Best silicate tester

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

what are you using for silicate?

 

[EnterName]

Regarding the test: You can try Salifert. I think it has a detection limit of approx. 0.03ppm.

The Salifert silicate test doesn't show me anything, even when I prepare a test sample with a huge amount of silicate.

That's odd... Maybe a bad batch/lot?

It seemed to be working fine the times I used it together with an ICP test, and I have extremely low phosphate levels so nothing I would think might interfere with it to produce falsely elevated results

Edit: Randy is asking the smarter questions he will probably be able to give a more satisfying answer than I can in this regard.

 

[Waldek M.]

what are you using for silicate?

sodium water glass

 

[Waldek M.]

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Sodium trisilicate contains silicon-oxygen-silicon bonds that may not readily fall apart in water to form the types of structures the Salifert kit can detect.


To be sure the Salifert kit can detect it, using sodium orthosilicate, or water glass made with properties similar to sodium orthosilicate can be desirable.

The chemistry of silicate solution is complicated and confusing, but I would avoid trisilicate.