salifert nitrate test kit??test what???

[prow]

high everyone. i just bought a new nitrate test kit. i have been using advanced aquarium system kit. LFS was out of them so i bought the salifert kit. only issuse is does this kit measure nitrate ions or nitrate-nitrogen consentrations?? anyone know. thanks in advance.

[Ninong]

The numbers on the Salifert colorimetric chart represent total NO3-. If you want nitrate-nitrogen numbers, just divide the results you get using the Salifert chart by 4.4.

Here is the definition of nitrate-nitrogen that I found in the back of Delbeek & Sprung's TRA-1: "A scale measurement for measuring nitrate in mg/L of nitrogen derived from nitrate in the water. To obtain nitrate ion concentration multiply by 4.4."

[prow]

nice thanks. i did not know what it was measuring the NO3-N or the NO3. for those of you that dont know what we are talking about this is the break down.
with the NO3-N you are only measuring the weight of the N. in the NO3 you are measuring the weight of the N and 3O

1 mol of N = 14
1 mol of O = 16 and there are 3 O
so, it is 14 vs 62 (14+16+16+16)
62 /14 = 4.4 so,
1 ppm NO3-N = 4.4 ppm NO3

F.Y.I. most test kit measure the NO3-N.