Which water quality test kit to choose?

[The Mutant]

So, I've finally found test kits for water quality here in Sweden, but I don't know which one to choose.

I'm hesitating between three different test kits; the first one tests PH, KH, GH, NO2 and NO3, the second one tests PH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate and KH, the third one tests Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, PH, GH and KH.

Which one should I choose? What values are the most important to test? I personally feel the more the better, so kit number three since it also tests ammonia, but it's really expensive.

 

[DavidCampen]

I am curious, what is it you are going to test - tap water, pot flush water or your fish pond water?

And, what are KH and GH? Also, just to nitpick, instead of PH I believe that you probably mean pH.

 

[NYEric]

What are you testing for? I use RO water, as anyone can, so I'm not worried about Nitrites, etc.

 

[The Mutant]

I am curious, what is it you are going to test - tap water, pot flush water or your fish pond water?

And, what are KH and GH? Also, just to nitpick, instead of PH I believe that you probably mean pH.

I'm going to test my tap water, pot flush water and my "purified" water (mostly to see what happens after it has been filtered).

KH and GH... Oh dear, I know nothing about chemistry and I'm going to try and translate from Swedish to boot...

KH is the levels of carbonate and bicarbonates and it seems to have to do with the alkalinity of the water.

GH seems to be a measurement of the hardness of the water.

The PH is called "copy paste" and that's what I did, but I figured you guys would know it's supposed to be pH.

 

[DavidCampen]

I would use RO water and only test pH and conductivity. After that then perhaps ammonia and nitrate in the fertilizer solution and the flush water would be interesting.

 

[Rick]

General Hardness gives you the sum of calcium and magnesium

need to double check that KH is equivalent to alkalinity (bicarbonate concentration) or another European unit of hardness (redundant to Ca/Mg hardness). These terms seem to vary according to country and usage (i.e. European aquarium people use a different set of units than American toxicologists, and different from US engineers working on cooling tower corrosion data).

Alkalinity is good to know for understanding the optimal forms of nitrogen to be utilized.

Hardness helps assess TDS (in lue of actually having a TDS meter) and understanding the relationships bewtween Potassium, Calcium and Magnesium concentrations.

If you are on limited budget I would save your money for a usable TDS/conductivity meter, pH measuring device, and some test kit for hardness/alkalinity (in that order)

 

[The Mutant]

General Hardness gives you the sum of calcium and magnesium

need to double check that KH is equivalent to alkalinity (bicarbonate concentration) or another European unit of hardness (redundant to Ca/Mg hardness). These terms seem to vary according to country and usage (i.e. European aquarium people use a different set of units than American toxicologists, and different from US engineers working on cooling tower corrosion data).

Alkalinity is good to know for understanding the optimal forms of nitrogen to be utilized.

Hardness helps assess TDS (in lue of actually having a TDS meter) and understanding the relationships bewtween Potassium, Calcium and Magnesium concentrations.

If you are on limited budget I would save your money for a usable TDS/conductivity meter, pH measuring device, and some test kit for hardness/alkalinity (in that order)

Thanks Rick, this was exactly the kind of help I needed. I have access to the public readings of the water quality in my municipality, but I don't know if I'm reading them correctly. If I'm interpreting the data correct, this is the water quality in my city (I'm pretty much doing copy-paste, just so you know):

Ammonium (NH4+): <0.02 mg/l
Fluorid (F): <0.16-0.23 mg/l
Iron (Fe): <0.05-0.06 mg/l
Manganese (Mn): <0.02 mg/l
Nitrite (NO2): <0.003 mg/l
Conductivity: 15-16 mS/m
Hardness (°dH here in Sweden): 2.6-2.8 °dH
pH: 7.9-8.6

I don't know if this means that the water is good from an orchid point of view, or bad.

 

[Rick]

Ok KH is a unit of alkalinity (buffering) measure. I need to double check on conversion factors for what I typically use (mg/L as CaCO3).


dH is a measure of calcium/magnesium (general hardness) and one dH = also = 17.8 mg/L as CaCO3.

So with the water values your hardness is about 48 mg/L as CaCO3 (soft), and conductivity is about 150 uS/cm (also typical for "soft" water).

These values are about 1/2-2/3 the concentration of typical Nashville, TN tap water. That's pretty good for orchids in general.

 

[The Mutant]

Ok KH is a unit of alkalinity (buffering) measure. I need to double check on conversion factors for what I typically use (mg/L as CaCO3).


dH is a measure of calcium/magnesium (general hardness) and one dH = also = 17.8 mg/L as CaCO3.

So with the water values your hardness is about 48 mg/L as CaCO3 (soft), and conductivity is about 150 uS/cm (also typical for "soft" water).

These values are about 1/2-2/3 the concentration of typical Nashville, TN tap water. That's pretty good for orchids in general.

Thanks, that's good to know.

 

[cnycharles]

the pH seems a little high; do they adjust it upwards a little so that metal pipes don't corrode?

 

[The Mutant]

the pH seems a little high; do they adjust it upwards a little so that metal pipes don't corrode?

Yup.