Reef nutrition

Rust?

Zero Gravitas

Supporting Member
My hammers have been receding, tried everything I could think of, eventually just settled into changing 10% every three days… Upon further investigation, today, I decided to open up my UV sterilizer, and looks like there was a bunch of rust in it… I cleaned most of it off. Here is a picture of some of it. Looks like rust right? My next question is what should I do now? I just changed my carbon, and added a little prime. Going to do another couple more water changes in the next couple days. How bad is rust? I could theoretically do a 75% water change. It seems all the rest of my corals are doing well.

75217749b11f6f232b1bec2fdeb056f5.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I think how bad it isn’t depends on what material rusted. Could Be wrong. Can always send an icp test to see if there are elevated levels of metals etc...
Carbon may help, gfo or aluminum based phosphate removers could help as well.
Have you tested phosphates?
 
I am unsure if it is rust.
I would guess it is calcium and other precipitates and crud that have been scorched a bit from the UV.
Why would there be rust on a glass tube??
Although if you run GFO, and it settles there a bit, it might explain it.

Reminder that GFO is basically rust. We add that for phospate reduction.
So if it was rust, don't worry about it, other than where did it come from.
 
Thank you for all the help. Waiting for a test kit to come today to check the phosphates. Was thinking about trying to clean the sterilizer to see how bad the damage was, or if it really is rust at all. It looks like there’s a coating of what I’m guessing is some stainless steel that is rusting? And maybe it’s not rust, but whatever it is seems to be eating the metal. I guess it could just be some super hardened debris, and that it’s actually my attempts to remove it that is damaging that metal looking sheet thing. Do you think if I could get away with using this for a while longer if all the corrosion is removed?
After many water changes my hammers are starting to bloom again.

937fdc6b115f87f8d880f48c071cf3d4.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I just removed whatever that metal sheeting was, weird that they would use it. I imagine they are trying to reflect the light.
40ee441daf2a480463a4a8fe26b723f4.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Oh wow man. This rust will spik iron, cupper and heavy metals. Lps take the biggest hit when this happen. I lost all ly trachys when my vectra did something similar.
Use rowaphos asap to get some of the heavy metals out. Use it for 2 weeks. But watch out for po4 do not let it go too law. Follow instruction of the dosing on the rowaphos and do not put more than the recomended.
Also use cuprisorp. It will get the cupper out which is the most problomatic now.
Weekly water change 25%
Triton have a product called detox. It suppose to take out heavy metals but I never used it. Rowaphos and cuprisorb will help
 
Keep in mind that you will not have metals only in the water. There will be fine particles that are now in the system and will keep rusting for a while so ise cuprisorb for a while
 
The one brs sell I have bad experince with. I only trust rowaphos.
So you think it releases iron even if you flush it good and don’t tumble it too much? Not saying it doesn’t. Haven’t used brs one in a long time now. Just curious.
I assume you think this because you used it and saw coral health issues and then saw iron on icp test?
 
So you think it releases iron even if you flush it good and don’t tumble it too much? Not saying it doesn’t. Haven’t used brs one in a long time now. Just curious.
I assume you think this because you used it and saw coral health issues and then saw iron on icp test?
Oh no, I do not judge quick. This is based on ICPs. Brs and some other gfo will leach iron, silica and BA. Rowaphos almost leach none..it will leach a bit, just a bit but much more managable
 
Btw even triton will tell you on the report if iron is observed that most common source is gfo, and they will tell you to use rowaphos instead.
 
I thought RowaPhos is just a brand of GFO. Maybe a good brand, perhaps one that doesn’t leach as much (no personal experience). But not chemically something different.
 
Back
Top