can i put brass in my tank?

[Dert42]

i have an older tank with the filtration built into the back.
so it overflows into one end, goes through some chambers and stuff and comes out the other end through 2 nozzels.
the nozzels get hooked up to powerheads which drive the water though.

i had to get a new powerhead, and it doesn't fit the piping on there, so i went to home depot and got some adapters to fit it. only problem is one of the peices i had to use is brass. is that ok to be submerged in the tank?


also i cracked one of my heaters. stupid cold water....

 

[Sk8r]

No brass. Brass is composed of copper, which is poisonous.

 

[chadfarmer]

no sorry

 

[Mykayel]

If they have it as a brass fitting, they probably have it as either PVC or nylon.

 

[Dert42]

man i'm glad i asked.

so uhhh my r/o filter dispenses water out of a little spicket/faucet thing on my kitchen sink.
and that has a brass connector as well..
i should probalby rework they huh?

 

[trottman]

it is acctually the copper in the brass that is bad. kills plants, and coral. copper is used in some ich medicines, that is why they are not reef safe.

people also use copper sulfate to kill pond algae/plants. (copper sulfate is used in forest parke, that is why there is no algae on their ponds)

 

[hagfish]

If you are saying the RO unit has a brass/copper fitting before the water goes into the unit, that is fine. If it is after the water comes out of the unit, that is bad.

 

[MayoBoy]

You don't have to worry about the faucet adaptor - it's only when the copper sits in your tank. After all, the lines in your house are probably copper and the water running over them doesn't cause leaching since there's so little contact time. Also, the salt water causes a reaction faster than freshwater can.

 

[Dert42]

the brass fitting is after the r/o.
and i've already made 100+ gallons that are in my tank.
the starfish, crabs and snails are still alive....

is there a test to see how much copper is in the water?

 

[trottman]

it is the salt that speeds up the reactions. and it basically has to sit in the tank for a few days.

-- that is why some people with FW tanks put 1 pennie per gallon on the bottem of their tank if they have unwanted algae/plants.

 

[Dert42]

ok... so i should be good then?

 

[DrBDC]

go to filterdirect.com and they have little faucets that are actually all plastic. They look like chrome but they're just plastic chromed for looks.

 

[Sk8r]

There is a test for copper---Salifert tests are good. And there is a way to get it out. Polypads can pull it out of salt water. I would test to ease my mind, and to ease it further I'd get everything metal out of the stream between the ro/di and the tank. As they say, anything before the ro will be taken care of by the ro, though I'm sure it shortens the life of the filter: I have that situation myself. Any metal after the ro is not good, and even if you get by with it for a while, I would not want it for the long term. Test, and if it exists, get it out of the water.

 

[Dert42]

is that a test an LFS can do?

 

[azgard]

On an issue of harmful metal. Is Lead as in used as a weight to hold an airstone in place consirdered toxic?

 

[hagfish]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7014718#post7014718 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by azgard
On an issue of harmful metal. Is Lead as in used as a weight to hold an airstone in place consirdered toxic?

I don't know about the lead (although I wouldn't use it), but my question is why do you have an airstone in a SW tank?

 

[tetra9999]

i thought there were two types of brass, the cheap kind that has copper in it and then another type of brass (solid brass?) that does not have any copper in it. anyone?

 

[MayoBoy]

Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc. There are different grades of brass (red brass, admiralty brass, naval brass, etc.) but all, by definition, contain copper.

 

[Sk8r]

Dert, your lfs might test for you, if they're accommodating---or if their personnel know how to do it. You can also buy a test. Or you can just stick a polypad in (some younger person is going to have to say what they call these white fiber things nowadays) and if it turns blue, there was copper, but it's now stuck to the resin in the polypad. The only reason I hesitate to recommend polypads as a matter of course is that I don't know what-all they remove from the water column, and reefkeeping has changed so much in the nearly 10 years I was out of it. But in your situation where there's a suspicion of copper, it might be warranted just to put one into the sump and see if it turns color. (What color it turns tells you what it pulled out.)

 

[Dert42]

and i could get one of these polypads at an LFS?

i don't really have any life stock in the tank and i don't even think i started my cycle yet. so i can flush the whole tank and start over if i have to. but hopefully my sand and rock isn't ruined.

from what i'm reading around the net, i should be ok. but doesn't hurt to test.