Recently, our after-sales colleagues encountered customer feedback testing related issues, one of which is 'the report of the testing organization and the value of your instrument is not the same', after investigation, found that because the parameter index unit is different, the customer mistakenly thought that our instrument testing is not accurate. So, here we introduce you to some common parameters of water quality testing and its units of conversion between the relevant content.
pH is a measure of the acidity or alkalinity of an aqueous solution and is dimensionless, i.e. has no units. It represents the negative logarithm of the concentration of hydrogen ions (H⁺) in a solution.
Dissolved oxygen is the amount of oxygen dissolved in water and is an important indicator of the self-purification capacity of a body of water. Its common unit is mg/L (milligrams per liter), which indicates the number of milligrams of dissolved oxygen per liter of water.
Total hardness is the sum of the amount of calcium, magnesium and other metal ions in the water and reflects the hardness of the water body. Total hardness can be expressed in mg/L (milligrams per liter) or ppm (parts per million). There is some conversion between these units, for example, 1 ppm is approximately equal to 1 mg/L.
Nitrate, Ammonium Nitrogen, Nitrite, Total Nitrogen, Ammonia Nitrogen These parameters are commonly used to measure the amount of nitrogen in a water body in mg/L (milligrams per liter) or ppm (parts per million). The conversion between them is similar to that of total hardness, i.e., 1 ppm is approximately equal to 1 mg/L.
Total phosphorus, chloride, silicate, etc. have a significant impact on eutrophication of water bodies. Again the units are mg/L (milligrams per liter) or ppm (parts per million).
Dissolved salinity expresses the total amount of dissolved saline substances in water in mg/L (milligrams per liter) or ppt (parts per billion). ppt is a smaller unit, with 1 ppt equaling 1,000 ppm or 1 mg/L.
Suspended solids are solid particles suspended in water and are measured in mg/L (milligrams per liter) or ppm (parts per million). The higher the suspended solids content, the more turbid the water is.
BOD and COD are indicators of the degree of organic pollution in a body of water.BOD expresses the amount of oxygen consumed by microorganisms to decompose organic matter in water under aerobic conditions in mg/L (milligrams per liter).COD expresses the amount of oxidant consumed when treating a water sample with a strong oxidant under certain conditions, also in mg/L (milligrams per liter).
Conductivity expresses the ability of water to conduct electrical currents and is usually expressed in units of microsiemens per centimeter (µS/cm) or millisiemens per meter (mS/m). In practical applications, μS/cm is more common.
unit conversion relationship
Conversion of mg/L to ppm: Generally, 1 ppm is equal to 1 mg/L. This is because ppm is an abbreviation for parts per million, while mg/L represents the number of milligrams of a substance in a liter of water, and the two are numerically equivalent.
Conversion of different hardness units: Conversion between hardness units is more complex and needs to be done according to specific definitions. For example, the conversion relationship between German degrees and mg/L depends on the substance and its content used in the definition.
Conversion of moles to millimoles: The mole (mol) is the unit of quantity of a substance in the International System of Units, while the millimole (mmol) is its thousandth part. Thus, 1 mol is equal to 1000 mmol.
Understanding these units and their conversion relationship, in practical applications, we can judge the indicator situation by ourselves based on the test results. If you still have doubts, you can directly contact our customer service consulting Oh~!
