mass spectrometer

[Dr. Reef Verified Sponsor]

Hey guys,
there are mas spectrometers being sold on an auction website price ranging from $300 and up.
i was wondering will such cheaper end units be able to do testing on our reef water and give us enough data on elements? or atleast major elements we are interested it,

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

There are some complications with this idea, and I'm not sure what exactly you can learn and what you cannot. One complication for many trace elements is that they are often bound to organics. An ICP (either ICP-AES or ICP-MS) breaks this connection entirely, but simple mass spec won't, and so you wont easily quantify them.