Rust killing shrimp!???

[Adam113]

Here is the original thread. Long story short, shrimp were dying and I could NOT find the culprit.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/shrimp-dying.297948/

I think I have just realized a very stupid and beginner mistake I have made... This never crossed my mind.

So, I had been using a metal turkey baster to blow off my rock and stir up my sand every now and then in my 29g (where I kept losing shrimp) until I got my diamond Goby which keeps my sand nice and turned. I just went to clean it, assuming it was stainless steel or something and couldn't rust, and there was rust inside... Could this be the elusive killer of my shrimp!?!? It would make sense that ONLY shrimp were dying.

What really made this click in my head was the fact that I JUST used the baster to replenish water that I had lost while acclimating a new fish in my 10g, And I just found my peppermint shrimp dead about 8 hours later.

I feel so stupid and guilty. Are my two hermits in danger? Is my new Rainford Goby in danger? He's just been chilling next to one of the live rocks since I put him in, but I assumed that was just new tank shyness.

Help!

 

[scriptmonkey]

So let me preface that I am not a chemistry wizard like Randy Holmes-Farley. But rust is iron oxide and there are people that keep shrimp running GFO (Iron Oxide Hydroxide). What i am not sure is what the difference the ionic state of the two will do that makes one safe and the other possibly not safe. @Randy Holmes-Farley, can you help us out?

I know it is not an answer but at the very least it might call the right folks and bump your thread.

 

[Adam113]

Anybody else?? I'm taking the Goby back today after work anyways as I read they need a very established tank to feed off of. Hopefully he's in no danger until then. Hermits are still all over the place and doing well.

 

[Adam113]

@Randy Holmes-Farley

A little desperate here, and the circumstances seem way more than coincidental.