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TDSBot for hydroponics
RO Output & Nutrient Dosing Monitoring for Hydroponics & CEA Growers
TDSBot installs inline on your RO output and measures EC, TDS, temperature and flow every minute — the baseline every nutrient recipe depends on, monitored continuously instead of spot-checked once a day.
RO output monitorUpdated every hour
Tap a tab above to see readings change
TDS18ppm · RO output
EC0.03mS/cm
RO output vs 50 ppm target ceiling18 / 50
RO output within target range. Safe to dose nutrients against this baseline.
For Greenhouse Growers
Your nutrient dosing is only as accurate as your source water.
EC is additive. If your RO output reads 0.4 and you dose to a target of 1.8, your solution is actually 2.2 — not what your feeding chart says. TDSBot monitors your RO output continuously, so every dosing calculation starts from a number you can trust.
0–50
ppm TDS — healthy RO output target range
Additive
Source EC always adds to nutrient EC
For Vertical Farms & CEA
Controlled environment, uncontrolled water — until now.
Vertical farms and CEA operations control light, temperature and humidity precisely — but water quality often gets checked once a day with a handheld meter. TDSBot gives every reservoir and RO system the same continuous monitoring as the rest of your environment.
24/7
Continuous EC monitoring, not a daily spot-check
Fleet
Every zone, one dashboard
For Multi-Site Operations
One reservoir drifting can cost you a whole crop cycle.
Recirculating systems concentrate EC between top-ups as plants take up water faster than nutrients. Across multiple sites or grow rooms, that drift is easy to miss until yield drops. TDSBot's fleet dashboard flags which reservoir needs attention today.
Fleet
Dashboard — every site, one view
CMMS
Webhook integration for work orders
We monitor our RO output continuously now instead of spot-checking it. Catching a membrane starting to drift before it threw off a full nutrient cycle paid for the device in one crop.
The chemistry
EC is a proxy for everything dissolved in your water.
Electrical conductivity measures total dissolved ion concentration — it doesn’t tell you which nutrients are present, just how much total "stuff" is in solution. That makes it a fast, continuous way to catch dosing errors, membrane degradation, and reservoir drift, even though it can’t replace a full lab nutrient analysis when you need the exact elemental breakdown.
Target EC depends on crop and growth stage: seedlings and clones want 0.4–0.8 mS/cm, leafy greens 0.8–2.0, and fruiting crops like tomatoes and peppers 2.0–3.5 as they mature. Most sources cite roughly 3.0 mS/cm as the upper safety ceiling before toxicity risk rises for typical crops. pH target is consistently 5.5–6.5 across nearly all hydroponic crops.
Seedlings / clonesEC 0.4–0.8 mS/cm
Leafy greensEC 0.8–2.0 mS/cm
Fruiting crops (mature)EC 2.0–3.5 mS/cm
Upper safety ceiling~3.0 mS/cm (typical)
pH target5.5–6.5
Healthy RO outputEC 0.05–0.10 (~<50 ppm)
What TDSBot measures
EC / conductivityTDSTemperatureFlow rateSource water consistency over time (drift)
Continuous, every minute — the baseline every nutrient recipe depends on.
What it doesn't measure
pHDissolved oxygenIndividual nutrient concentrations (N, P, K, Ca, etc.)
TDSBot gives you the baseline water quality every nutrient recipe depends on — not a replacement for a pH meter or a full lab nutrient panel.
Every nutrient recipe assumes a starting water quality. If that baseline changes, every fertilizer calculation changes with it — whether anyone notices or not.
Who this is built for
Anywhere nutrient dosing depends on a clean baseline.
Commercial scale
Greenhouse operations
Multi-zone greenhouses running RO for nutrient mixing — vegetable production or ornamental/floral crops — where a membrane going unnoticed for even a few days affects every reservoir downstream.
Controlled environment
Vertical farms & CEA
Facilities that already monitor light, CO₂ and humidity continuously — water quality deserves the same treatment, not a once-daily handheld check.
Leafy greens & herbs
DWC & NFT growers
Recirculating systems where EC drifts upward between top-ups — continuous monitoring catches the drift before it affects the crop.
High-value crops
Cannabis cultivation
Crops with tight EC tolerances and high per-batch value, where a dosing error caught early is a much smaller loss than one caught at harvest.
