SN Aquarium Test results

[gerot]

I just tested my SN using testing strips. It is ok to show that NO3 is present in the solution? Otherwise it seems good to me.

 

[mx5nb3]

not sure but is LW your source? I have lw but no aquarium test

 

[faust]

Sodium nitrate is causing methemoglobinemia too, but the test itself is not okay because we have a limit of 10 ppm NO2 and can't see the amount of NO2 present.

 

[gerot]

not sure but is LW your source? I have lw but no aquarium test

No.. it is bought from my local lab supplier

 

[mx5nb3]

No.. it is bought from my local lab supplier

thanks

 

[gerot]

Sodium nitrate is causing methemoglobinemia too, but the test itself is not okay because we have a limit of 10 ppm NO2 and can't see the amount of NO2 present.

I weighted 1 g of Sn, then i put it in a bottle of water of 1L, from another bottle squirted away 10 ml and then extracted from first bottle 10 ml and put in the second bottle.

 

[faust]

I weighted 1 g of Sn, then i put it in a bottle of water of 1L, from another bottle squirted away 10 ml and then extracted from first bottle 10 ml and put in the second bottle.

Okay, so mixing 1g with 1L gives us 1000 mg/L, mixing 10 ml of solution and 10 ml of water gives us 500 mg/L.
NO3 amount is something between 50 and 100 if I am right. Closer to 50. Let's take around 60.
500 - 60 = 440 - that's real amount of SN
440/500*100% = 88%, should be something like 92% and it is okay.
However, test is unable to show 440 mg/L concentration, max is 10, that's what I wanted to tell.

 

[Saed]

not sure but is LW your source? I have lw but no aquarium test

LW is golden. You really don't need to test it.

 

[mx5nb3]

LW is golden. You really don't need to test it.

Thank you for confirming

 

[Busdriver]

Okay, so mixing 1g with 1L gives us 1000 mg/L, mixing 10 ml of solution and 10 ml of water gives us 500 mg/L.
NO3 amount is something between 50 and 100 if I am right. Closer to 50. Let's take around 60.
500 - 60 = 440 - that's real amount of SN
440/500*100% = 88%, should be something like 92% and it is okay.
However, test is unable to show 440 mg/L concentration, max is 10, that's what I wanted to tell.

The way I understand this is:

1g=1000mg in bottle 1 of 1L=1000ml --> concentration bottle is 1000mg/1000ml = 1mg/1ml. 10ml of this bottle equals 10mg.

Bottle 2 has 10ml squirted away, and 10ml of bottle 1 added. So bottle 2 has a concentration now of 10mg/L, right?

The test strip shows value between 5-10 mg/L of NO2. Closer to 10, let's estimate at 9.
So it seems there is 9mg of NO2 in it rather than 10, which gives a purity of 90%?

Why are you looking at amount of NO3? A specific amount of NO3, doesn't say anything about amount of NO2. Or does it? Does e.g. 50mg/L in a bottle2 of NO3, means a concentration of NO2 of 1000ml-50ml NO3=950ml (=95% purity) of NO2?

 

[faust]

The way I understand this is:

1g=1000mg in bottle 1 of 1L=1000ml --> concentration bottle is 1000mg/1000ml = 1mg/1ml. 10ml of this bottle equals 10mg.

Bottle 2 has 10ml squirted away, and 10ml of bottle 1 added. So bottle 2 has a concentration now of 10mg/L, right?

The test strip shows value between 5-10 mg/L of NO2. Closer to 10, let's estimate at 9.
So it seems there is 9mg of NO2 in it rather than 10, which gives a purity of 90%?

Why are you looking at amount of NO3? A specific amount of NO3, doesn't say anything about amount of NO2. Or does it? Does e.g. 50mg/L in a bottle2 of NO3, means a concentration of NO2 of 1000ml-50ml NO3=950ml (=95% purity) of NO2?

10 ml is not 10 mg. 10 ml equals to 10 GRAMS. So in order to get concentration of 10 mg/L we need to take 1G of SN, mix with 1L of water - that will be 1000mg/1L and then take 10 ml of 1000mg/L and mix with 990 ml of water. I understood that in a little bit different way because I assumed we mix 10 ml of still water with 10 ml of solution the second time. But if we do it the way you describe, concentration of NO3 is around 60 mg/L and concentration of NO2 is around 10 mg/L as shown on test. So concentration of nitrAtes is 6 times higher than nitrItes? This means it is sodium nitrate with a bit of nitrite, not otherwise.

