Matt Prater

Lab 7
Total Dissolved Solids
Introduction
Total dissolved solids refers to all of the salts or ions that are dissolved in a water
solution, and can be found by taking a known volume of a solution and evaporating it until dry.
This concentration if often used to determine the quality of the water for drinkability. From
weighing the solid matter left, it is possible to find the concentration of all the dissolved solids by
dividing the mass of the solids in milligrams by the liters of solution used as in figure 1. If the
total dissolved solids is below 500 ppm, then the water is technically potable but will be
considered hard water if the concentration is above 200 ppm.
TDS=

mg solids
Liters Solution

Figure 1: Total dissolved Solids

Procedure
Materials and Reagents:

Whatman glass microfiber filter

Filtration apparatus
250 ml filter flask
5 evaporating dishes

Drying oven
Desicator
Analytical balance

The River sample was first filtered to remove any insoluble floating particulates
in the solution. While the sample was being filtered, 5 evaporating dishes were washed
with distilled water and dried in an oven, then weighed upon cooling. The five
evaporating dishes were loaded with 25 mL of sample (two unknowns, two river samples,
and the standard). They were then carefully put into the oven without spilling or touching
with our hands (to avoid the oils of the hand). The oven was heated to 180 C for 72
hours and then the samples were removed from the oven to a clean location (dry paper
towel) to cool off before being weighed to find the final mass of the evaporating dish and
the total dissolved solids. Calculations were then performed to find the total
concentration of the dissolved solids in parts per million (mg/L). The location where the
river sample was collected is in figure 2. One of the dishes spilled and was redone but
may not have been completely dry before reweighing, thus the value of 276 ppm was
thrown out.

Figure 2: Sampling location.

Results
From the five samples that were analyzed, the river samples were found to be 408
and 412 ppm respectively, which provides a standard deviation of only 2.8 ppm and an
average of 410 ppm. This value comes from 10.25 mg (average) dissolved in the 25 mL
of water. It represents the total dissolved solids for the river by main street bridge. The
Unknown concentration (#4) was 404 ppm which came from 10.1 mg of solids that were
dissolved in 25 mL. The concentration of the total dissolved solids (TDS) at Rustys was
250 ppm, at canyon park was 442 ppm, at lions park was 282 ppm, and at the Y was 520
ppm which seems high. The standard that was prepared by Sammie was found to be 456

ppm which came from 11.4 mg of solid in 25 mL of water. According to the calculations
from how the standard was prepared, it was supposed to be a concentration of 498.9 ppm,
an 8% difference. All of the data is summarized in table 1.

Table 1: Results summary.

Loca
tion
Rust
ys
cayo
n
park
lions
park
Main
stree
t
The
Y
Unk
now
n4

Concentr
ation
(ppm)

250

442

282

410

520

404

Conclusion
From the above data (excluding one group), the total dissolved solids are under
the maximum contaminant level as explained by the USGS which is 500 ppm.1 There are
a lot of possible errors in this experiment that can be avoided through carefully
performing each step and being consistent with measurements. A common error is to not
be very precise with the pipet or to not completely let the evaporating dish cool before
weighing it. Another error that may have happened would be spilling from the
evaporating dish during transfer to the oven. The most common error may have been
letting the sample sit at a temperature above that of the creek for an extended period of
time which would allow some of the particulates that were insoluble in moving water to
become soluble and thus increase the value. The two groups that were below 300 seem
very low and could have been a mistake although the TDS should be under 300. While
the main street bridge values were high, both of the samples performed were close with a
very small standard deviation. The values reported for the Y were slightly beyond any
desired drinking level. The overall average became: 380 ppm with a standard deviation of
113 ppm. There were several errors involved, from systematic errors to human errors not
following the procedure and letting the water warm up which would only increase the
concentration. The values within 10% of 380 ppm (the average) would be valid as this
method is accurate to 10%; yet no group was within this margin of error, therefore, some
groups did not perform this properly.
References

(1)
Roberts, K.; Belitz, K. Concentrations of Dissolved Solids and; Sacramento,
California, 2004.