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blennymower
10/22/2009, 09:13 AM
I was at a LFS the other day and was talking to a guy when he brought up the topic of organic and inorganic phosphate and nitrate.

I have API test kits for everything except Mg which is Salifert, is it possible that I'm testing for phosphates and nitrates (organic or inorganic, don't know which) and might not be picking up either organic or not that might be hurting my system?

spw4949
10/22/2009, 09:30 AM
I don't think(but I could be wrong) that there is any other form of nitrates in our tanks. It's definately possible with the phosphates though. What's your water source? Whenever in doubt IMO it's never a bad idea to run some type of phosphate remover.....

blennymower
10/22/2009, 09:51 AM
My water source is the city water supply that is treated with chloramine. My RO/DI is set up for chloramines and puts out 0ppm water.

spw4949
10/22/2009, 10:30 AM
Are you having nuiscance algae growth or just wondering about organic vs. inorganic?

blennymower
10/22/2009, 11:24 AM
just wondering

usefulidiot213
10/22/2009, 11:37 AM
Tagging along. Curious myself.

Servillius
10/22/2009, 11:40 AM
I was at a LFS the other day and was talking to a guy when he brought up the topic of organic and inorganic phosphate and nitrate.

I have API test kits for everything except Mg which is Salifert, is it possible that I'm testing for phosphates and nitrates (organic or inorganic, don't know which) and might not be picking up either organic or not that might be hurting my system?


I don't think there is an inorganic form of NO3, but if there is its not relevant. There are organic and inorganic forms of nitrogen. The organic forms are familiar to us as ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and other stuff. These forms are available to living things as "food". Inorganic nitrogen is just the gas that makes up 80% of our atmosphere. Some things can turn inorganic nitrogen into organic nitrogen and other things, collectively all reefers best friends, turn organic nitrogen to inorganic gas. When you test, you neeed only test for the organic compounds and the available test kits do. While the exchange between one form and the other is very relevant to reefkeeping, its not something we need to test for. Once its inorganic or out of the tank, we've done our job.

spw4949
10/22/2009, 12:10 PM
I'm pretty sure that the available phosphate test kits do not test for all types of organic phosphates. They test for the most common but not all....I actually had this discussion awhile back & I think it was Randy Holmes-Farley that chimed in at 1 point when I was having hair algae issues & told me to run a phosphate remover because the test kits do not test for all types of phosphates....might be worthwhile to post your question in the chemistry forum or ask a mod to move this there....

Randy Holmes-Farley
10/22/2009, 01:14 PM
That is correct that no hobby kits test for organic forms of phosphate. The ones that do, like a particular Hach kit, are fairly complicated and tedious.

I would not worry too much about organic phosphate. There will be some as it is part of many organics that are usually in the water, including whole suspended organics such as bacteria and algae.

If you are just curious, these have more:

Phosphate and the Reef Aquarium
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-09/rhf/index.php


Organic Compounds in the Reef Aquarium
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-10/rhf/index.htm

from the second one:

Nitrate in the Reef Aquarium
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/august2003/chem.htm

Ammonia and the Reef Aquarium
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-02/rhf/index.php


Nitrite and the Reef Aquarium
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-06/rhf/index.htm

blennymower
10/22/2009, 04:31 PM
Thanks everyone.

Thank you for the links Farley

Randy Holmes-Farley
10/22/2009, 04:38 PM
You're welcome.

Happy reefing. :)