DIY ammonia test

Just wanted to share my adopted analytical detection method for ammonia in water. It takes advantage of ultra-sensitive colorimetric reaction of Nessler's reagent with free form ammonia cation NH4+. The reagent itself can be obtained from pharmacy stores or good colleague from analytical chemistry at Your local school/university . It is meant especially for hardcore water-testers that spend a lot $$$ on tetra, sera etc... test that are based on ninhydir/ammonia reaction. I say: TRY BEFORE YOU BUY !

As I've said the reaction is ultra-sensitive allowing detection of approx. 1.5 micro gram in one drop of water (approx. 10 micro litres), what can be translated into -> 0.9 mg/l concentration.
In other words: if Your solution turns yellow/red/brown... You are in trouble and your tank starts accumulating ammonia...!

Please find attached photo with tested chemical assay for different ammonia/water solutions.

Enjoy the beauty of science ... ;D

Tested solutions:
pure H2O : 0.9 mg/l : 90mg/l : 18g /l

 

Horray! Looks like we have another "Boomer!" : (old member joke)


Thanks for sharing test info!

 

Hey! Could You explain the BOOMER term ?!

Cheers... :-/

 

Im pretty sure omard is referring to a member (dont know him but have seen some of his threads) that was good with his chemistry or at least liked to talk about the technical matter of it.

 

Ufff... Good to hear that ... :laughing0 I'm working on some additional colorimetric reactions. I'm looking around for some cheap/obtainable chemicals that can be successfully used in water testing. One can save some extra $$$ and allocate this many for some nice fish or corals ... It's the Dutch way of thinking ...

 

Good idea. Try to find one for cal,alk,mag which i think are the most important to test for.

 

Right'o... I've been playing around with KH and got almost complete DIY kit. I will try to post some preliminary results on coming Fri/Sat. Stay tuned ...!

 

Correct. "Boomer" used to post here regularly...have not seen him do so in long time.

Here is bunch of 3Reef "Boomer Posts" - Threads by "Boomer"


He does frequent Reef Frontiers...Here is list from there...

Reef Chemistry Discussion with Boomer


"Boomer" - Where are you????

 

I had posted his threads but deleted them since I read the last thread and it got ugly.

 

None of his previous work is available/known to me ...So if I start repeating old stuff already invented/adopted by him ... Just let me know ...

Cheers