Electrical conductivity (EC) meters in hydroponics will generally give you different types of readings. All of these readings are conversions of the same measurement – the electrical conductivity of the solution – but growers will often only record one of them. The tools presented in this page will help you convert your old readings from one of these values to the other, so that you can compare with reference sources or with readings from a new meter. In this page you can figure out the scale of your meter, convert from ppm to EC and from EC to ppm.
The TDS reading of different meters will be done on different scales, so it is important to know the scale of your meter in order to perform these conversions. These scales are just different reference standards depending on whether your meter is comparing the conductivity of your solution to that of an NaCl, KCl or tap water standard. To learn more about how TDS scales work I would suggest you watch my youtube video on the subject. To compare the readings from different meters, always compare the EC (mS/cm) reading, do not compare ppm readings unless you are sure they are in the same scale.
To figure out the scale of the meter, measure the EC (mS/cm) and TDS (ppm) of the exact same solution with your meter. After this, input the values in the first calculator below. You can then use this scale value to convert between EC and ppm using the other two calculators below. If you already know the scale of your meter you can use the other two calculators and skip the first step. The meter scale will usually be 500, 600 or 700.
Figure out the Scale of the Meter
TDS (ppm) reading:EC (mS/cm) reading:
Meter scale:
Convert ppm to EC
TDS (ppm) reading:Meter scale:
EC in mS/cm:
Convert EC to ppm
EC reading mS/cm:Meter scale:
TDS (ppm) reading:
Create a table for reference
Meter scale:If you would like to learn more about EC readings in hydroponics I would suggest reading the following posts on my blog:
- Comparing the conductivity of two different solutions
- Improving on HydroBuddy’s theoretical conductivity model, the LMCv2
- FAQ – Electrical Conductivity (EC) in Hydroponics
