Help on homework asignment!!

cartman101

Active Member
Okay, for chemistry i'm doing a research paper on "aquarium Science" and i need some help on todays homework. I'm suppose to write a outline on the topics in the research paper. What topics should i do it on?? (ex. occurance,history,ect.) Thanks in advance
 

cartman101

Active Member
Originally Posted by CELACANTHr
hmmm...obsessed much? JK LOL
Ummm... you could do it on the nitratification process, maybe?
Just a little
Nitrifcation proccess??? hmm i will ask the teacher if i can do that
 

ophiura

Active Member
I guess you could do:
Basic intro/history to aquarium keeping
The importance of water quality
Testing of water - general (test kits through computer monitoring)
Major specific water parameters - importance on animals, how tested and controlled (such as you listed); and/or following biology through chemistry: nitrification, denitrification
Conclusions/Summary
You can throw other things in like how we use synthetic seawater and compare that to natural seawater, etc, etc as an intro.
 

cartman101

Active Member
Originally Posted by ophiura
I guess you could do:
Basic intro/history to aquarium keeping
The importance of water quality
Testing of water - general (test kits through computer monitoring)
Major specific water parameters - importance on animals, how tested and controlled (such as you listed); and/or following biology through chemistry: nitrification, denitrification
Conclusions/Summary
You can throw other things in like how we use synthetic seawater and compare that to natural seawater, etc, etc as an intro.
remember its on chemistry not aquarium keeping
 

beth

Administrator
Staff member
You have a lot of water chem there, how about biology and a section on the natural filters...which I think is fascinating. LR, LS, refrugiums, even protein skimmers simulating ocean foam making.
 
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altinure

Guest
you should do research on determining alkilinity of water using a pH vs HCl titration curve obtained experimentally. you'd find the inflection point on the titration curve by taking the second derivative of the function of your titration curve, set it equal to zero and solve for x within your parameters. use it to calculate the concentration of your bases in the solution and continue on from there. you could even go as far as to calculate the concentrations of each individual base in the water, and then calculte the Kb. this is more analytical chemistry though, and is probably too advanced for high school, i guess (assuming this is high school you're doing this for).
water chemistry is really fun for people into fish tanks.
sorry, i'm a chemistry major. i like chemistry too much. :(
 

ophiura

Active Member
Originally Posted by Cartman101
remember its on chemistry not aquarium keeping

You said initially you were doing a paper on "Aquarium science" for chemistry and wanted topics. Well, aquarium science includes several fields of science, and most of them, ultimately, are tied into chemistry.
Its what you make of it...the papers can still have introductions and biology tie ins, but focus primarily on the chemistry behind it. IMO, being able to demonstrate WHY chemistry is the root or integral to so many other sciences is a good thing, and should be welcome. But if you just want CHEMISTRY then, I don't know, write something about the Diels Alder bridged ring synthesis reaction in organic chemistry or what altinure has suggested
Only you know what the actual assignment is asking.
But in order to come up with a paper that has a focus, it is important to talk about an intro to aquariums, why we test water, etc, etc and then go into specific parameters.
 
J

jdragunas

Guest
you could talk about how the different "chemicals" in the water affect the fish. Nitrates, nitrites, ph, etc... and why.
 
J

jdragunas

Guest
oooohh, you can also explain how the tests work... when you add so many drops of reagent "a" and so many of reagent "b", and there's 20ppm of nitrates, why it shows up purple in the test tube... that'd be interesting, and a LOT of research!!! lol
 
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altinure

Guest
Originally Posted by jdragunas
oooohh, you can also explain how the tests work... when you add so many drops of reagent "a" and so many of reagent "b", and there's 20ppm of nitrates, why it shows up purple in the test tube... that'd be interesting, and a LOT of research!!! lol
actually, i doubt it'd be that much research. i'm assuming the reagents react with nitrate to produce a product that has a certain color. since nitrate is the limiting reagent, the intensity of the color varies with the amount of nitrate in the sample. the people who set up the kits most likely measure absorbancy at the wavelength of purple light, and they use an equation that converts absorbancy at that wavelenght to ppm of nitrate.
it's a pretty simple general chemistry lab.
 
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jdragunas

Guest
Ok, mr. Smarty-pants!!! It'd be a lot of research for me... chemically retarded. lol
"general chemistry"... what are you, some sort of chemistry expert???
 

devildog01

Member
Originally Posted by jdragunas
Ok, mr. Smarty-pants!!! It'd be a lot of research for me... chemically retarded. lol
"general chemistry"... what are you, some sort of chemistry expert???
chemically retarted... :hilarious
 
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altinure

Guest
Originally Posted by jdragunas
Ok, mr. Smarty-pants!!! It'd be a lot of research for me... chemically retarded. lol
"general chemistry"... what are you, some sort of chemistry expert???
no, lol, i meant like a "general chemistry" course in college. they're the two intro courses in chemistry in college. you usually do a lab like this is general chemistry II.
 

ophiura

Active Member
Originally Posted by altinure
no, lol, i meant like a "general chemistry" course in college. they're the two intro courses in chemistry in college. you usually do a lab like this is general chemistry II.

LOL...and to differentiate from nasties like Organic Chemistry, Inorganic Chemisty and Analytical Chemistry....etc, etc, etc. I crawled out of Organic Chemistry and that was it
 
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