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Re: Measures
>Ok so call me a little slow BUT........what the !$@!
>is meq/l ???????????? this has been used extensivly in
>the thread: "Equilibrium, Ca and Mg levels" is this
>suposed to be mg/l ??????
Brief background: 1 equivalent in chemical terms means you have 6.02
x 10^23 molecules or atoms of that particular chemical compound.
But that's a pretty big number, so think of like this: 1 dozen is
twelve items. If I have 1 dozen chicken eggs and 1 dozen ostrich
eggs, then which item do I have more of? In chemical terms I have the
same quantity of both items; I have one dozen of each. You can also
say I have 1 equivalent of each (the quantities are equivalent). If I
answer in terms of mass, then I have more of ostrich egg.
Plants don't care how much these elements weigh, they just need a
certain quantity. So if you say you have 40 g of calcium and 24 g of
magnesium you might think you have more calcium than magnesium, but
you actually don't in terms of numerical equivalence because 1
equivalent of calciums has a mass of 40 grams and 1 equivalent of
magnesium has a mass of 24 grams; therefore you have exactly the same
amount of magnesium as calcium.
And the "m" of meq/L means "milli", so that just means 1/1000 of an
equivalent. It's just easier to say 1 meq/L than 0.001 eq/L.
BTW, you can convert meq/L to mg/L by multiply the meq/L number by
the molecular weight of the chemical in question. So 1 meq/L of
calcium is the same as 40 mg/L of calcium.
-Greg Morin
--
Gregory Morin, Ph.D. ~~~~~~~Research Director~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Seachem Laboratories, Inc. www.seachem.com 888-SEACHEM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~