does brass contaminate?

[spoon25]

should i be worried about contamination with a my spray bars....they dont have plastic connections at lowes only brass to fit 1/2 fittings so i could connect my spraybars to the lines...they dont have plastic barbs to connect 5/8 tubing to 1/2 inch thread...i had to go brass....is this bad? i m getting worried

 

[Stephany]

yes... you should switch them out.

 

[spoon25]

i could swear zooqi said not to worry about them at one point in his lectures about my tank....how does brass effect...what contaminates does it produce?

 

[fishesRdelicious]

any metal will corode eventually and will leach chemicals in the tank, deffinately not worth the risk. so i would swap the brass for something plastic. post of the picture of the fitting and we can see what you need to change it

 

[Highlander]

The major component of brass is copper.
You don't want copper in your reef system.

 

[spoon25]

the have been in there 6 months, no corrosion yet and i have done 2 types copper test...and theres nothing that shows up...thank god

 

[spoon25]

i need 2--- 5/8 barb by 1/2 male thread, anyone have these...lowes or any hardware store around here doesnt.....

 

[Devildogg9745]

Lowes here carries a plastic 5/8 by 1/2 barb but it is not by the rest of the other barbs it is by the sump pumps for trailers. I spent 2 hours ther e debating if I could use brass until somebody working there found them for me.

 

[spoon25]

yea i need the 5/8 barb by 1/2 male thread not 1/2 barb....they dont make it in plastic....ive looked in books at lowes and everything

 

[fishesRdelicious]

you are going to need to get the 5/8 barb with threads and then get a reducer to 1/2, i am going to lowes later today and will look

 

[spoon25]

in that case look for an angle 5/8 barb ...i tried everything down here, nothing i could find, no reducers or anything

 

[Stephany]

You may have to do a fosterandsmith order, they have lots of reducers. I know there's other places, maybe premium aquatics that may have them too...
reefgeek?

 

[spoon25]

thanks babe....lol...ill look....ya know how hard its gonna be to to replace those 2 little fittings, ill have to move 180 lbs live rock from my tank...cant beleive it...oh well, i dont care these things happen i guess

 

[fishesRdelicious]

here is the piece you want to get:

it is called 1/2'' male adapter. it is called 1/2'' but really the barb is closer to 5/8''. you may need a ziptie just to make sure it stays on

 

[spoon25]

yea i tried them, but the hose i use is double braided and its very durable and very hard to squeeze shut, it come blowing off its just not big enough the barbs are quite big enough...i have about 2400gph pushing through these spray bars

 

[Stephany]

Put the hose in hot water first before putting it on the barb end. That way you can get it on all the way.
They also have plastic clamps available that should be used.

Zip ties work too, but you would have to cut them off.

 

[spoon25]

no the barb is too small, and if i use 1/2 inch barb it will lose alot of water pressure, i wont get 2400gph, ill cut that in half if i go to smaller fittings...

 

[spoon25]

ill just rip out everything and run 1"pvc as a spray bar

 

[fishesRdelicious]

if you have 2400 gph going into that small of a hole you need to upgrade to bigger hose and bigger pvc. if you are getting 2400 gph out of that size fittting then it has to be like a presure washer. looking at the peice i got, the outlet hole is about 3/8'', so you are losing probably 50+% on the flow, not to imagine what you are doing to the pump.
explain how your plumbing goes, sizes of pvc,etc.

 

[Stephany]

Get a bigger barb! lol