Broken drill bit lost behind rocks
- Thread starter DaveRaz
- Start date
cryptic_grower
New member
Sounds a OK :fun5:
cryptic_grower
New member
Use a magnet and try to run your hand in the area you think it might be?
I have a magnet extension. I Will give that a shot next WC. Thanks
cryptic_grower
New member
Np, good luck getting it out!
kegogut
Active member
I wouldnt wait until next WC. The rust will kill your corals.
tidus10
New member
psh this person only has 3200 posts and has most likely doing this waaay longer than me.. but they dont know about GFO?!!
But in all reality.. i would try and find it.. having things like that rust can cause some havoc.. i only had a chunk of razor blade break off and i didnt notice it until about 2 weeks later my hammer started to die and i looked and the blade was near it rusted like crazy..
kegogut
Active member
I dont know what GFO has to do with a rusting piece of metal in your tank since GFO is only used for Po4 removal.
Lost track of the number of single edge razors I've dropped into my reef. Some I find eventually, in various stages of rusting, but many just disappear. No direct linkage I've seen to tank death, end of the world, universe oblivion ..... I'd not worry about it myself.
Find it if you can, sure, and maybe keep a poly filter on hand just in case.
Find it if you can, sure, and maybe keep a poly filter on hand just in case.
Isn't rust essentially ferric oxide? Not a chemist, so I could be wrong.
rwb500
Active member
GFO = rust, that is the relationship that you are missing. I am impressed that you do not know that. Sure, there are elements besides iron in a drill bit, but the major product of a drill bit rusting in the tank is going to be a harmless iron (II or III? I don't know) oxide.
rust = iron III oxide = ferric oxide
a little bit of rust never killed anything. what kind of drill bit is it? Many plain steel bits would not be a big deal at all, but I have a lot of brass-colored bits that I would guess must contain some copper as part of the allow. This would worry me.
what kind, what size drill bit, how much broke off, and how big is the tank?
1/8", <1", 100 gal
Thanks for all the feedback. I will try to find it but I have little hope of success. If not, will just ride it out.
Always a good idea to put some kind of cover over the tank when working above it. Although razor blades have proven benign, I did drop a drywalls screw into one of my clams one time. The thing snapped shut and I could not retrieve the screw. Eventually it spit it out, but I was sure I'd killed it for a while.
I knew better. I could have easily removed the return line loc but noooooooo, I wanted to Rush it.
power boat jim
Well-known member
Im no chemist either but even if you drop a metal piece of whatever in the tank with copper content, would it dissolve in water that has a pH of 8.0? Since copper doesnt really rust away would you not have to get the pH low enough to dissolve the copper into solution for it to cause trouble? Im guessing the same would be true for all the non ferris metals. I believe there is alot of misinformation about our tanks abilty to dissolve or liberate heavy metals from a solid to a liquid.
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power boat jim
Well-known member
If I remember anything from waste water treatment classes a century ago, it seemed one way to remove metals from water was to first elevate the pH to over 8 and add a floculant.
