Does a little rust really hurt your reef that much & do you worry about it?

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Ok let me preface this by saying that I'm pretty clueless when it comes to the chemistry of what happens when you have rust in you reef tank. I know that certain "metals" in your tank are not harmful but rust is from the corrosion of metal and that can be harmful.

That being said I wanted to hear from you your thoughts and experiences with it. For example, how many of you have lost a tank due to rust or was that the real issue? How many of you have found rust in your tank yet your corals and reef is thriving? I don't know all the answers but I thought we could talk and think about it today. So here is the main question.

Do you worry about rust in your reef tank and if so how much does it take to get you concerned?

 

[Gw2kpro]

GFO is essentially rust.

 

[ZoWhat]

Time out....

Isn't GFO engineered rust particles?

Iron(III) oxide - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[siggy]

GFO is essentially rust.

I believe it's the other 10% in steel production that may be the problem

• Steel (carbon)
• Stainless steel (chromium, nickel)
• AL-6XN
• Alloy 20
• Celestrium
• Marine-grade stainless steel
• Martensitic stainless steel
• Surgical stainless steel (chromium, molybdenum, nickel)
• Silicon steel (silicon)
• Tool steel (tungsten or manganese)
• Bulat steel
• Chromoly (chromium, molybdenum)
• Crucible steel
• Damascus steel
• HSLA steel
• High-speed steel
• Maraging steel
• Reynolds 531
• Wootz steel
• Iron
• Anthracite iron (carbon)
• Cast iron (carbon)
• Pig iron (carbon)
• Wrought iron (carbon)
• Fernico (nickel, cobalt)
• Elinvar (nickel, chromium)
• Invar (nickel)
• Kovar (cobalt)
• Spiegeleisen (manganese, carbon, silicon)
• Ferroalloys
• Ferroboron
• Ferrochrome (chromium)
• Ferromagnesium
• Ferromanganese
• Ferromolybdenum
• Ferronickel
• Ferrophosphorus
• Ferrotitanium
• Ferrovanadium
• Ferrosilicon

 

[shred5]

GFO is essentially rust.

While it is rust it is pure and has no contaminates like steel does.
Most equipment that have metal parts are not made with iron they are made with steel or some other metal.
Iron is a component of steel but steel has other things in it.

 

[SeaJay]

All I know is if you dump some steel in the ocean, fish will take up residence in it immediately and a reef will begin growing on it.

 

[LegendaryCG]

I Imagine your tank size dramatically effects this.

 

[knowen87]

I was loosing corals with good healthy levels of calc, alk, phos, salinity. I lost 20 heads of my most expensive zoas and hammers were really struggleing. Even my calc and Alk consumption were going down. Then I found the cause, A rusty magnet on my frag rack and on one of my powerheads. Things have started to get better but several of my zoas have lost color and the hammers are still not back to normal. Yes I worry about rusty magnets in my tank.

 

[shred5]

I Imagine your tank size dramatically effects this.

Not to mention they usually get encrusted with coralline, barnacles, algae, sponges first.

 

[shred5]

I was loosing corals with good healthy levels of calc, alk, phos, salinity. I lost 20 heads of my most expensive zoas and hammers were really struggleing. Even my calc and Alk consumption were going down. Then I found the cause, A rusty magnet on my frag rack and on one of my powerheads. Things have started to get better but several of my zoas have lost color and the hammers are still not back to normal. Yes I worry about rusty magnets in my tank.

Yea I had a cheap Chinese pump that was was nor sealed right with epoxy and it rusted and caused allot of issues till I found it. Thankfully I run polyfilters all the time and they can trap heavy metals.

 

[Paul B]

No, a little rust will not harm a reef and is probably good for it.

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

I think it depends on WHAT is rusting. Some items that rust don't contaminate your reef, but since oxidation is a chemical reaction, there are some items (i.e. magnets, etc.) that when they rust can release heavy metals that can cause a tank crash (I've seen it happen).

 

[ca1ore]

I think this requires a bit of common sense. Back when I had my glass 265, I would occasionally drop a single-edge razor behind the rocks. Often I could see but not reach it. I did not worry about that amount of steel rusting in a tank that big, though I do run polyfilters 24/7. In a much smaller tank, or with a much lager piece of steel/metal, I would try to remove it.

 

[BigAl07]

Just like @knowen87 mentioned above I had a seemingly awesome tank that started "struggling" for no apparent reason. Come to find out we had 2 frag racks that had magnets that were decomposing (for lack of a better word) in the tank. This was a 37g cube mixed reef. Even after we removed the offending magnets (the rack manufacturer replaced both racks etc) the tank never seemed to fully recover and ultimately we took the tank down and parted out the remaining corals.

Ironically my SPS didn't seem to suffer as much as my "easy" corals. Frogspawn and Hammer just didn't ever recover to any great degree.

For transparency, the offending magnets weren't coated but encapsulated in plastic discs that were glued shut. Apparently the seal failed and allowed tank water inside. Once the magnets started "decomposing" they swelled and released who knows what into the tank water. This was several years ago so I can't recall thee manufacturer but if it comes to me I'll update this post then.

 

[Softhammer]

I have had slightly rusty hose clamps in my tanks for close to 2 decades. If it causes problems I sure can’t tell. However I do use expensive marine grade Sandvik clamps. Chinese junk...anybody’s guess, probably will kill stuff.

 

[bsr2430]

I had a VorTech head pop(wet side must’ve heated up and it expanded the motor until it was showing the motor) on me and started to rust, never hurt anything but I did catch it fairly early...

By the way, Ecotech fixed this!

 

[Daniel Waters]

If "rust" is really meant as a general reference to heavy metals such as tin, aluminum, and such, then I will provide my experiences with a couple of these. In regards to aluminum, I have used marine pure blocks for multiple years, and i have ran Triton tests once or twice a year for at least 3 years. Aluminum levels stay around the 45 ppm level and I've never seen any negative impact on fish or corals.

I did have a tin value show up at 2 ppm on my last triton test. First time ever. I believe this was a result of a small bit of a razor blade that broke off and fell into the tank. I retrieved a large piece and thought I had gotten it all. Went hunting in the sand bed with a magnet after the Triton test and pulled a very small piece....probably been in there for months. The small tin value has not seemed to impact any livestock or corals, but I am not comfortable with levels being above 0 for this element, as that would be indicative of something leaching from somewhere in the tank.

 

[pigmo]

definitely, amazed this is even being asked. would you like a little lead with your lunch?

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Iron oxide I love, plenty of rust in my tank. SS hose clamps galore, my PO4 low, don't test any more. My corals sensitive to many things and yet no issues.

Have frags attaching to almost everything.

 

[Bruce Burnett]

Rust the red or orange red iron rust will not hurt your tank. Gfo= iron rust. Some alloys maybe. Even aluminum is bad if high enough yet people are using ceramic blocks with aluminum in them. I can say never had a problem with rusting hose clamps or pump magnets.