Umol to ppm or mg/L

[ineption]

Hey reefers,

I am struggling to understand how to convert 3.0 μmol l–1 of phosphate to mg/l?

I am reading an article on relationship of phosphate in reef https://jeb.biologists.org/content/214/16/2749.full

Great info but I am really struggling to convert the values to the once I use everyday to better apply

 

[Chuk]

You basically need to do a unit conversion but you first need to know the MW if phosphate. To get that you and add the piece parts. So P+Ox4= 30.97+16x4=94.97g/mol. Once you have that you take your 3 micromol which is 0.000003 mol and convert to g which is .000003 mol/L x94.97 g/mol= 0.000285g/L. Convert that to mg by multiplying by 1000 mg/g and you get 0.285 mg/L.
Hope that helps explain it.