Sciencemadness Discussion Board - Water purity tests

Water purity tests

i.k88s.f.u - 6-6-2006 at 05:07

Hi

I want to test river water for purity, i want to check if there are any heavy metals,nitrates,nitrites,halogens and bacteria in the water...
What are the indicators for them? i know High conc NH3(aq) can be used to check the presense of heavy metals since i forming a complex with them and i know PH test can indicate high presence of halogens.
Also hydrazin can be used to check oxygen conc in the water but hydrazin and azids are not available here.

Any other tests i can perform to check the water purity? i prefer chemical tests.

Sorry if it belongs to the chemistry section,i wasnt sure where to post it.

neutrino - 6-6-2006 at 06:04

Commercial test kits for this are readily available. I think it would be far cheaper and easier to just buy one of those rather than trying to find and purify all of the obscure chemicals you're sure to need.

i.k88s.f.u - 6-6-2006 at 14:27

I know commercial test kits are available but they cost almost 100 US$, and they are really hard to get here...

Any idea what indicators i can use to check the water purity?

guy - 6-6-2006 at 14:51

Aquarium test kits are good for testing those things. And they don't cost nearly as much.

http://www.northcoastmarines.com/tstkts.htm

ranamacar - 19-6-2006 at 08:14

Quote:

Originally posted by i.k88s.f.u
Hi

I want to test river water for purity, i want to check if there are any heavy metals,nitrates,nitrites,halogens and bacteria in the water...

Working in the water industry, I know what tests you need to run, but they are (mostly) prepackaged kits we buy from Hach. I'll do some checking and see if any of the manuals give reagent names and quantities- they usually require a basic spectrophotometer to read the results. The "bible" in the water industry is "Standard Methods for Testing Water and Wastewater", a large book with US EPA approved testing procedures for various components of water quality. Try a search on eBay or Amazon for "Standard Methods" and see what you come up with.
The hardest for amateurs would be the tests for biology. There are so many different kinds of biology found in natural waters that we have specialists just to identify them, and the training and tools are horribly expensive.

ranamacar

JohnWW - 21-6-2006 at 14:48

"Standard Methods for Testing Water and Wastewater" - I think the current edition is the 20th, published by the AWWA and APHA. I have been looking for it for some time - can anyone upload it, please?

lordmagnus - 21-6-2006 at 20:02

Might start with a digital ph meter (HANNA makes a nice easy to use one good to .01 ph range of .5 to 17), I am getting a TDS meter from e-bay soon, I have many needs, especially the quality of the R.O. water I use in a few projects, and for the aquarium.

YT2095 - 22-6-2006 at 00:58

the addition of barium Chloride will indicate any Sulphate ions present.
you could also use a little silver nitrate to test for dissolved halogens.

chimanalyt - 22-6-2006 at 01:57

See also:
www.sensafe.com/articles.php

ranamacar - 27-6-2006 at 18:20

Quote:

Originally posted by JohnWW
"Standard Methods for Testing Water and Wastewater" - I think the current edition is the 20th, published by the AWWA and APHA. I have been looking for it for some time - can anyone upload it, please?

We have one copy in our lab, it is the 20th edition (I believe there is a newer version out now) and it is about the size of the CRC Handbook. That would be one hell of a scanning job! They sell for over $200 apiece, and sometimes show up on eBay and Amazon.

ranamacar

leu - 27-6-2006 at 18:57

The EPA lists various tests at:

http://www.epa.gov/safewater/methods/compmon.html

Standard Methods for Examination of Water & Wastewater

JohnWW - 29-6-2006 at 01:08

Quote:

Originally posted by ranamacar

Quote:

There is an electronic edition of Standard Methods for Examination of Water & Wastewater on CD, apparently, and someone has just uploaded it to rapidshare.de in 2 parts, with the link given in the "new books" thread:
http://rapidshare.de/files/3993326/SMWW-.zip.html
http://rapidshare.de/files/3994038/SMWW-.c00.html

lambis_2 - 3-4-2007 at 21:37

please can anyone sent me a link for standard methods for the examination of water & wastewater.... or... Official methods of analysis AOAC

not_important - 3-4-2007 at 23:39

Quote:

