Ec meter

[Benicia Bendele]

I need an ec ph meter. There are many different ones with different prices. Does anyone have a suggestion as to which one is easiest to use and cost effective?

[Sylvia Bernstein]

Benica, EC meters aren't really useful in aquaponics.  EC (Electrical Conductivity) is a measure of salts in the water that gives you an indication of the strength of a hydroponic solution.  But in AP everything is organic and there generally are no salts...so nothing to measure.  Instead we use an aquarium test kit and use nitrate levels and just assessing the health of the plants as indicators of nutrient strength.

[Benicia Bendele]

Great, Thanks you.

Sylvia Bernstein said:

Benica, EC meters aren't really useful in aquaponics.  EC (Electrical Conductivity) is a measure of salts in the water that gives you an indication of the strength of a hydroponic solution.  But in AP everything is organic and there generally are no salts...so nothing to measure.  Instead we use an aquarium test kit and use nitrate levels and just assessing the health of the plants as indicators of nutrient strength.

[TCLynx]

Aquaponic Water Testing

Here is the most commonly used test kit for aquaponics.

It tests for

pH (6.0-7.6)

pH high range (7.4-  ?well over 8)

Ammonia

Nitrite

Nitrate

an EC meter is as Sylvia says, of little use in aquaponics since it won't measure the organic form of nitrate or other nutrients and if you ever have to use salt in the system to deal with a fish disease, the EC meter doesn't really measure the range for that well either so isn't even very useful there.

A pH meter you might get but beware they are not the cheap option since not only do you need to buy the meter but you also need to buy calibration solutions, storage/cleaning solutions, and probably replacement probes on a regular basis as well as batteries.  Suddenly makes the test kits a little easier to use for most people.

[Ian Cameron]

Well, that answers a perplexing question. I could not figure out why my pH fluctuated so wildly using a test meter. Oh well, a $70.00 tool to test different sources of water in the field I guess. I'm always looking for a good source of water in the winter. Ever tried melting enough snow to replace evaporation etc.? Heh!

[TCLynx]

LOL, yea a large amount of snow turns into a small amount of water.