stephen wyard
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can you exsplain how to do fauna icp test.Don't understand
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Randy Holmes-Farley
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This may help. If you have more questions, I’m happy to try to answer them.
The method used is called ICP-AES (or ICP-OES), which stands for Inductively Coupled Plasma-Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (or -Optical Emission Spectroscopy). The liquid sample is sucked into a machine and heated to thousands of degrees, ripping apart all molecules in the sample to individual atoms and ions. As electrons on these ions fall back from excited energy levels to lower energy levels, specific wavelengths of light are emitted, and the machine can look for the wavelengths specific for each ion that the operator wants to detect and quantify: more light of that specific wavelength means more of those ions are present. Comparison of the aquarium sample to standard samples with known concentrations of ions in it allows quantitation of the ions present.
The reason that I am describing the analysis method is that it is important for interpreting the results in that it is essentially a way of counting atoms and ions in the sample. The method cannot determine anything about the nature of those atoms, except what they are. So, for example, a single result is obtained for something like iodine, even though there may be many forms that the iodine takes in the water sample, including iodide (I–), iodate (IO3–), iodine (I2), hypoiodate (IO–), hypoiodous acid (HOI), and many different organic forms, such as methyliodide (CH3I). All of these end up in the plasma as the same thing.
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The method used is called ICP-AES (or ICP-OES), which stands for Inductively Coupled Plasma-Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (or -Optical Emission Spectroscopy). The liquid sample is sucked into a machine and heated to thousands of degrees, ripping apart all molecules in the sample to individual atoms and ions. As electrons on these ions fall back from excited energy levels to lower energy levels, specific wavelengths of light are emitted, and the machine can look for the wavelengths specific for each ion that the operator wants to detect and quantify: more light of that specific wavelength means more of those ions are present. Comparison of the aquarium sample to standard samples with known concentrations of ions in it allows quantitation of the ions present.
The reason that I am describing the analysis method is that it is important for interpreting the results in that it is essentially a way of counting atoms and ions in the sample. The method cannot determine anything about the nature of those atoms, except what they are. So, for example, a single result is obtained for something like iodine, even though there may be many forms that the iodine takes in the water sample, including iodide (I–), iodate (IO3–), iodine (I2), hypoiodate (IO–), hypoiodous acid (HOI), and many different organic forms, such as methyliodide (CH3I). All of these end up in the plasma as the same thing.