Propagation
Nurseries & clone rooms
Seedlings and clones tolerate the narrowest EC range of any growth stage — the stage where an unnoticed RO drift does the most damage.
Research
University & research programs
Trials where consistent, documented water chemistry across replicates matters as much as the treatment variable being studied.
How TDSBot installs
Single point, or
full membrane diagnostics.
One sensor gives you a trustworthy baseline before nutrients are added. A second on the raw feed turns that into real membrane diagnostics.
Single sensor
RO output monitoring
Installs inline on the RO output line, before nutrients are added — giving a continuous, reliable baseline reading for every dosing calculation downstream.
S1: RO output, pre-nutrientAlert: TDS threshold, configurableInstall: 1/4″ quick-connect fitting · 15 minutes
Dual sensor
Reject ratio & membrane diagnostics
A second TDSBot on the raw feed water (pre-RO) lets you calculate a real-time reject ratio — the same dual-sensor architecture used in RO manufacturer deployments — catching membrane degradation before output quality visibly changes.
S1: Raw feed water (pre-RO)S2: RO output (post-membrane)Diagnosis: Reject ratio trend, membrane health
What a dosing error costs
A missed membrane drift costs more than the sensor that catches it.
A single crop cycle lost to nutrient dosing error — whether from an unnoticed RO membrane drift or reservoir EC creep — typically costs far more than a season of continuous monitoring.
$9,000
Estimated crop value at risk per year
$216
TDSBot monitoring cost per year
42×
Risk covered per dollar of monitoring
Crop cycle value and incident rate vary enormously by crop, scale and system type — adjust to your own operation. This estimates avoided loss, not guaranteed savings.
Pricing
Hardware once.
Monitoring, monthly.
Same TDSBot hardware across every industry. Choose the plan that matches how you manage your operation. Hardware from $59 (standard) or $69 (display).
TDSBotStandard
$59one-time
Hardware · one-time
No display — readings via app & dashboard1/4″ inline flow meter2× conductivity + temperature probesWiFi + Bluetooth (BLE)Micro-USB poweredIndoor use · quick-connect fittings
Order TDSBot
TDSBot DisplayWith display
$69one-time
Hardware · one-time
LCD display — live TDS visible at the unit1/4″ inline flow meter2× conductivity + temperature probesWiFi + Bluetooth (BLE)Micro-USB poweredIndoor use · quick-connect fittings
Order TDSBot DisplayBigger lines
3/8″ · 1/2″ · 3/4″ · 1″
Larger flow meter sizes for main nutrient feed lines, commercial RO systems and high-flow irrigation.
Data plans
What the sensor sends,
and how often
All three plans measure every minute — what changes is how often data leaves the sensor, and which analysis runs on it.
Monitor
$2/device/mo
Billed monthly or annually (−15%)
Every minuteDaily uploadEmail alerts
TDS, Temperature, Flow — every minute
Threshold alerts when exceed your set levels
Predictive filter depletion (configurable, default 30 days)
Daily pass/fail status report
Multi-site fleet dashboard — corporate → store hierarchy
Full log per filter cycle — resets when filter/RO membrane is changed
ESG report
Protect
$3/device/mo
Billed monthly or annually (−15%)
Every minuteHourly uploadEmail alerts
Everything in Monitor +
Hourly upload
Data-driven filter change scheduling
LSI + Larson-Skold @25°C, 93°C and 130°C
Estimated hardness + cumulative hardness load
Full log per filter cycle — resets when filter/RO membrane is changed
Pro
$7/device/mo
Billed monthly or annually (−15%)
Every minuteHourly uploadEmail · WhatsApp soon
Everything in Protect
Multi-site fleet dashboard with LSI / LS view
Corporate → site hierarchy — ops team sees all, baristas see theirs
Monthly ESG water report — liters filtered, cartridges saved
Full log per filter cycle — resets when filter/RO membrane is changed
Everything included — no add-ons, no per-feature upsells.
Questions from growers
Hydroponic water monitoring
— common questions
Because EC is additive. If your RO or source water reads EC 0.4 and you mix nutrients to a target of EC 1.8, your combined solution reads EC 2.2, not 1.8. Growers who don't measure source water separately are dosing blind — every batch is slightly off from the intended recipe, and the error compounds as source water quality drifts over the season or as an RO membrane ages.
