Titration for water testing?

[michaelkittrell]

My wife took a couple of chem classes over the summer and they did all sorts of titration... I was thinking maybe I could use titration to determine water quality parameters cheaper and more accurately than using test kits. Emphasis on more accurately.

On the other hand, they worked with relatively pure solutions... Aquarium water is going to have all sorts of randomness in it which might make it hard to do the calculations with any kind of certainity.

Any thoughts? I'm not a chemist.

[Habib]

If you have a magnetic stirrer, ph meter and a burette then you might want to consider an alkalinity titration. :)

[Boomer]

Michael

As Habit pointed out you can do Alk but also Harness, which can also give Ca++ and buy the difference Mg ++ . The basic methods are in Std Methods for the Examination of Water and Waste Water but can get a little tricky in seawater.

http://www.amazon.com/Analysis-Seawater-Analytical-Environmental-Chemist/dp/354026762X/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288208451&sr=1-4

http://www.standardmethods.org/

http://www.amazon.com/Standard-Methods-Examination-Water-Wastewater/dp/0875530478/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288208341&sr=1-2

[HighlandReefer]

If you have a magnetic stirrer, ph meter and a burette then you might want to consider an alkalinity titration. :)

After previous discussions, perhaps hobbyists who wish even more accuracy using a standard acid titration would want to use a 0.45 micron filter to remove organisms and calcium carbonate from the water sample.

I have looked on the internet and these 0.45 micron filters come in different flavors, made of different materials. Which type of filter would be most appropriate for this purpose?

Would the same filter be useful for filtering for Phosphate test kits for more accuracy?

[Boomer]

I'll take look tomorrow Cliff :)

[HighlandReefer]

Thanks, I appreciate it. I want to get a little more involved in testing of the aquarium water to see how much using a filter affects my results. :D

[michaelkittrell]

Wow thats like $400 worth of books!

Filtering out the organics would be good, but you'd still have all the other trace elements and stuff that might also react with the titration solution and throw your results off wouldn't you? You'd almost need to know exactly what elements were in your sample before you could do any kind of calculations and expect them to be reasonably accurate.

[HighlandReefer]

"Filtering out the organics would be good, but you'd still have all the other trace elements and stuff that might also react with the titration solution and throw your results off wouldn't you? You'd almost need to know exactly what elements were in your sample before you could do any kind of calculations and expect them to be reasonably accurate."

Well the filter would remove the majority of bacteria, algae & other micro-organisms which contain various levels of calcium carbonate. There are a few bacteria less than 0.45 microns in size. I believe you would remove almost all living organisms with a 0.25 microns which are available. The reason why I picked 0.45 microns is that this is size commonly used by scientists, at least that is what I understand. ;)

The small filter will remove most of the calcium carbonate in the water column which can have significant influence on the results, definitely if you are experiencing a snow storm. :lol: I'm not sure how much interference to expect in a normal running reef using kalk water, without additional filters other than a skimmer, given the fact I don't use other supplement other than kalk and mag from BRS.

Borate levels are a big factor, which are hard to measure accurately. Randy has stated the Salifert Boron kits works well, given it is hobby grade kit. As far as I am aware the Borate content in IO is around that of natural seawater when mixed to a salinity of 1.0264.

I'm not sure what other factors that would have a significant influence on the testing methods in question. Perhaps others may care to respond regarding this.

I may in fact be wasting my time, but am curious as to at least the effects when using a proper filter. ;)

FWIW, the prices I have seen for the filters are somewhere between 50 cents to one dollar a filter depending on quantity purchased.

[HighlandReefer]

For those hobbyists that use supplements that contain calcium carbonate or argonite powder, the filter would remove their large influence as far as I'm aware. They don't dissolve well in a reef tank at the normal pH levels. :)

[michaelkittrell]

I had my wife ask her chemistry professor who got their water specialist involved. She said it was hillarious listening to the two of them discuss it with the seriousness of breaking the Nazi code and getting completely off topic on to how Amonia, Nitrite and Nitrate got into the water in the first place.

I think I'll have to settle for test kits until I can afford the light reading =O

[Boomer]

That is so funny Mike :lol:

[Boomer]

Cliff

Well, I found what you should be using :) A plug in disposable (but you cold reuse them) syringe filter. You can buy syringes in different size based on how many ml you want and what size plug-in filler you want down to 0.2 u. Polypropylene are the best. The issue is they are sold in box quantity, 40 syringes @$1.25 ea and 100 filter plun-in 0.5u, dics @ $1.90 ea. I would call Cole-Parmer and see what they can do.

800-323-4340

or go look at Cole-Parmer.com

[HighlandReefer]

Thanks Boomer. I'll check out their sight and call if necessary. ;)



"I had my wife ask her chemistry professor who got their water specialist involved. She said it was hillarious listening to the two of them discuss it with the seriousness of breaking the Nazi code and getting completely off topic on to how Amonia, Nitrite and Nitrate got into the water in the first place."

:lol: :lol: