Bellingen Riverwatch Online Water Quality Monitoring Manual
Part 2. Can be done at the river or at home / school

2.3.3.2. Green EC Meter Test

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Important - Are you on the correct page?!

These instructions are only for green EC meters.

The majority of sites have grey meters.

Equipment :

  • 500ml water sample

  • 50ml beaker

  • 500𝝻S/cm (Low) Calibration Standard OR 12,880𝝻S/cm (High) Calibration Standard

  • Distilled water

  • Latex gloves

  • Green Electrical Conductivity Meter

  • Safety glasses

  • Specimen container

1. Rinse out a specimen container with sample water at least twice, or test straight from the sample bottle.

2. Pour sample water into the specimen container to a depth of about 3cm.

3. Remove the cap from the meter and turn it on. Wait until a ‘0’ appears.

4. Dip the meter into the container so that the probes are covered. Only immerse the probes of the meter in the water.

Important - Do not rest the probes on the base of the container as this will give an inaccurate reading.

5. Hold the meter in the sample water and swirl gently, so that the sample water, container and meter move.

Allow time for the number value to display and stabilise on one reading. If the reading doesn’t stabilise, record the result as the number that was displayed most frequently.

6. Read the result from the meter screen. Identify the unit of measurement that the meter is reading (μS/cm or mS/m). 

Important - If the reading reads ‘OR’, this means ‘over range’. Contact your Coordinator and go to Part 2.3.4 to find out how to do a dilution with distilled water.

7. Pass to others to verify the result.

8. Turn the meter off and record your result.

Pack Up

  1. Rinse the probes in distilled water.

  2. Blow on the probes or allow to dry in the air.

  3. Important - Do not wipe the probes of the meter.

  4. Replace the cap on the meter.

  • Electrical Conductivity (EC) is the measure of the ability of water to conduct an electric current and depends upon the number of ions or charged particles in the water. EC is an indirect method of measuring salinity and includes the measurements of all salts and organic acids. Many species can only survive in a very narrow range of salt concentration.

    The unit of measurement for electrical conductivity is expressed in either micro Siemens per centimetre (µS/cm) or milli Siemens per centimetre (mS/cm).