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Can you help the nitrate tester?

These are new to me! These look like ISE devices as opposed to Hannah Checker colorimetry, if so this a big step up for portable testing and look so much more affordable than ISE immersion probes (haven’t found a price yet).

After Google Translate mangled your words.

I don’t think this device works out the total Nitrogen either from Ammonia or Nitrite, I think it’s only the major Anion NO3. You can run self calibration with known samples you make up that you know the Nitrogen content beforehand (from Ammonia and Nitrate salts) and then correlate with the device result for a sample, if a sample has 10ppm Nitrate and 10ppm Ammonia and the device reads 10ppm then you can be sure it’s only reading Nitrate

🙂
 
X3NiTH said:
These are new to me! These look like ISE devices as opposed to Hannah Checker colorimetry, if so this a big step up for portable testing and look so much more affordable than ISE immersion probes (haven’t found a price yet).
Click to expand...

I thought the same, I was looking at ISE's last week and they are prohibitively expensive for most, the best price I found for nitrate was around £800 I think.
 
I own it.
Click to expand...

Hi Maq

I am also interested in purchasing ISE for nitrate/(phosphate), but never encountered anyone using ISEs in aquarium settings.
Could you perhaps elaborate a bit on how you connect the electrode to a measuring device? I see no device sold on their website specifically for ISE.
Could you for instance connect it to an Apex? (in principle yes I would say, but no idea how to calibrate and convert the voltage to ppm NO3).

Did you purchase the maintenance-free ISE? I like maintenance-free, but does it really work?

thanks,

Yme
 
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Hi @yme .
ISE electrode works well with any standard pH/redox meter. However, the number it returns must be converted by a formula which is specified by the supplier. Par example, when i get the value of 300 mV, it means 5.2 mg/L NO3-N.
My electrode is made from plastic, I've never refilled it, keep it in standard KCl 3 M solution, but a member of the supplier's staff told me it just must never get dry. And it works to my satisfaction.
I must stress that I'm a layman. I don't really understand how electrodes work. What I do know for sure, though, is that all colorimetric tests for NO3 are highly imprecise and more - unreliable. Many compounds which are normally in our tanks' water can distort the results significantly. For NO3 measuring, ISE is the only sensible solution.
 
Hi Maq

Thanks for your quick reply!
You then also do not calibrate the ISE like a pH probe then? Like pH 7 and pH 4 calibration fluids to determine the value and slope.

Perhaps best if I contact this firm directly 🙂

thanks!

Yme
 
I did calibrate, quite long ago. It's time consuming - preparing the solutions 🙁. I've never detected any meaningful deviation.
 
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