in run-off water can however lead to heavy overgrowth
of algae and higher plants, thus starving the
water of dissolved oxygen, killing fish and other
aquatic life and spoiling lakes and dams for recreation.
The two most commonly used colorimetric
methods available for phosphate determination are
either the yellow-coloured vanadomolybdate for
relatively high phosphate concentrations or the
molybdenum blue procedure for relatively low
phosphate concentrations [2]. The latter method
makes use of phosphomolybdenum blue complexes
which rely on the initial formation of heteropolymolybdic
acids prior to reduction to the blue complex.