Mixing salt makes NH3/4?
- Thread starter LD50
- Start date
Interesting...any idea of the science behind that zoo? I just mix my RC and dump it straight into my tank after 15min of agitation. Nice well water out here in rural WI. 
I usually let my make up water mix overnight if I can. Seems to mix into solution better. Instant Ocean mixes up quick - don't get me wrong, I just like to really mix it well.
As for the science, some would say that starting with fresh water means by adding the salt, you are killing the naturally occuring FW bacteria. That death results in the trace ammonia some see. Giving it that extra 24-48 hours will allow that ammonia to be broken down to zero.
As for the science, some would say that starting with fresh water means by adding the salt, you are killing the naturally occuring FW bacteria. That death results in the trace ammonia some see. Giving it that extra 24-48 hours will allow that ammonia to be broken down to zero.
http://reefsaltanalysis.googlepages.com/AWT_Salt_Analysis_0208.pdf
Almost all commercially available salts will add trace amounts of nitrite/nitrate/phosphate. If I read your post right you are buying RO/DI from your LFS. How long are you keeping it before mixing it with your salt mix? Deionized water, being ion neutral, will take in whatever free ions it can to try to balance itself. Be those ions from the air, storage container, whatever. This is commonly called hungry water syndrome.
Almost all commercially available salts will add trace amounts of nitrite/nitrate/phosphate. If I read your post right you are buying RO/DI from your LFS. How long are you keeping it before mixing it with your salt mix? Deionized water, being ion neutral, will take in whatever free ions it can to try to balance itself. Be those ions from the air, storage container, whatever. This is commonly called hungry water syndrome.
joncd;4415457; said:
No offence... but this doesn't make sence... I'm a chemistry student and lack of ions means nothing except that it has lots of space to take in new ions (aka no solutes). Balance itself? It is balanced... no ions means it has a charge (theoreticaly) of 0 meaning ballanced. Yes it will absorb ions from the container or air, but its not because its lacking in ions, regular water will do this.
Do you understand what deionization is? Do you know why deionized water is used as a solvent in commercial/lab applications as opposed to "regular" water? Do you understand the difference between an anion and a cation? When you speak to charge you are talking about protons and electrons.
joncd;4415997; said:
Are you kidding me? Of course I know what anions and cations are, they are charged particels, Anion being a negatively charged particle, Cation being a positively charged particel. That leaves me asking do you? Do you even know what an Ion is? Do you understand what dionization is?
I'm three years into BSc Specialization Inorganic Chemistry don't even try to dispute me here, unless you happen to be more qualified to comment then I am, which it doesn't sound like you are to me.
The reason labs use RO/DI water is so that it is "pure" and has no "reactive" chemicals that could change the out come of the experiment, but in the case of an aquarium that level of "purity" is not required or nessisary, also Nitrates are not presant in 99% of container materials unless they are dirty. Nitrates being organic biproducts though there are inorganic Nitrate compounds such as NaNO3 (Sodium Nitrate), but these tend not to be found regularily.
I'm going to describe the process that DI deals with, since clearly there are people out there that dont know so will benifit from it.
-When a soluable Ionic material enters water it is pulled apart, so in the case of basic table salt NaCl (sodium cloride) the salt breaks into Na and Cl and they carry a charge as a result, that being Na+ and Cl- because the Cl pulls an electron off the Na atom.
-This extra electron causes the Cl becoming negatively charged because it has one to many electrons, and the Na becomes positively charged because it has one less electron resulting shifting its "stable" from to a more reactive positive charge.
-These charged particels when placed into a DI unit, are chemo-electricly attracted to certain compounds in th DI unit because of their charge (similar in principal to magnetic poles) causing them to bind with the DI resins and therefore removing them from the water.
-Ionic chemicals of interest to the salt aquarium hobby (to name a few) would be calcium carbonate CaCO3 (Ca2+ Co3-), magnesium chloride MgCl2 (Mg2+ 2Cl-), Potassium Chloride KCl (K+ Cl-), Sodium Chloride NaCl (Na+ Cl-).
So yes I am speaking of protons and electrons... probably because they are the only thing involved in a DI reactor. If you like I could go further in depth, but I think you will find this sufficent, also any more indepth and it becomes irrelevant to the hobby.