Originally posted by lambis_2
please can anyone sent me a link for standard methods for the examination of water & wastewater.... or... Official methods of analysis AOAC

http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/dwq/gdwq3/en/

http://water.usgs.gov/nawqa/protocols.html
http://nwql.usgs.gov/Public/pubs/OFR99-093.pdf
http://nwql.usgs.gov/Public/pubs/OFR99-464.pdf
http://pubster.cr.usgs.gov/Public/pubs/WRIR03-4139/WRIR03-41...
http://pubster.cr.usgs.gov/Public/pubs/OFR91_519.pdf

and on and on

[Edited on 4-4-2007 by not_important]

thanks a lot...

lambis_2 - 4-4-2007 at 05:23

Quote:

Originally posted by ranamacar

Quote:

standard methods

chemrox - 4-4-2007 at 07:48

You will find that the tests in "Standard Methods" require equipment you can't afford. On he other hand you can get a pH/conductivity meter for around $100. A DO would cost you about $400. These two could tell you a lot. Read up on indicator macro-invertebrates like Caddis-fly species. "March Brown" mayflies don't like polluted systems... a lot can be learned with a small sein net and a hand lens.

JohnWW - 4-4-2007 at 13:22

Those rapidshare.de links give "file not found", which means they must have expired a long time ago! Please re-upload to rapidshare.com )not .de) ASAP.

Quote:

Originally posted by JohnWW

Quote:

Originally posted by ranamacar

Quote:

chemrox - 4-4-2007 at 18:07

Thanks for posting SWS, Standard Methods... its a key reference for environmental chemistry and aquatic chemistry. A one year subscription is about $300. So it's really nice to have a copy posted here!

If anyone is really interested and creative in this area it's possible to participate through the organization that now holds the copyrights:

http://www.standardmethods.org/JoinSMCommittee/

Rick Haefle at Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, Water Quality Section, Portland OR, can direct you to the literature on macroinvertebrates and water quality. It's best to write him via snail mail and you can get the address from:

http://www.oregon.gov/DEQ/WQ/

[Edited on 4-4-2007 by chemrox]

[Edited on 4-4-2007 by chemrox]

dedalus - 13-4-2007 at 13:16

With just chemicals, and the naked eye, you can test pretty effectively for Pb, Cr, pH, and bacteria.

Check out Standard Methods - dithizone method for Pb, 1, 5 diphenylcarbohydrazide method for Cr, multiple tube fermentation for coliforms. Indicator method for pH.

O' course, it's lots easier if you have an ICP. I've got one running behind me, sadly, it's running like crap today.

dedalus - 13-4-2007 at 13:24

Quote:

Originally posted by chemrox
On he other hand you can get a pH/conductivity meter for around $100. A DO would cost you about $400.

Hanna makes a pretty good little meter called the "Checkr" for about 40 bucks. DO you can do pretty accurately by Winkler titration.

"Indicator" organisms are a real good inditia of water quality, tis true.

lambis_2 - 20-4-2007 at 02:59

Quote:

Originally posted by chemrox
Thanks for posting SWS, Standard Methods... its a key reference for environmental chemistry and aquatic chemistry. A one year subscription is about $300. So it's really nice to have a copy posted here!

If anyone is really interested and creative in this area it's possible to participate through the organization that now holds the copyrights:

http://www.standardmethods.org/JoinSMCommittee/

Rick Haefle at Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, Water Quality Section, Portland OR, can direct you to the literature on macroinvertebrates and water quality. It's best to write him via snail mail and you can get the address from:

http://www.oregon.gov/DEQ/WQ/

[Edited on 4-4-2007 by chemrox]

[Edited on 4-4-2007 by chemrox]

Pleaseeeeee .... upload again that links....