What chemistry does a typical nitrate test kit use?

[WillpoleReefers]

Running a nitrate reactor with maybe a backup to come in future and I have to do a fair few rough and ready nitrate tests checking for zero in the output. Having a fair bit of analytical kit and reagents it annoys me to pay Salifert for kits for this task. I haven’t got there yet using fancier nitrate methods, well aware about some of those. Just wondered what reducing agent and chemistry Salifert might be using, any pointers to a simple method such as in those kits? Accuracy not required here, just presence/absence

Steve

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I’m not aware of exactly Salifert uses. Last I checked, I don’t think it was public knowledge.

 

[WillpoleReefers]

I’m not aware of exactly Salifert uses. Last I checked, I don’t think it was public knowledge.

Thanks for your thoughts anyway!

 

[Dan_P]

Running a nitrate reactor with maybe a backup to come in future and I have to do a fair few rough and ready nitrate tests checking for zero in the output. Having a fair bit of analytical kit and reagents it annoys me to pay Salifert for kits for this task. I haven’t got there yet using fancier nitrate methods, well aware about some of those. Just wondered what reducing agent and chemistry Salifert might be using, any pointers to a simple method such as in those kits? Accuracy not required here, just presence/absence

Steve

There are two options you can think about before hacking Salifert. Buy a cheaper kit or reduce the sample volume in the current test.

For just detecting zero, an API NO3 test might be good enough. Ditto for halving the sample volume and doubling the number of tests of the Salifert kit. While the small test volume is too small to use in the Salifert vial, not observing a pink color would be enough to alert you to a zero nitrate situation.

 

[WillpoleReefers]

Thanks for those ideas, yes why indeed run the full 1ml. Pink or no pink is actually very easy to see. I guess I just used Salifert because it’s what I had to hand and stuck with it. While the nitrate reactor works it can be finicky, I’m on my second startup with it. I got to 10 ml per minute last week, increased to 11 ml and that tripped it into aerobic mode. I wonder if less nitrate monitoring is needed if you run it based on ORP, though that would be another potential maintainance issue

Steve

 

[WillpoleReefers]

I found this thread here later that gave me some more insight, I see others have been interested in diy nitrate

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/nitrate-test.986240/