 

[Busdriver]

10 ml is not 10 mg. 10 ml equals to 10 GRAMS. So in order to get concentration of 10 mg/L we need to take 1G of SN, mix with 1L of water - that will be 1000mg/1L and then take 10 ml of 1000mg/L and mix with 990 ml of water. I understood that in a little bit different way because I assumed we mix 10 ml of still water with 10 ml of solution the second time. But if we do it the way you describe, concentration of NO3 is around 60 mg/L and concentration of NO2 is around 10 mg/L as shown on test. So concentration of nitrAtes is 6 times higher than nitrItes? This means it is sodium nitrate with a bit of nitrite, not otherwise.

Thanks for responding.

If we squirt 10ml from bottle 2 away and add 10ml of bottle 1 solution with 1000mg SN, bottle 2 contains 10mg/L.

The question is, how much of this 10mg per one liter is SN? We can estimate at test result it is around 9-9,9mg, so 90-99%.

The amount of NO3 doesn't really matter, as long as NO2 is above 95%.

You are right about 6x times NO3 compared to NO2. The part in last paragraph in my previous post after "Or does it?" is wrong and should be ignored.

 

[faust]

Thanks for responding.

If we squirt 10ml from bottle 2 away and add 10ml of bottle 1 solution with 1000mg SN, bottle 2 contains 10mg/L.

The question is, how much of this 10ml is SN? We can estimate at test result it is around 9-9,9ml, so 90-99%.

The amount of NO3 doesn't really matter, as long as NO2 is above 95%.

You are right about 6x times NO3 compared to NO2. The part in last paragraph in my previous post after "Or does it?" is wrong and should be ignored.

If we squirt 10ml from bottle 2 away and add 10ml of bottle 1 solution with 1000mg SN, bottle 2 contains 10mg/L. Correct.

The question is, how much of this 10ml is SN? We can estimate at test result it is around 9-9,9ml, so 90-99%. Incorrect.

1L = 1 kg = 1,000 g = 1,000,000 mg = 1,000,000,000 mcg
1mL = 1g = 1,000 mg = 1,000,000 mcg
1mcL = 1mg = 1,000 mcg
So in phrase "We can estimate at test result it is around 9-9,9ml, so 90-99%" mililiters should be replaced to microliters, because 1 miligram is 1 microliter, not mililiter. So the proper phrase should look this way: "We can estimate at test result it is around 9-9,9mg of NO2 per one liter while it is from 50 to 60 mg of NO3 per one liter"

The amount of NO3 doesn't really matter, as long as NO2 is above 95%. Incorrect.
NO2 amount is not above 95% because for both NO2 and NO3 we use the same units (mg/L or ppm). PPM is one divided by million.
It is same as if we would take 1,000L of water (1 ton) and add there 10 g of sugar and 60 g of salt. Do we have more sugar or salt in our solution? We have more salt of course.

 

[Busdriver]

So the proper phrase should look this way: "We can estimate at test result it is around 9-9,9mg of NO2 per one liter while it is from 50 to 60 mg of NO3 per one liter"

True, I agree, forgot to add the bolded and put 'ml' instead of 'mg'.

The amount of NO3 doesn't really matter, as long as NO2 is above 95%. Incorrect.
NO2 amount is not above 95% because for both NO2 and NO3 we use the same units (mg/L or ppm). PPM is one divided by million.
It is same as if we would take 1,000L of water (1 ton) and add there 10 g of sugar and 60 g of salt. Do we have more sugar or salt in our solution? We have more salt of course.

I partly agree. So, having the right amount of nitrIte in the solution is important. If the SN is 100% pure in this case, then you would expect a test result of 10mg/L.
Why can you not assume a test result of 9-9,9mg corresponds to 90-99% NO2 purity?

I agree there is more nitrAte is in it, but why does that matter?

 

[faust]

@Busdriver
We have a huge range between 5 and 10 mg/L of NO2, according to the color concentration can be 7 or 8 mg/L. I do not see a pure 10mg/L there, so technically purity can vary between 70 and 90. If we know what is the concentration of NO3 in still water we mixed with, we can see how the results changed. In drinking water depending on the location concentration of NO3 should not exceed 10 mg/L, somewhere the maximum amount of NO3 contaminants can be 45 mg/L in water and 10 mg/L in drinking water. Again, in different countries it is different. However, as I see it, the concentration of NO3 there is more than 50mg/L. The standard for nitrites is 1mg/L so we can subtract 1 from our NO2 result, however, would be better to make a test of the water prior because we don't know what is the concentration of NO2 and NO3 in water alone. When we are dealing with low concentrations knowing water naturally contains NO2 and NO3 this test does not guarantee anything. That's why I ask why amount of NO3 is 6 times higher than NO2. Only distilled water can show us real results.

