Nitrate (NO3) is a compound that contains nitrogen and oxygen and is known as a salt. Nitrogen is released by decomposing material such as plants, human and animal wastes.
Nitrates are essential for plant growth as they facilitate the production of amino acids and proteins. Nitrate is highly water soluble and excess nitrate, not used by plants, can leach through soil into groundwater.
The Nitrate sensor is an Ion Selective Electrode (ISE). It measures charged nitrate ions found in the water.
Our Nitrate sensors can be fitted on many of our probes, below are some examples.
To see all of the probes that feature nitrate please visit the Products section
The Aquasonde-2000 has 2 spare ports. They can house either 1x ISE sensor and 1x Optical sensor. Or it can house 2x ISE sensor.
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This is a solid state sensor in that it is not gel filled, the advantage of this kind of sensor over those offered by other manufacturers is that the sensor will not deteriorate over time so long as its dry. A new dry sensor can be stored for years without degradation. Gel filled sensors are different and have a finite life from the point of manufacture.
Successful calibration of an ISE is fairly complex. On its initial use, a three-point calibration is required. Generally, this is at 10ppm and 100ppm of the sensor’s specific calibration solution, with the third point intended to characterise the effect of temperature on that specific sensor. The third point is a second calibration at 10ppm however, this calibration point must be at least 10 degrees colder than the initial point. This is because the measured concentration varies with temperature as well as the actual concentration of the ion.
The good news is that once this calibration is complete, subsequent calibrations do not require the third point to be re-done making future calibrations much simpler to perform.
An ideal ISE sensor would only allow the ion in question to be passed through the membrane. However, in practise all ion selective electrodes suffer from interference from ions which are similar in nature to the target ion. For this reason, ISE Electrodes are not recommended for use in brackish or salt water due to the high level of interfering ions.
Installing the nitrate sensor into an Aquaprobe is a very simple process. Simply unscrew the blanking plug from an appropriate aux socket, apply some silicon grease to the thread of the sensor (grease provided) and screw in the sensor. After installation full calibration is required.
