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  L# Meauring Nitrate Level by Ph
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SubscribeMeauring Nitrate Level by Ph
tetratech
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male usa
With all the stated problems with no3 kits, here's a different way to measure nitrate. This is taken from ADA.

"To determine the nitrate and nitrite levels of the water, there are both analog data meters and chemical reagents. In term of cost, the latter will be a better bet though it may not be so convenient. A good estimate of these nitrate levels can be made from the pH value as well. As the level of nitrates increases, the pH decreases, and water that is high in nitrites will have a higher pH. If the pH value hits 5.0, then it's likely that the nitrate level is high."

I for one, didn't know this, doesn't sound like an exact science, but probably good estimate.


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Post InfoPosted 26-Jan-2006 11:42Profile PM Edit Report 
Babelfish
 
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female australia us-maryland
As far as I'm aware that's what is refered to as a tank crash. When the nitrAte levels are so out of hand that the ph begins to plummet.
Since many other things cause ph to drop as well; Co2, driftwood, peat ect, using ph to judge nitrAte is on par with heating a tank using candles. Not exactly modern technique.
Just my $0.02.

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Post InfoPosted 26-Jan-2006 11:42Profile Homepage AIM MSN PM Edit Delete Report 
tetratech
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Well I was thinking of it more or less as a check against very high nitrate readings from bad test kits. some of us at FP have been having problems with very high nitrate readings, so if the ph isn't "crashing" than it's probably a bad test kit.

I appreciate your $0.02.

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Post InfoPosted 26-Jan-2006 11:42Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
LITTLE_FISH
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tetratech,

Well, that sounds way too broad to me as to allow me to make assumptions about NO3 based on ph.

How much decrease in ph is related to how much increase in NO3? Is it on the same scale that the ph log scale, or in other words – does a particular increase of NO3 have the same effect on ph at 7.0 than it would have on 5.5? How do you distinguish between a decline in ph caused by CO2 injection vs. NO3? How high does the NO3 have to be to cause a decline from 7.0 to 6.0 etc.?

Too fuzzy for me,

Ingo


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Post InfoPosted 26-Jan-2006 11:42Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
tetratech
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LF,

Definitely fussy, I'm not recommending you use this to determine your no3 level, but it seems like it might be usable if you get a very high no3 via test kit and then check ph. If ph levels are within a fairly normal range, then the no3 reading is probably off.

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Post InfoPosted 26-Jan-2006 11:42Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
FRANK
 
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Hi,
What Babel refers to is Old Tank Syndrome (OTS).
This link will tell you all about it:
[link=http://www.bestfish.com/oldtank.html]http://www.bestfish.com/oldtank.html" style="COLOR: #FF00FF[/link]

Actually, there are too many variables that interact for
your thought, while interesting, to be a good indicator.

Frank


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Post InfoPosted 26-Jan-2006 11:42Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
mattyboombatty
 
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How much decrease in ph is related to how much increase in NO3?


Due to the buffers in the water a small change in nitrate has ZERO effect on pH. Your pH might crash after all the buffers have been used to combat poor water quality. This only happens when little to no water changes are performed. At such a time nitrAtes will probably be in excess of 100-200ppm.



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Post InfoPosted 26-Jan-2006 11:42Profile Homepage PM Edit Delete Report 
crazyred
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I agree. There's this LFS that I used to go to and when I tested the water in the fish bags the NO3 would be through the roof---200ppm + Correspondingly, the kH was 0 ppm and the pH was very low 6 or less. It would seem that for the elevated NO3 to have that much effect on pH it would have to be elevated to disasterous proportions like you see in that old tank syndrom posted earlier, which, by the way, is an excellent link. I have printed that out to keep me on the straight and narrow.

I would trust my test kit and my knowledge of when my last water change was before trusting my pH to let me know there's a problem. My nitrates stay pretty much the same---15ppm, but I've recently brought my pH down from 7.2 to 6.8 by using driftwood.


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Post InfoPosted 26-Jan-2006 11:42Profile MSN PM Edit Delete Report 
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