A properly functioning RO system should produce output around EC 0.05–0.10 mS/cm (typically under 50 ppm TDS, though the exact ppm depends on whether your meter uses the 500 or 700 conversion scale) — close to a blank slate. TDSBot reports EC directly, so this reading itself does not depend on which conversion scale your other meters use — only the ppm figure you derive from it does. Most nutrient dosing charts assume this near-zero starting point. If your RO output reads meaningfully above that, either the membrane is degrading or a pre-filter has failed, and every downstream EC target in your feeding schedule is now built on a wrong assumption.
In deep water culture and NFT systems, plants take up water faster than they take up dissolved nutrients, so evaporation and transpiration concentrate the remaining solution — EC creeps upward between reservoir top-ups even though nothing was added. Topping up with plain water (not nutrient solution) is the standard correction, but you need to be measuring continuously to know when and how much to add. Guessing on a fixed schedule means either under-correcting or over-diluting.
TDSBot installs inline on the RO output line, before nutrients are added — giving you a continuous baseline reading of your source water. For larger operations, a second TDSBot on the raw feed water (pre-RO) lets you calculate a real-time reject ratio and catch membrane degradation early, the same dual-sensor pattern used in RO manufacturer deployments. Installation uses quick-connect fittings and takes about 15 minutes.
No. TDSBot measures TDS and conductivity, which are proxies for total dissolved ion concentration — they tell you the overall strength of a solution, not which specific nutrients (nitrogen, potassium, calcium, etc.) are present or in what ratio. A rising or falling EC reading tells you your solution is getting stronger or weaker overall; it doesn't replace a lab nutrient analysis if you need to know the exact elemental breakdown.
No. RO output monitoring is the most common deployment because it establishes a clean, near-zero baseline before nutrients are added, but TDSBot works the same way on well water, municipal supply, or a blended source feeding directly into a nutrient reservoir. Operations without an RO system still benefit from continuous source water monitoring — it catches a well running saltier after a dry season or a municipal supply shift, the same way it catches RO membrane drift.
Manual handheld checks are typically done once daily at best, often less in smaller operations — which means membrane drift or a filter failure can go unnoticed for days before someone happens to test again. TDSBot measures every minute and uploads on a daily or hourly cadence depending on plan, which is the practical difference between catching a problem the same day it starts versus discovering it after a crop cycle has already been affected.
The most common causes are membrane fouling (scale or organic buildup reducing rejection efficiency), membrane aging (gradual performance loss over years of service), and pre-filter exhaustion (a spent carbon or sediment pre-filter lets chlorine or particulate through, which then damages the membrane itself). All three show up as a rising TDS/EC reading on the RO output — TDSBot does not diagnose which specific cause is at fault, but it tells you something changed and when.
Source water quality is rarely constant year-round — well water can concentrate during dry seasons, municipal supplies shift as utilities blend different sources, and snowmelt-fed systems can run unusually dilute in spring. If your nutrient dosing recipe was calibrated against one season’s baseline, it can be quietly wrong months later. Continuous source water monitoring catches that seasonal drift instead of relying on a baseline measurement taken once, long ago.
Yes. The fleet dashboard, included from the Monitor plan, shows every monitored zone, reservoir, or RO system across a facility or multiple sites in one view — useful for commercial greenhouses, vertical farms and multi-site grow operations where a manual daily EC check across every zone isn't practical.
Stop dosing against a guessKnow your RO output
Know your RO output
before it costs you a crop cycle
TDSBot installs in 15 minutes. Continuous EC/TDS monitoring on your RO output, alerts before drift affects your dosing, fleet visibility across every reservoir.
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Disclaimers: TDSBot measures TDS, conductivity, temperature and flow rate directly. LSI, Larson-Skold Index, hardness and alkalinity estimates are derived from onboarded utility water chemistry data — not directly measured inline. TDSBot does not measure PFAS, bacteria, or other biological or chemical contaminants; for RO systems, reject ratio is used as a proxy indicator of membrane performance only. TDSBot monitoring data is not a substitute for accredited laboratory testing or statutory water quality compliance testing. All third-party brand names are trademarks of their respective owners; WaterTDS Inc. claims no affiliation, endorsement or partnership unless separately announced.
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TDSBot® · PWSID cross-referenced · EPA SDWIS · SCA Water Standards