Water testing question (1 Viewer)

[ryan.alford]

After reading about the Triton testing method it got me thinking. You take a sample of your water and send it off to be tested days later. So my question is can I simply take samples of my water every few days and test them all once a week? I have a really busy schedule having two little boys and working shift work so I do not have the time to test as consistently as I like. But this way I would be able to have a better idea of what my tank is doing throughout the week. Would anything change by letting the water sit in a bottle for a week or would I still get an accurate test?

Thanks
Ryan

 

[Diesel]

If you use Triton you still have to send them in.
All test will go to Triton US in SoCal and from there to Germany.
In Germany your water would be tested and you get a email from them, should be between 7 and 10 days.
A self test isn't so bad as you can compare what your results are compared to Triton.
I wasn't far off on ALK,CAL,MAG and PO4.
I use Triton every month now but still test for ALK everyday, most SPS diehard hobbyist will test for ALK everyday as you can see on the swing in ALK if any other might be off.

 

[ryan.alford]

Thanks for the reply diesel...I was thinking about doing the triton test maybe once a quarter just as a way to double check myself. So if the sample is still good for them to test a week later I wouldn't see any reason why I couldn't test my own water from a week ago without any issues. I was thinking sample my water every other day and once I get a day to test I could test all three or four samples at the same time. Might even be a little more accurate with my test if I'm doing them all back to back. Sps is the reason I want to start testing more as I'm starting to put more frags in my tank and might have to start dosing soon. Just wanted to see the trend on my alk, cal, and mag over the course of a week

 

[OceansX]

Oh, I see what you are asking.

The testing methods are NOT comparable. Triton's testing machine (ICP-OES) breakdowns everything in the sample vial, and gives you how much calcium, magnesium, carbon, etc. atoms were in your sample. It's okay to leave Triton samples in the container for a long time. They are NOT testing nitrate, phosphate*, free calcium, free magnesium, and alkalinity.

If you are using test kits for calcium, magnesium, alkalinity, ammonia, nitrate, phosphate; these kits only measure what's in the water. So some calcium/magnesium could precipitate out onto the container; nitrate, nitrite or ammonia could get converted to other compounds, etc. Technicians/scientists store samples for later testing by putting a 'fixing agent' to stop these chemical and biological conversions. For ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate; the refrigerator should slow the conversion process.

For example, let's say you wanted to track ammonia over a week. If you took a water sample every day, but left them out, some of the water's bacteria would change the ammonia to nitrite, nitrate, etc. I couldn't tell you how slow the processes are, but they occur. Alkalinity is the one that probably stores the most poorly.

You could try an experiment by testing some water and see how the same stored-water tests out week(s) later.


Remember also that your alkalinity and pH change throughout the day, i.e. a morning alk measurement should be compared to another morning alk measurement, likewise with pH.



*From my background knowledge, the Triton Labs read-out give a phosphate measurement, but that number assumes every Phosphor atom they measure is in a phosphate ion, kinda of a worst case scenario (conservative case).