Bringing home my profession water tester... lets talk typical aquarium ppm...

[gwand]

Most likely it is measuring total dissolved solutes.

 

[AJ356]

I have a professional tester here, I use it for my boiler... we aren't running the boiler anymore, so, just playing, while I'm at work... my RO drinking water system at work ( filters not changed in years, but not much volume through them ), reads 64 ppm...
my tap water here, at work reads 461 ppm...

I'll be checking my new big RO aquarium water filtered water, and a few of my aquariums, just to see where they are at...

so, what would typically be an acceptable range for soft water fish???
what would typically be an acceptable range for shrimp???
and what would typically be an acceptable range for most Live Bearers???

and for anyone reading along, what would be an acceptable range for other hard water fish, like rift lake Cichlids???

PPM of what? What is it you are testing for?

 

[Magnum Man]

maybe alkali, maybe just solids???

 

[fishorama]

KH (also called alkalinity, not alkali) is very different than TDS. I have pretty soft water at ~73 TDS but very low KH so I add crushed coral to filters boost it & lowish GH. I would get an API KH/GH test in addition to a TDS meter. Plants & cycling bacteria "use up" KH & can cause pH crashing. Unstable is bad!

 

[Magnum Man]

I guess I figured it didn't really matter, seems like what ever you test for, there is something else to test for to interpret the results... It does say tds, before the results... of coarse I don't have the directions, since it was his old back up unit... I'm sure I could change the mode... right now it's giving me the temp, and tds...
I would guess water borne algae, tannins, etc. all record as solids... this is a reading of my Hillstream tank....

 

[Magnum Man]

I'm also assuming micro plastics also read in tds... they talk about how bad they are for us... guessing just as bad for fish... I'll test my RO water later this weekend, but expect large water changes of RO water will eventually bring down my tds, as long as I'm not adding anything back, and start changing enough water to greatly reduce fish wastes, that are also going to record in the tds

assume this is tested through conductivity, as there are 2 probes

 

[MaloK]

That looks like a Myron L Company Ultrapen PT1

https://www.myronl.com/wp-content/themes/myron_l_theme/dl/PT1QSI.pdf

 

[MaloK]

@Magnum Man, I found it !!!

Ok, RO water only, and tons of plants… what do I likely need to add to the water for both the fish, and plants???

So, in the bulk of my tanks now, I’m using only RO water, and in most of my tanks, I have a jungle of terrestrial plants growing out of them… I’ve been reluctant to add fertilizers for the plants, as most of my tanks are heavily stocked with fish, and I’ve chosen plants, that don’t seem to need...

www.fishforums.net

 

[Magnum Man]

I copied it this time... thanks for looking

 

[CassCats]

My tap TDS is 88ppm

My GH is 90ppm

My KH is 50ppm


I've got quite soft water, I can't keep neocaridina shrimp alive lol

I keep mostly softwater fish, with exception of my kid's endler guppies--but those I use remineralized water and crushed coral as substrate so parameters are sky high for that tank. I think my GH is 300ppm? In that one, KH no idea haven't tested it recently so I forget lol. TDS on that tank is also very high, I think 328ppm

 

[TwoTankAmin]

TDS is an artificial number. It is derived from conductivity and then a formula is applied to calculate the TDS ppm. There are at least two formulas for doing this of which I am aware and there may be more.

Conductivity refers to the ability of the things in water to conduct electricity. Microplastics should noy do this and the Google AI says this:

Generally, microplastics do not conduct electricity. Plastics, including microplastics, are typically excellent electrical insulators, meaning they resist the flow of electrical current. However, certain modifications or additives can make them conductive

When I ran my first RO/DI unit it made 0 TDS water. Over time, as the membrane got used, the TDS would start to show up. I would start to get concerned when they hit over 10 ppm. I did replace the RO and carbon module once and ran it for a bunch more time. But eventully the TDS went higher and it made more sense to get a new unit than replace modules. So I got a 4 stage which added a sediment filter. I no longer need it and and cut a deal to sell it to a member of my fish club at this month's meeting.

I had assumed that snails would not do well in very soft water. My altum tank ran at about 60 ppm TDS. That is fairly soft. Despite that I got pond snails reprodducing in the tank. But, their shells were quite soft.

As for shrimp, I believe it matters as to the species as to what TDS they might need. My tanks are pretty similar in terms of params except fro the no longer with me Altum tank. I have red and blue Neocaridina davidi and in some cases they cohabit with Amano shrimp. My water is soft and wherever I have put shrimp they do OK- at least the two species I have, do so,

I do not keep any hard water fish as my water is soft and I do not want to have to change it except for the Altums.

 

[seangee]

I don't check TDS in the tanks as it doesn't really tell me anything.
My RO filter has a meter. ATM my filters and membrane are about 3 months old and it comes out of there at 5ppm (tap water is around 425). The only way to get it to 0 is to add a DI stage but I don't need that so replaced it with an extra post carbon filter as I also use it for drinking and the dog and cats. When the RO starts getting towards 20 its new membrane time. I try to change the other filters twice a year because it does help the membrane last longer.
I don't actually bother testing the tanks. I know exactly what's going into them and I change 50 -75% per week. I used to test regularly but the parameters never changed so when the reagents ran out I just stopped.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

The only tank I tested was the altum tank. There I was changing the parameters from my tap. But it was simple as I had a continuos 3-way digital monitor on the tank so I always knew the TDS/Temp/pH.

The only other time I tested was when I had to run a dry/rainy season to help trigger plecos to spawn. The I needed to raise the temp and TDS over a few months and then drop it drastically in 36-48 hours.

 

[Magnum Man]

OK here's the meat...
my well water reads... 457 ppm

my RO water from my tank, and after it's pumped through my silicone line, reads... 5.5 ppm...

 

[Magnum Man]

so, while my tank readings are higher, as I continue to do 33% water changes twice a week, I'll be significantly lowering my tank solids, over time...