Why is my Tin so high?

CyberGuy · Feb 13, 2021

I just got back my Triton ICP test and it showed really high Tin level.

I have recently within 2 weeks lost a big colony of chalice, a big colony of holy grail yellow torch, a small goni frag. I noticed that it is the LPS that suffered and not sps.

Where does the Tin come from and how do I get rid of it?

Thanks

lapin · Feb 13, 2021

Another Triton ICP "High Tin" Case

I know elevated Tin levels have been discussed many times, but I would like to ask some specific questions pertaining to my situation involving Sn = 18 ug/l. (Set point is 0.1 ug/l) My tank (Red Sea Reefer 170L/40gal) and all equipment was brand new 4 months ago. Over the past 4-8 weeks, 30...

www.reef2reef.com

Dr. Jim · Feb 13, 2021

A level of 13 may not be high enough to worry about, but I can understand your wanting to lower it (especially if you are having problems with corals and can't find a more reasonable explanation for the problems). From my experiences, plastics are the most likely source of tin (when the only metal elevated is tin), especially plastic tubing.
I also found that all of the "metal-binding" products I tried had no effect on removing the tin. IMO, finding and removing the source, followed by water changes, is the only way to get rid of it.

CyberGuy · Feb 13, 2021

Plastic tubings? Well, I do Aquaforest 3 part dosing and Acro Power dosing so I have 4 plastic tubings. 4 of the plastic tubings are fron the Kamoer F4 Pro that has 4 colors. Not sure if these 4 colorful tubings are the main culprit.

Dr. Jim · Feb 13, 2021

CyberGuy said:
Plastic tubings? Well, I do Aquaforest 3 part dosing and Acro Power dosing so I have 4 plastic tubings. 4 of the plastic tubings are fron the Kamoer F4 Pro that has 4 colors. Not sure if these 4 colorful tubings are the main culprit.

I meant pvc tubing that one might use for return pumps.

acro-ed · Feb 13, 2021

Do you have a glass tank? Is it new(ish)? The glass panes are manufactured by floating them on molten tin. Sometimes the panels are assembled into a fish tank tin side in and other times tin side out. You can definitely get a tin reading just from the glass itself.

Dr. Jim · Feb 13, 2021

Plastic tubing was the main culprit in my case but I also found lesser quantities leaching from other plastic items (pvc pipe, skimmers and a kalk reactor) as well as some from kalkwasser. (BRS found several brands of kalk leaching tin but probably negligible).

My tank with the tin problem is only 34 gal. I never had a tin problem with larger tanks.

Also, I have reason to believe Triton tends to report lower tin levels than ATI, fwiw.

CyberGuy · Feb 13, 2021

acro-ed said:
Do you have a glass tank? Is it new(ish)? The glass panes are manufactured by floating them on molten tin. Sometimes the panels are assembled into a fish tank tin side in and other times tin side out. You can definitely get a tin reading just from the glass itself.

Yes, it is a glass tank with Starfire front panel. The tank is one year old.

Here is the tank photo:

For the most part, my tank is still doing OK.

Courtney Aldrich · Feb 14, 2021

Tin is most definitely from rubber tubing (not PVC). Please see this post: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/t...-and-a-very-inert-tubing-that-i-found.793590/. While not all rubber tubing has tin (e.g. Tygon tubing), many lower-grade tubing used in the hobby not designed for saltwater in fact leaches tremendous amounts of tin. Please note that 13 ug/L corresponds to 0.013 ppm, so this is still quite low and I wouldn't stress out.

John08007 · Feb 14, 2021

Interesting sources here, is it possible that a magnet from a non sealed magnet is the cause? I also had some tin in my icp test. Soon after the test I found that the magnet in my apex probe holder was cracked and corroded. I assumed this was the cause 9f the tin.

Dr. Jim · Feb 14, 2021

Courtney Aldrich said:
Tin is most definitely from rubber tubing (not PVC). Please see this post: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/t...-and-a-very-inert-tubing-that-i-found.793590/. While not all rubber tubing has tin (e.g. Tygon tubing), many lower-grade tubing used in the hobby not designed for saltwater in fact leaches tremendous amounts of tin. Please note that 13 ug/L corresponds to 0.013 ppm, so this is still quite low and I wouldn't stress out.

The plastic tubing I tested and wrote about in that thread was common "PVC" tubing one might buy from Lowes/Home Depot/Amazon/etc., (not "rubber" tubing).

If anyone looks for TYGON tubing, be sure to get the #2475. Not all TYGON tubing is appropriate for our usage, as I found out the hard way. (Although the first one I bought leached negligible tin, it produced an unusual slime that I later learned was because of a "stabilizer" used in the product).

What still baffles me is why after 50+ years of using tubing and PVC pipes with aquariums, I had my first tin "problem" this past year. (Of course ICP tests have only been available for 10? years or so.}

I wonder:
a) Perhaps I had the problem because this was my first "small" tank (since my first 30 gal tank in the 60's). However, the O.P. (and many others with elevated tin) do not have a small tank.
b) Perhaps some of us, including myself, have had undiagnosed "coral problems" in the past that were due to tin but didn't know it.
c) Perhaps something has changed with the formulation of PVC tubing/pipes in recent years?
d) Perhaps tin really isn't a problem (although I still believe it can be when one has levels over 15-20 or higher along with coral problems, especially SPS, that can't be attributed to more common causes).

LegendaryCG · Feb 14, 2021

My tin level is higher than that and I’m not having much trouble. I do use a fair amount of tubing so it could be that. I started running some cuprisorb to see if it can pull it out.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 15, 2021

CyberGuy said:
I just got back my Triton ICP test and it showed really high Tin level.

I have recently within 2 weeks lost a big colony of chalice, a big colony of holy grail yellow torch, a small goni frag. I noticed that it is the LPS that suffered and not sps.

Where does the Tin come from and how do I get rid of it?

Thanks

IMO, your tin level is not the most likely cause of problems, but one cannot be certain. Many folks have that or higher levels of tin without issue.

CyberGuy · Feb 15, 2021

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
IMO, your tin level is not the most likely cause of problems, but one cannot be certain. Many folks have that or higher levels of tin without issue.

Actually, everything is doing good now. I may have lost those LPS from Brown Jelly Disease instead of elevated tin level since all my other corals including sps are doing good.