Yet another Triton Test result...

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

FWIW, I had PVC pipe in my system, and no tin detected by Triton, but it had been around a long time.

 

[MnFish1]

http://www.pvc.org/en/p/organotin-stabilisers I have heard of tin leaching from PVC, this pretty well sums it up. perhaps we should rinse pipes better before installation? in my years of professional aquarium installation I NEVER made this a habit

This is interesting - If the PVC were the problem, it shouldn't be an 'ongoing source', ie, after several water changes it should be removed (or a metal absorber) - at least according to this article.

 

[Hans-Werner]

Regarding phosphate I agree with the other writers. 0.1 ppm phosphate is nothing to worry about, just the opposite. ICP always measures total phosphorus. With our Hach laboratory photometer I several times did a digestion with acid and persulfate for total phosphate and got results of 0.08 to 0.1 ppm total phosphate while finding only 0.01 to 0.02 ppm of reactive phosphate which is found without digestion with test kits or photometers (checkers).

 

[andrew james]

I wish I could see elevated tin tanks with build and additive lists to see if there is a pattern. Im not sure it's PVC pipe and more than the glass that's used. Both seem like they'ed stop being a problem after a year.

 

[daelie]

My frag system is completely separate from my main display. My main tank had elevated tin while my frag system had 0.

Acros were rtn/stn in the main display, and moving them to the frag tank almost immediately stopped it and they started recovering.

Similarities between the tanks (things I could rule out):

- Same top-up water
- Same additives (Triton "Other Methods")
- Same rigid pvc source
- Both tanks around 2 years old
- Both tanks use siporax biomedia

It could have potentially been the glass, but tin had gone up between triton tests and I had been doing water changes.

I checked all the pumps and I already used plastic hose clamps. Doing a good clean of my lights one day, I noticed the feet that held the lights on the tank had a small bit of corrosion around a spot where plastic screws hold the feet firm to the sides of the glass. Since then I’ve hung the lights, added metasorb and things took a turn for the better, an acro with no colour for almost 8 months started greening up again less than two weeks after those two changes.

 

[andrew james]

i'd like to add a personal observation based on my tank and bi-monthly triton tests. The only times I see noticeable effects from Tin is when it exceeds 8ul. At 8ul I notice a small amount of STN on some acros. At 12UL Acros are RTN or STN within weeks of being added to my tank. I think it also affects Euphyllia. Where I start to lose Polyps around 10ul.

Now obviously I cant say for sure it was the tin but all other stats on my tank are at the correct levels and is/was very stable.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

i'd like to add a personal observation based on my tank and bi-monthly triton tests. The only times I see noticeable effects from Tin is when it exceeds 8ul. At 8ul I notice a small amount of STN on some acros. At 12UL Acros are RTN or STN within weeks of being added to my tank. I think it also affects Euphyllia. Where I start to lose Polyps around 10ul.

Now obviously I cant say for sure it was the tin but all other stats on my tank are at the correct levels and is/was very stable.

Your issues could very well be the tin. It is quite toxic to invertebrates. Tin was previously used to prevent biofouling of boat hulls until it was banned as too toxic.

That said, folks should be very careful focusing on a particular concentration as an action level across different sources of tin, since the forms vary (even within the category of tin stabilizers for PVC, there are multiple different molecules that can be used) and these different forms of tin will have different toxicity.