- Hi guys and girls, I'm ReefMan.
Today we're gonna talk about heavy metals
and other metal contaminants that are in your reef tank.
With the popular increase in ICP Testing
like Triton
or the other
the ATI tests, other ICP tests,
we get more detailed reports than we used to get
about what elements are in our tank.
So you might get something like a Triton printout.
And on mine, for example, my tin is really high;
shows as a red indicator.
Now if, like my tank, the only element that you have is high
is tin,
or only zinc,
or only iron,
it's a little bit harder to nail down exactly
what is the cause.
Usually when you have
a high metal content
of any sort in your tank, it's going to either be
a contaminated additive that you're using
or maybe a food,
or it'll be something corroding in our tanks.
I use VorTech pumps.
I actually just replaced two of them
because I noticed there was maybe a bit of rust or something
around the stainless steel rod
in the middle of the wet sides.
You can also have rusty hinges on your stand.
Or like mine, I have a steel stand
and my stand itself is rusting.
So to fix those things,
we need to clean off all of the rust
and then repaint it using something like POR-15®.
Paint over rust is what it stands for.
It's just a sealant, like a paint to do it.
But you don't need to scrape off all the rust,
which would be hard to do over your tank.
So like I said, I only have tin high in my tank,
which makes it a little bit suspect
that it's coming from corrosion.
If your tank is high in a mix of things
like tin, zinc, chromium, cobalt, these things,
then almost certainly, it's corrosion.
If your tank if high, on the other hand,
in things like aluminum or lithium,
then you're probably gonna be looking at
contaminated salt.
Maybe they're using
really low-grade reagents when they mix your salt.
Or, you might have a contaminated bacteria
that you're dosing like MicroBacter.
Who knows, maybe it's contaminated that batch.
Or, maybe a food item that you're dosing
or that your feeding could actually be high.
My tank has been high in lithium ever since I set it up.
Don't know why.
I haven't seen it cause any trouble.
And in doing a lot of research online,
other people will report high lithium
and no problems there either.
So once you've discovered that you have a problem,
maybe you're seeing polyps not extending
as much as they used to or things are slowly dying.
And maybe you've run an ICP test like a Triton test,
and you find that well, you do have high zinc,
or high chromium, or something like that.
What should you do to fix it?
Obviously, if you can trace it down to something corroding
in your tank like a pump, or a hinge,
or a stand in my case,
you can fix those things by either
replacing the corroding equipment in your tank;
check heaters, pumps.
Or, like I'm going to do on my stand,
we could repaint the stand with a rust preventative paint.
Obviously, you can't use a spray paint over your tank.
That would be a horrible idea.
But, that doesn't help you get rid of the actual
iron, or zinc, or whatever it is that's in your tank.
So to get rid of those, there's a bunch of
different chemicals that you could possibly use.
Things like CupriSorb will absorb copper
and a lot of other things.
They don't specify exactly what the other things are though.
So there's also other versions of it.
Other things like MetaSorb,
or Triton makes something called Detox,
but that is mostly targeted around copper and lead.
There's also something from Panta Rhei called Panta Lith,
which is a fluid that you add
and binds copper and other metals.
There's also Rowaphos.
If you have high aluminum in your tank,
Rowaphos will bind aluminum as well as phosphate.
So these are all things that you might be able to try
to get rid of various chemicals in your tank.
You can also prevent corrosion before it happens
by using a reef-safe lubricant on things like
metal shafts in pumps.
When I replaced my VorTechs,
what I did was, I coated the exposed parts of the shaft
with Molycoat 111,
which is a sealant
that's actually safe for marine environments.
It's also safe for food.
I wouldn't recommend eating it.
But you could use it in a food environment.
So that's Molycoat 111.
You can get it on Amazon;
you can get it, I'm sure, in other places as well.
That's made by 3M.
And I just dabbed it on the exposed metal.
And when I clean the VorTechs in a few months,
I will add a little bit more.
Just a tiny bit will do it.
And that will just prevent two things.
It will prevent some friction,
because it's both a sealant, but also a lubricant,
that is a thick lubricant that will stay on it.
So less friction means less scratching at the metal,
means hopefully less corrosion.
And then it'll also seal the surface so that saltwater
won't be able to get to it,
which will also hopefully help prevent corrosion.
So I would recommend adding things like Molycoat
to your general maintenance schedule.
When you pull out an impeller from a pump, look at it.
If it has a metal shaft, is the metal shaft corroding?
Is it still shiny and looks good?
You might consider using something
like Molycoat on it as well just to keep it looking good.
Those will prevent problems in the future.
And then also remember that heaters have
a limited amount of life that they will survive,
especially the submersible heaters.
You want to check them every year, every few months,
just to make sure that they don't have any moisture in them.
Because once moisture gets in them,
it will turn to steam, obviously, when the heater is on,
and that just changes the pressure, and sucks more water in.
And then it's a repeating cycle.
So I hope this was interesting.
I'm really interested to know what you think
about corrosion in your tank.
Have you had any trouble with corroding pumps?
Split magnets in VorTechs are a great way to get
iron and, I think, also molybdenum into your tank.
I'm really curious.
Have you had any trouble?
Let me know.
See ya next time, bye.