Finding the PERFECT Nitrate and Phosphate Kit

[June]

My project is to measure how much nitrate and phosphate a plant is able to remove (phytoremediate) from a nutrient-enriched aquatic solution.
I have researched some kits to use, but they turned out to be overly expensive.
I have asked some professors about which kit to use, and they responded to me with different answers, but I did not know which one fit my project the most. I am looking for a nitrate and phosphate kit which measures in ppm, and is not overly expensive. Rather, as long as the equipment is PERFECT for my experiment, I will buy it, but I am looking for a detector which would give me an appropriate results for my experiments without being too costly.

These were the some recommendations:

1) Phosphate-
http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem. ... ct=HG17840

Nitrate-
http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem. ... ct=HG17845

2) http://www.benmeadows.com/search/nitrogen/21561/
http://www.chemetrics.com/catalogpdfs/Nitrate.pdf

3)LaMotte Phosphate Test Kit, Model VM-12 Code 4408, measuring 10ppm-100ppm
and
LaMotte Nitrate Test Kit, Model NCK Code 3110, which measures 0.4ppm-0.8ppm


1) Easily affordable
2) affordable
3) Expensive, but will get it if it works best with my project

OHHH!
also, i really do not know what range of ppm I should be working with. I have done some research, and looked at previous projects which removed nitrates and phosphates from a nutrient -enriched solution. All projects dealt with different range of ppms, and I am really confused with which ppm I should be dealing with.

*sigh

If there are any other suggestions for which kits I should use, or anything at all, please let me know.

Thank you!

[deleted-71447]

Those all seem like decent options for test kits. Can you visit an aquarium store and talk to them about the cheap Hagen test kits to see if those will suit your needs? They might be able to show you how they work and show you the instructions and specifications that come with the kit. Maybe even let you do a trial run. You will probably need to work with the kits a little before you know for sure whether they will work for your project.

One thing to keep in mind is that nitrate concentrations can be reported as milligrams of NO3 (nitrate) per liter or milligrams of N (nitrogen bound in nitrate) per liter. There is a big difference, of course: 62 mg-NO3/L = 14 mg-N/L. (The molecular weight of NO3 is 62, as compared to 14 for N). Unfortunately, it is not always clear which units are being used.

Here are some ballpark figures that might serve as useful guidelines for concentrations to use in your experiment: The EPA maximum contaminant level (MCL) for nitrate is 10 mg-N/L. In agricultural soils, nitrate concentrations of 20 - 40 mg-N/L (89 mg-NO3/L) are common. In the contaminated surface waters (like the Iowa River), nitrate concentrations might range from 5 - 25 mg-N/L. Total phosphorus concentrations in the same river might range from 0.05 to 0.5 mg/L.