Ammonia in RO/DI

[TheReefGeek]

Will do. Might not be until tommorow night though.

[mark]

Using a Hagen NH3 test kit.

Increments from 0.0; 0.1, 0.3, 0.6, 1.2,...

Never been a fan of these colour matching tests (that's why I switched to Salifert for pH) but I read it as 0.0, maybe 0.1 but definitely not matching 0.3.

[mark]

If chlorine and ammonia bind to form chloramine, can the ammonia component still be accurately measured using a ammonia only test?

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by mark

If chlorine and ammonia bind to form chloramine, can the ammonia component still be accurately measured using a ammonia only test?

nope, well not by our test kits anyways.

Steve

[Beverly]

Mark,

Did you measure ammonia in your tapwater as well as ammonia coming out of your RO unit with your Hagen kit?

Steve,

If it's true that our test kits do not measure ammonia in the chloramine molecule, why am I measuring 1 ppm ammonia from my tapwater, and .5 ppm from my RO/DI water with my Aquarium Pharmaceuticals kit?

When I first started keeping FW fish in 1998, I used to have an Aquarium Pharmaceuticals chlorine test kit that would measure slightly more chlorine than ammonia in Edmonton's tapwater. Chlorine and ammonia test results seemed to jive with what an Epcor lab guy told me back then about there being more chlorine added than ammonia, and that there was free chlorine in our water supply along with chloramine. The lab guy explained why they added more chlorine than ammonia, but I can't remember why that was.

[mark]

Originally Posted by Beverly

Mark,

Did you measure ammonia in your tapwater as well as ammonia coming out of your RO unit with your Hagen kit?

Same kit (Hagen) same time on both samples. Might give you 0.1 but l'm leaning 0.0.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Beverly

Steve,

If it's true that our test kits do not measure ammonia in the chloramine molecule, why am I measuring 1 ppm ammonia from my tapwater, and .5 ppm from my RO/DI water with my Aquarium Pharmaceuticals kit?

the reply was to "can it be measured accurately" yes you can measure it but not accurately.. I would guess the levels will be higher than we actually get as a reading.

Steve

[Beverly]

Originally Posted by mark

Same kit (Hagen) same time on both samples. Might give you 0.1 but l'm leaning 0.0.

Thanks for checking, Mark

Don't think I'm going to be using Hagen ammonia kits anytime soon, though.

[Salinity Now]

Hey Beverly, first of all I had to wipe all of the dust off my Hagen test kit . Wow, it's been a while. Any whoo, here's the results.

Straight from the tap =

Somewhere between 0.6 and 1.2. Eeeeewwwww!

After the Ro/Di unit =

Somewhere between 0.0 and 0.1. Hard to tell thou, all the colours look damn near the same? No wonder I don't use Hagen test kits anymore.

Wheeeeeew, that was close. I almost thought I'd have to get up off my ammonia maker and change my cartridges.

P.s.
this little excersise took longer than 7 minutes.

[Beverly]

Finally found the solution to our ammonia problem. Should be able to order it from J&L.....

http://www.aquariumwaterfilters.com/...ategory_id,11/