example, one manufacturer uses 2.1% per degree centigrade, another uses 1.9% per degree centigrade). More expensive units often allow the user to select the temperature coefficient (I'd use about 2-3% per degree centigrade for tap water). Others even allow nonlinear corrections to be used. If your meter allows that, I'd pick that option as it is likely a fixed correction that is optimized for fresh water systems (often called nLF). Some very advanced meters also allow nonlinear correction for ultrapure water. If your meter uses either of these nonlinear corrections, it will clearly say so in the provided manual.

In short, since conductivity meters typically correct for temperature changes, the conductivity of the water sample can be measured regardless of the temperature of the sample."

There's an equation for Tds to uS I believe it's 17 ppm= 33 uS
I can tell you right now if your ppm and your conductivity meter are reading nearly the same one of the instruments is screwed.


Testing these parameters are easier than say the basics of the nitrogen cycle. It gets the the point that many ray keepers don't even test ammonia,nitrite ,nitrate ph unless something is wrong. Once you get the
Hardness down it stays pretty easy. I rarely test hardness these days . If I do it's a simple Tds meter because my conductivity meter needs calibration and I'm to lazy.

make sure you hook up a inline Tds meter on your ro unit. It's a $30 part off eBay . If yours doesn't have already.


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[calgaryflames]

My source water (tap) TDS is usually well over 300. The RO conductivity even tests high like it's stained from the tap water. TDS out is 3PPM yet conductivity is 47.

.

Do you have another Tds meter ?
I picked up one at homedepot for $15

If your doing your Tds tests only using the inline ro one I'd recommend one as mentioned above.
Also your running your water into a container than doing the conductivity test. This is the difference I noticed too. I think the container may have residue and may also be raising the conductivity because its not flowing like the other test.


When I was doing 100% ro drip 300 gpd I could not get the uS lower than 200 and that's pure ro water and what Evers in the tank bumping it up waste ect...

Tds of 300 is not bad it's very similar to mine right now is around 250 but changes throughout the week. It's manageable .

I don't know how long you've had your fish in real hard water but be real slow with what you do. I killed a xingu snow leopard pup last year messing with water like this. I did the opposite I switched him from ro to tap to quick and killed him.


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[DB junkie]

Do you have another Tds meter ?
I picked up one at homedepot for $15

If your doing your Tds tests only using the inline ro one I'd recommend one as mentioned above.
Also your running your water into a container than doing the conductivity test. This is the difference I noticed too. I think the container may have residue and may also be raising the conductivity because its not flowing like the other test.


When I was doing 100% ro drip 300 gpd I could not get the uS lower than 200 and that's pure ro water and what Evers in the tank bumping it up waste ect...

Tds of 300 is not bad it's very similar to mine right now is around 250 but changes throughout the week. It's manageable .

I don't know how long you've had your fish in real hard water but be real slow with what you do. I killed a xingu snow leopard pup last year messing with water like this. I did the opposite I switched him from ro to tap to quick and killed him.


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http://www.airwaterice.com/product/DM-2/DM-2-Commercial-In-Line-Dual-TDS-Monitor.html Is the TDS meter I have. I'm using an American marine pinpoint conductivity meter. The PH meter is a Milwaukee. The PH meter would be the only one I question the accuracy of. The others are new. The RO PH has read as high as 6.5. I usually rinse out any container pretty well before testing, but anything's possible.

I do NOT run any DI in the RO. It's just the 10/5/1 micron filters and the membrane. The water runs through the drip filters before going into the RO.

The numbers are so friggin high in the tanks that it's going to take weeks to get the numbers down, so I don't think I'll have to worry about shocking them. I could definitely see the need to be careful when going low to high numbers but high going to low sure seems to me like they really enjoy it.

 

[tonyt]

I'm still learning, On another thread someone here said there's a direct correlation between TDS and pH?


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[DB junkie]

I'm still learning, On another thread someone here said there's a direct correlation between TDS and pH?


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When TDS goes down typically PH follows. Higher PH usually has higher TDS/Conductivity.