 

[Busdriver]

@Busdriver
We have a huge range between 5 and 10 mg/L of NO2, according to the color concentration can be 7 or 8 mg/L. I do not see a pure 10mg/L there, so technically purity can vary between 70 and 90.

you mean 'between 70 and 80' if concentration is between 7 of 8 mg/L?

If we know what is the concentration of NO3 in still water we mixed with, we can see how the results changed. In drinking water depending on the location concentration of NO3 should not exceed 10 mg/L, somewhere the maximum amount of NO3 contaminants can be 45 mg/L in water and 10 mg/L in drinking water. Again, in different countries it is different. However, as I see it, the concentration of NO3 there is more than 50mg/L. The standard for nitrites is 1mg/L so we can subtract 1 from our NO2 result, however, would be better to make a test of the water prior because we don't know what is the concentration of NO2 and NO3 in water alone. When we are dealing with low concentrations knowing water naturally contains NO2 and NO3 this test does not guarantee anything. That's why I ask why amount of NO3 is 6 times higher than NO2. Only distilled water can show us real results.

I fully agree.
Thanks for pointing out some stuff. I meant the right thing, but had to check before posting.

It is better to use distilled water indeed.

And to think I was one of the better Chemistry students at high school. I feel ashamed .

In my defense, it was a LONG time ago. Lol

 

[faust]

you mean 'between 70 and 80' if concentration is between 7 of 8 mg/L?


I fully agree.
Thanks for pointing out some stuff. I meant the right thing, but had to check before posting.

It is better to use distilled water indeed.

And to think I was one of the better Chemistry students at high school. I feel ashamed .

In my defense, it was a LONG time ago. Lol

No worries, I am very sleepy and was afraid to mess something up too . Yes, I meant between 7 and 8
I was also doing a research on how to make sodium nitrite at home and if we consider a few reactions, we can get sodium nitrite from sodium nitrate. Anyway, during some reactions the product which we get first is sodium nitrate. No wonder how sodium nitrate may be present in sodium nitrite powder.

 

[Busdriver]

No worries, I am very sleepy and was afraid to mess something up too . Yes, I meant between 7 and 8
I was also doing a research on how to make sodium nitrite at home and if we consider a few reactions, we can get sodium nitrite from sodium nitrate. Anyway, during some reactions the product which we get first is sodium nitrate. No wonder how sodium nitrate may be present in sodium nitrite powder.

Sounds like interesting experiments. People could then legally without trouble buy NO3 and then convert it themselves to NO2. Sounds like a plan.

What is your final view on the test results? Is it good enough to use?

We don't know how much nitrite and nitrate were in the water before adding SN to it.
It estimates NO2 from test result at 8-9mg/L, which corresponds to 80-90% NO2 purity.
I know Stan advocates 95% or higher..
@gerot, what % does your package mention?

Perhaps buy from another buyer (Polish is active now), test that one and compare with result of above? If Polish one has better results, then better to use that SN.

 

[gerot]

It says that it is 99% pure. I tested the water before putting SN in it and there was no nitrate. I will try to buy one package from the same supplier to test it again and if it's show the same results i will buy SN from the polish vendor.

 

[faust]

Sounds like interesting experiments. People could then legally without trouble buy NO3 and then convert it themselves to NO2. Sounds like a plan.

What is your final view on the test results? Is it good enough to use?

We don't know how much nitrite and nitrate were in the water before adding SN to it.
It estimate NO2 from test result at 8-9mg/L, which corresponds to 80-90% NO2 purity.
I know Stan advocates 95% or higher..
@gerot, what % does your package mention?

Perhaps buy from another buyer (Polish is active now), test that one and compare with result of above? If Polish one has better results, then better to use that SN.

Well, using distilled water maybe not too bad, however we will know only the approximate value. The more shades we have, the more accurate would be the result. Mine says 98% but I did not check.

It says that it is 99% pure. I tested the water before putting SN in it and there was no nitrate. I will try to buy one package from the same supplier to test it again and if it's show the same results i will buy SN from the polish vendor.

Just buy distilled water, should not contain nitrates. The result will be more accurate.

 

[faust]

@Busdriver Sorry, it actually says 99,9+%