town water tests......LOW ppms

[DiscoDuck]

I just bought a Milwaukee TDS model T75. The resolution is 1 ppm. I calibrated the meter with the solution provided, 1382 ppm. I tested the tap water I use for my plants before adding any nutrients. The meter reads 15 ppm. I usually let a gallon of water sit for a day or two without the lid on to evaporate the chlorine. The meter reads 10ppm after this.

Is it common for municipalities to supply water with such low ppms? I beginning to wonder if the meter is off. My plants seem to be doing well. Any comments appreciated.

 

[trich-zilla]

I would agree and question your ppm meter. I think they have a hard time reading ppm when it's a low number, but, I always thought it was 1-2 ppm it would have a hard time with, not 15.

Try putting your meter into distilled water and see what that reads. It should be close to zero. (make sure it's distilled too, and not distilled then ran through a carbon filter as the carbon filter will add back to the ppm)

 

[facelift]

Well they don't want to kill us I think. You may be right though. In Chicago after taking a shower I smell like I just went swimming. I hate it.

 

[Guest]

I just bought a Milwaukee TDS model T75. The resolution is 1 ppm. I calibrated the meter with the solution provided, 1382 ppm. I tested the tap water I use for my plants before adding any nutrients. The meter reads 15 ppm. I usually let a gallon of water sit for a day or two without the lid on to evaporate the chlorine. The meter reads 10ppm after this.

Is it common for municipalities to supply water with such low ppms? I beginning to wonder if the meter is off. My plants seem to be doing well. Any comments appreciated.

I have used that same meter for about a year now. Mine is very accurate and reliable. Tap water here has consistently read between 50-100.

Here's a easy way to do a quick check if you have an accurate scale. A scale that will weigh 1 gram with some accuracy.

Measure out as closely as you can 1 gram of good old table salt (NaCl) Dissolve that 1 gram of salt completely in exactly 1 liter of distilled water(should read zero as mentioned above). Weigh the water if you don't have an accurate way to measure out one liter. One liter of water weighs 1000 grams.

One gram of NaCl in 1 liter of distilled water will read exactly 1000PPM. I have an pretty accurate scale and mine comes very close to 1000. Tonight it read 982PPM.

Try it.

pedro

 

[DiscoDuck]

Well they don't want to kill us I think. You may be right though. In Chicago after taking a shower I smell like I just went swimming. I hate it.

"Well they don't want to kill us I think." .....lol, we've got some less than scholars on the town water board. It tastes good enough to drink regularly and the ph is about 6.8 average. I guess we're pretty lucky.

Pedro48, glad to know somebody else likes the meter. I didn't do my homework before I bought it but I think I did ok anyway. I've got the scales to measure the salt, I'll give your method a go. I checked out a few of your grow photos and I'm very impressed.

 

[DiscoDuck]

thanks for the tip, trich-zilla