Marine chemistry tests - do it in the lab?

[Brillig]

I'm in the process of planning my first marine tank, which will be a nano (10 g - strongly leaning towards just a hardy coral and a pair of percula or ocellaris clowns with basic scavenger inverts - haven't given any thought yet to planting). Obviously reading as much as I can before even thinking of buying anything, let alone setting up. Various sources seem to suggest that a) water chemistry testing is really really important and the various tests available are variously reliable and unreliable.

 

Since I work in a lab (biochemistry and molecular biology) and have access to basic reagents and equipment, I've been wondering if a better solution might not be to take water samples in to work once a week and run tests here.

 

Are there protocols available (or would anyone be prepared to share theirs) for performing these test with basic reagents and glassware rather than kits? pHing is taken care of, since obviously we have a meter in the lab. Salinity too, as we have a refractometer. How about other things, like nitrogenous compounds, phosphates etc?

 

Thanks so much in advance for your help and advice.

[kthehun89]

I too work in a molecular bio lab, and pH and maybe salinity are the only feasible things. Its about the range or the scale that matters, and i'd suggest just buying a test kit. I do jack pH buffers so I can calibrate my meter at home, and I have a good refrac. so my salinity is in check. Otherwise, are there truly accurate lab tests for saltwater? not likely...

[Markushka]

I brought a sample into my chem class and used a spectrophotometer. If you could get some time with one of those, its awesome for things that regular test kits aren't accurate for. I used it for phospate and copper. I would have done some more tests but they didn't have reagents for them.

[Brillig]

I brought a sample into my chem class and used a spectrophotometer. If you could get some time with one of those, its awesome for things that regular test kits aren't accurate for. I used it for phospate and copper. I would have done some more tests but they didn't have reagents for them.

 

I do have access to a spec, both white light and UV. What protocols/recipes did you use?

[lakshwadeep]

I was discussing this with Mr. Fosi, who was developing a simple test kit from chemical reagents. Try searching for those posts; I had posted some links to marine/aquatic chemistry textbooks found online and some info from my quantitative analysis textbook. One thing to consider is that SW has so many ions/compounds that you need to take their interactions into account when researching reagents to use. This is where finding marine chemistry sources would be useful.

 

One thing you could do is try to find data on the colorimetric-based test kits (like phosphates and ammonia/nitrite/nitrate) so that you could analyze specific wavelengths more accurately than using a color reference card.