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

[Mjrdude1]

Yes, you are right. At the time I had these clamps degrading, I was on a hiatus of proper tank management per say. lol
Basically I neglected to do any water changes for well over 2 years! Maybe I got lucky, cause while it was happening I had an outbreak of GHA that my fish could hide in. Maybe the algae soaked up the rust, no idea. All the livestock did just fine.
So, I'm standing by my previous remark, it depends on lots of factors.

 

[jurgenph]

I got tired of people saying they dropped a screw in their tank and it crashed. So I did an experiment and hung this cheap pliers in my reef for a couple of weeks.
Nothing happened. The fish continued to spawn and the corals continued to grow. I only took it out because my copperband got bored of looking at it.

didn't you use to have a hammer in there too?

J.

 

[Aframereef]

I once had a large chunk of rust fall on my blastomussa wellsi and was eaten. Did not bother it one bit, big and open everyday.

 

[Joekovar]

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.

Especially the neodymium magnets. Those are extremely susceptible to rust, will disintegrate, and lose their magnetism rapidly. This makes me especially nervous with things like float switches.

I guess I'm less concerned with rust in the tank, than figuring out what's rusting and getting ready to fail.

 

[Hemmdog]

I broke a glass thermometer in my 90 a few weeks after I set it up. No major issues with that tank. I find rust bits about twice the size of special grade sand a few days a week and remove them when I see them. I must have removed hundreds, I can’t imagine there being that many more left.

 

[Scrubber_steve]

I was told that the actual reason you put those pliers into your tank, Paul, was to keep your Spanner crab company

tish boom

 

[WallyB]

Very interesting Topic that is of SPECIAL interest to me RIGHT NOW.

Last few 4 months my SPS ONLY Tank (full of Frags) can't keep a Frag alive for long. Some are ok the Larger Older ones.
New Frags introduced don't die instantly. Look great for a couple of weeks then get worse, and worse.
Seems that 6 weeks is the End of Life point for new Small Frags.

I haven't seen any pests (But will be checking for redbugs, AEFW, etc more closely),

All my Key Water Parameters are Super Stable (alk,mag,calc,No3,Po4).

I have two Heavy Metal (absorption) Resin product in system to absorb anything possibly leaching. That hasn't helped.

I just SEND in an Water Sample for ICP testing, to see if something is not right...

I'm wondering if I have any Toxic Metals leaching into the tank from something.

So I assume of all these Possible Source of Negative Elements, will the ICP test pick up ALL the Bad Stuff that could come from Metal Parts, Magnets, etc?

I figure that since ICP is more "Atom ELement" based, it doesn't pick up "Toxic Molecules"...(I'm not a chemist..., so not exactly sure)

 

[hart24601]

Seems like an odd question to me.

Let's say a fellow reefer found a large chunk of rust in their sump. They don't know the source. There are reefers that would tell them to just toss that back in the tank?!? Just sounds absolutely absurd to me.

 

[Paul B]

didn't you use to have a hammer in there too?

J.

A hammer! That would be absurd.

This thread was about "rust". The only metal that will rust is iron. Iron is actually good for a reef up to a point. I may not put a right front fender from a 1957 Oldsmobile in my reef, but only because I need it on my 1957 Oldsmobile.

But If I had a spare one, I may put it in my tank.
Those of us that SCUBA dive know that the nicest looking, biggest corals grow on iron ship wrecks.

 

[JAMSOURY]

My corals weren’t growing for 3 months. I kept wondering why till I did a icp test. Found metals in my tank through the test. So I checked everywhere and found a rusted plug that was hiding in the sump. Although I didn’t lose coral, nothing was growing. Removed it and ran triton detox as well as 20% weekly water changes. A few weeks later and I can see my sps growing daily.

 

[Scrubber_steve]

My corals weren’t growing for 3 months. I kept wondering why till I did a icp test. Found metals in my tank through the test. So I checked everywhere and found a rusted plug that was hiding in the sump. Although I didn’t lose coral, nothing was growing. Removed it and ran triton detox as well as 20% weekly water changes. A few weeks later and I can see my sps growing daily.

Any sign of nuisance algae/cyano during that 3 month period?

 

[JAMSOURY]

Any sign of nuisance algae/cyano during that 3 month period?

None at all. Tank seemed perfect, just no growth at all. Sps dominant.

 

[Scrubber_steve]

None at all. Tank seemed perfect, just no growth at all. Sps dominant.

Are you running a macro fudge?

 

[Scrubber_steve]

Are you running a macro fudge?

Fuge.... darn auto correct

 

[JAMSOURY]

Just had chaeto in the fuge

Are you running a macro fudge?

 

[Retro Reefer]

Obviously it’s going to depend on what’s rusting but I can say with 100% certainty that some rusting magnets can crash a tank..

I had a thriving 3 year old mixed nano tank that started going down hill fast, My Mont’s died, my Zoa’s melted, all my LPS started receding I did everything I could think of trying to save my tank including multiple searches over a couple weeks for anything that was rusting.

I finally found the culprit (rusting magnet) it was pulled followed by a large water change and I also added poly filters. within a couple day’s I saw a dramatic improvement in the tank and that continued until things where basically back to normal.

Not sure what was in that magnet but it was definitely a tank killer.

 

[Bruce Burnett]

Maybe it all has to do with water volume. I don't know. I have had hose clamps rust until I had to cut them off to replace. I have had magnets rust and crumble. Last system went 6 years no water change and icp test came back with potassium high which was from over dosing. Everything else was in normal range or below their testing. Almost every time I had a problem I could tie it to something I did or did not do.

 

[OGFrenchHorn]

I used to not worry until I lost a screw in my sump and over 9 month lost most of my sps. Yes GFO is rust but it's pure. When you have metals that rust in your tank, they can release impurities that can wipe it out. Not all metals are created equal and not all magnets are created equal.

 

[MnFish1]

A hammer! That would be absurd.

This thread was about "rust". The only metal that will rust is iron. Iron is actually good for a reef up to a point. I may not put a right front fender from a 1957 Oldsmobile in my reef, but only because I need it on my 1957 Oldsmobile.

But If I had a spare one, I may put it in my tank.
Those of us that SCUBA dive know that the nicest looking, biggest corals grow on iron ship wrecks.

Rust is a type of corrosion/oxidaton of iron - specifically. That said - many people call the bluish corrosion of copper 'a type of rusting' - and for other metals. But - Rust itself (from iron) - you're absolutely correct - shouldn't be a problem)

 

[MnFish1]

Rust is when metal is exposed to air and combines to make an oxide compound.

• Iron. Iron will rust very quickly. ...
• Aluminum. Aluminum is also mined out of the ground as an oxidized compound called Bauxite. ...
• Copper. Copper rusts from its metallic natural brown shade to a bright green.