What exactly does TDS stand for?

[ginnie5]

and how do you check it?

 

[Ghazanfar Ghori]

Total Dissolved Solids
Check it with an electronic tester

 

[Neil]

Although slightly different, TDS and conductivity refer, basically, to how clean and pure your water is. The main consideration IMO is organic biuld-up in the tank. It is a valuable meter for ideal husbandry and breeding of Dwarf Cichlids.
Neil

 

[tjudy]

TDS stands fot Total Dissolved Solids, but this term can be misleading. The 'dissolved' part of the term means that the compounds will broken into parts in the presence of water... in solution. There are compounds that do not fall apart in water, so they are not, technically, dissolved. The most important of these to a fish hobbyist are the carbonate compounds that create hardness (KH) in our tanks.

TDS measurements do not include carbonates, since TDS only measures the compounds that are breaking apart into ions. Meters that test for TDS do so by measuring the electric conductivity of the water. A higher TDS will conduct electricity better.

There is not a meter (other than a machine that will read a color change with chemical reagents) that will measure carbonate hardness (KH).

If you are interested in a TDS meter, I invite you to join the group order we are doing from Hanna Instruments. The order will go in on February 17. There is a thread in the LOUNGE that talks about it.

The best meter IMO is the Hanna Combo meter which measures pH/EC/TDS/temp, and has all of the automated bells and whistles. It is a lot of fun to use.