Author: Lou Bloomfield

Our problem concerns temperature. At different temperatures, solubility of compounds varies. If we extract water from a pond at two degrees Celsius and then test it at room temperature, our reading isn’t going to be accurate. On the other hand, it isn’t practical for us to perform out tests outside. The substances we are testing are nitrites, nitrates, ammonia, pH, hardness, oxygen level, phosphates, temperature, and ORP. — J&E, Missouri

If you collect pond water at 2° C and then bring it into a room at 20° C, there will be a few subtle changes in the water’s contents. While the amounts of various dissolved materials can’t change unless atoms move in or out of the water, how they interact with one does change somewhat with temperature. I would be very surprised if anything that’s dissolved in that pond water comes out of solution when you warm it to room temperature, so if all you want to do is to determine the concentrations of various dissolved materials, go ahead and do it at room temperature. You might have to be careful with dissolved gases, because it’s relatively easy for gas molecules to enter or leave the pond water without your noticing that it’s happening, but the nitrites, nitrates, hardness, and phosphates aren’t going anywhere. Ammonia can leave as a gas, so you should be a little careful with it. I don’t know enough about ORP (oxidization reduction potential) to say anything about it. But you’ll have to be very careful with oxygen concentration because you can modify this just by pouring the water through air and making bubbles.

However, to be sure that the contents of the pond water are interacting with one another just as they were in the pond, you should cool the water back down to 2° C before making any measurements. This is particularly important for pH measurements, since water’s pH decreases slightly with increasing temperature.

How do you make an energy converter to convert water into energy? — SB

I’m afraid that there is no simple way to convert water into energy. People have been trying to use fusion to extract the nuclear energy stored in the hydrogen nuclei in water. But while billions of dollars have been spent on research, there is no viable scheme for this process for controlled fusion in sight. The stars are powered by hydrogen fusion, but people on the earth aren’t likely to be using it as a source for peaceful energy any time soon.

What is pH and why is it so important to my garden pond and spa? — NW, California

pH is a measure of the concentration of dissolved hydrogen ions in water. When a hydrogen atom loses an electron and becomes a hydrogen ion—a proton—it can dissolve nicely in water. Actually, this proton sticks itself to the oxygen atom of a water molecule, producing a hydronium ion (H₃O⁺) that is then carried around by shells of water molecules. The higher the concentration of hydrogen (or hydronium) ions in water, the lower the water’s pH. More specifically, pH is negative the log (base 10) of the molar hydrogen ion concentration. That means that water with a pH of 6 has ten times as many hydrogen ions per liter as water with a pH of 7.

Pure water naturally contains some hydrogen ions, formed by water molecules that have spontaneously dissociated into hydrogen ions (H⁺) and hydroxide ions (OH^–). Pure water has enough of these hydrogen ions in it to give it a pH of 7. But if you dissolve acidic materials in the water, materials that tend to produce hydrogen ions, the pH of the water will drop. If you dissolve basic materials in the water, materials that tend to bind with hydrogen ions and reduce their concentration, the pH of the water will rise. Water with too many or too few hydrogen ions tends to be chemically aggressive and we do best in water that has a pH near 7.