As far as my limited chemistry knowledge goes, both acid and alkali are ionic solutions so they should interfere TDS reading (since its a conductivity meter). Lime contents are acidic so I guess those snow must be acidic too. Acid rain contains sulphur (in form of sulphuric acid I guess) along with many other low pH acids.

With regard to lime, I meant limestone which is an alkaline agent, not the green fruit, which of course contains acetic acid. My reference was intended to be limestone in the mountains. Sorry for the mixup.

Ops :lol: Yah lime, limestone, limewater....I don't know why they would be named such!

Ok , where has December gone?? Actually, where has this year gone?? Year end sucks, 12 hour days suck, hoping for some downtime over the holidays!!

@ Raied. Yeah well, it was me that forgot to add the word 'stone' to lime, so my mistake. Assumptions can lead to confusion. As far as acid vs alkaline affecting TDS meter readings, again I'm just guessing, but you mention both are ionic solutions. My take is, pure DI water conducts no electricity since there are no impurities, whether acidic or alkaline. My high school physics goes back a long way, but ionic means there are free electrons? This means there is potential for current flow, i.e. conductivity. So it shouldn't matter whether a solution is acidic or alkaline, either one should conduct providing a reading on a conductivity (TDS) meter? Perhaps you could run this question by one of the highly intelligent (and paid) professors at your university!

EDIT: Google is your friend, I think I answered my own question, no need to bother the professor..

Properties of Acids
taste sour (don't taste them!)... the word 'acid' comes from the Latin acere, which means 'sour'
acids change litmus (a blue vegetable dye) from blue to red
their aqueous (water) solutions conduct electric current (are electrolytes)
react with bases to form salts and water
evolve hydrogen gas (H2) upon reaction with an active metal (such as alkali metals, alkaline earth metals, zinc, aluminum)

Properties of Bases
taste bitter (don't taste them!)
feel slippery or soapy (don't arbitrarily touch them!)
bases don't change the color of litmus; they can turn red (acidified) litmus back to blue
their aqueous (water) solutions conduct and electric current (are electrolytes)
react with acids to form salts and water

Ionic solutions are the charged particles (like mixing calcium chloride in water would form Ca+ and Cl-) and applying a voltage in the solution could cause the positive ones to go to negative terminal and vice versa. I can't recall whether there would be any free electrons. The hottest topic right now in Canreef with all the ionic balance and stuffs :razz: We already have atleast "one" highly intelligent chemist in this forum isn't it? ;)

I second that 1,000,000,000,000%, Im booked solid right up to xmas eve day & the wife has put her foot down & told me I am taking at least a week away from work if that is possible.

Yep, caused me to lose complete interest in either product. It's pretty sad really.:neutral:

I don't think 2014 is going to be any better...seems like we are booming again, hard to get things done or have people respond to requests.....

On another note, had a weird dream last night that for some reason, all the water drained out of my tank and I found my fish in barely enough water to stay alive or flopping around on the floor. (so tank didn't explode). Threw them in my sump and random buckets in a mad panic, then used my new pump to bring water up from the basement. Got up this morning, checked the tank, all was good, just need top up water....hmmmmmm.....

My boss handed me my Christmas bonus and said "don't spend it all on fish tanks"

Phhh, common I'm only planning on spending most of it on fish tanks