i thik i figured out my bad water params!

no. that is not what i said.

I said lots of folks find readable amounts of ammonia in fresh mixed saltwater.

 

its a chemical reaction that takes place in the salt and water that makes readable ammounts of amonia.

 

I guess I mis-understood this; "none of that has anything to do with ammonia being in fresh mixed saltwater. that's just talking about what's in the freshwater..."
So, I thought if there is no ammonia in the fresh RO or RO/DI water then I thought you were saying when you put the salt in it somehow causes it.

 

Would ammonium salts measure as ammonia when mixed with water? Ammonium is an element that could possibly be present in salts, especially nautral salts like Red Sea. Just a thought to ponder............

 

Now that is something to consider.

 

Seems the oposite may be the case;

The ammonium ion is generated by ammonia, a weak base, reacting with Brønsted acids (proton donors):
H+ + :NH3 → NH+4 The lone electron pair on the nitrogen atom (N) in ammonia is represented as a pair of dots. This electron pair forms the bond with a proton (H+).
The ammonium ion is a comparatively strong conjugate acid, reacting with Brønsted bases to return to the uncharged ammonia molecule:
NH+4 + :B → HB + NH3 When ammonia is dissolved in water, a significant amount of it reacts with the hydronium ions in water to give ammonium ions:
H3O+ + NH3 H2O + NH+4 The degree to which ammonia forms the ammonium ion depends on the pH of the solution. If the pH is low (there is a high concentration of hydronium ions), the equilibrium shifts to the right: more ammonia molecules are protonated into ammonium ions. If the pH is high (the concentration of hydronium ions is low), the equilibrium shifts to the left: the hydroxide ion abstracts a proton from the ammonium ion, generating ammonia.

 

I am saying exactly that. That when you put the salt in, it somehow causes it. Exactly. Yes.


I am not necessarily saying that ammonia is in either the RO/DI or the salt mix to begin with (nor am I saying it is not in the mix; I will say it is not in RO/DI however). I am simply making an observation that folks routinely find measureable amounts of ammonia in fresh mixed batches of saltwater.

This causes alarm. My standard advise it that fresh mixed saltwater needs to sit for a day before you use it anyway so just wait a day and test again. At that point, the ammonia is gone.

Where the ammonia is coming from as either a preexisting in the mix or from a chemical reaction during the mixing, I am not saying as I do not know.

 

Just curious as I don't know off the top of my head... does fresh mixed saltwater generally have a high or low pH?

 

lol been a while since the last water change? ;D

 

yeah :-[ ;D;D But let's not derail this debate with that one ;D;D