# tds ppm ec, i am confused.



## carz (Jul 15, 2006)

i have a couple of plants that are in there 3rd week of vegitation. i went out and purchased a trimeter to measure tds, ph, temp. what should the tds be at for this stage of growth. I keep hearing about 800ppm. i am around 190ppm. Is it that much through the entire life of the plant or should it differ by week. I would think that it would differ by how heavy the nute solution was concentrated.  also does anyone have a chart or anything that might say what it should be  at any given time. any help anyone has would be greatly appriciated.


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## stevo (Jul 18, 2006)

have a read here mate,it should put you on the right track.http://www.drugs-forum.com/growfaq/1453.htm
what sort of system are you using?


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## carz (Jul 18, 2006)

i am using a drip hydro system


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## Biffdoggie (Jul 19, 2006)

It should say on the bottle of whatver you're using (assuming it's hydro nutes) what stength to run at in the various stages.
PPM, TDS and EC are essentially the same thing. 
TDS= total disolved solids, which are masured by-
EC= electrical conductivity, the meter reads the levels of the nutes and other solids by the amount of electric transfer/resistance that flows through the solution.
PPM= parts per million of whatever TDS's are in the solution.

PPM is usually just a conversion of the actual EC reading.

Make sure to calibrate the meter (both ppm and PH).


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## Zarnon (Aug 3, 2006)

It is confusing!  I use a Bluelabs Truncheon and on the side you have EC then your PPM.  As stated above the PPM derived from the EC.   Because there are different scales for PPM,   I usually try to stick with the EC as my number.    But I agree, confusin!


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## stevo (Aug 3, 2006)

i use a cf meter,that and a ph meter is all i need.
i try to keep it simple-cf around 10-14 when vegging and i bump it up to 20-25 when i switch to budding fert and start 12/12.ph i keep around 6.0-6.3 and that works well for me using a nft system.i believe it depends where you are growing,what your water is like etc.ive read alot of threads where guys get the best results with a ph around 5.2-5.5,this did not work for me ,got lock out and all sorts of deficiancy problems.it can be confusing so try and keep it simple,there is a good conversion tool here  http://www.advancednutrients.com/conductivity_convertor.html  ,for converting ppm to cf-ec etc.ive found if you work out what cf,ph your plants like youre on the right track,good luck with your grow.


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