Measuring Water Parameters by Laboratory Methods

[OnTheReef]

Randy,

After using my ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, etc. kits for several years now, I am reminded of my chemistry classes in college, where we often titrated against a standard solution and then against a sample solution to measure an uknown concentration. I certainly would not want to do a titration every time I test water parameters in my tanks, but I would like to be able to check how accurate my test kits are. Presuming some variability in the manufacturing of test kits and not knowing how long these kits remain in the supply chain, I would like to be able to carry out a titration to check out a new kit. Can you suggest a set of titration recipes for the common ions we test for?

Thanks,

OnTheReef

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Alkalinity can be done by pH titration, as I show in this article:


What is Alkalinity
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/feb2002/chemistry.htm


For the others it is much more complicated as you need to make a standard, and preferably in a seawater matrix. That is not easy to do. I agonized over the calcium testing in this article:

Electronic Calcium Monitoring
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-04/rhf/index.htm