If silver nitrate is added to an aqueous solution (such as tap water) that contains both chloride ions and phosphate ions, which precipitate is more likely to form: silver chloride, silver phosphate or both should form? And how do you know?
This is NOT a homework question. I'm 32 and learning chemistry on my own as a hobby and doing experiments using a Chemistry Kit for kids. The reason I'm asking the question is because I did the experiment on the tap water at home and I didn't get any silver phosphate precipitate, but I did get a milky white appearance which I'm assuming is silver chloride (or another halide). I'm wondering if I got no silver phosphate precipitates because all the silver ions were "used up" by the chloride ions or simply because the concentration of phosphate ions is either zero or too small.
I tried to figure out if silver chloride formation takes precedence (so to speak) over forming silver phosphates using enthalpies of formation, but I got lost with that a bit.