Neodymium Magnets rusted in my tank - 50% SPS loss

[raynist]

I had 4 frag racks in my tank. Each had two Neodymium magnets that were coated in what appeard to be plastic.

I have lost about 50% of my SPS in the last two months.

I was pruning the dead sps when I noticed one of the frag racks magnets looked like it was bursting. I took them all out and every one of them was rusted.

I plan to do a 25% water change today and replace my carbon.

Is there anything else I can do? Polyfilter or some other material?

Here are some pics:

Back Side

Front Side

[/QUOTE]

 

[mike_cmu04]

that sucks man the filters and keep doing water changes should help but just having them out of the tank you should start seeing improvement hopefully.

 

[TripleT]

Where'd you get the rack from? What manufacturer?

 

[raynist]

I am not sure who makes them.

I got them from salty critter 16 months ago.

--Ray

 

[Gyr]

What a bummer, Ray. Could you post a photo of the entire rack? I'd like to know if it looks like the one I got a few months ago.
Thanks for the heads up, even if mine isn't the same as yours, I'll be sure to keep a close eye on the magnets.

Kurt

 

[.:Reeferral:.]

scary stuff..

 

[lrowland]

Wow, thank you for posting this! I was getting ready to build some frag racks with some plastic coated magnets from K&J Magnetics. I'll do a long term test by soaking them in saltwater to see if they degrade.

 

[raynist]

I will take a picture tonight.

I had a few of these in other tanks too. Removed them last night and they all had the same problem.....

It would make you cry to see the size of some of the skeletons I pulled out of the tank. My pink birdsnest was the size of an cantaloupe.

 

[raynist]

Wow, thank you for posting this! I was getting ready to build some frag racks with some plastic coated magnets from K&J Magnetics. I'll do a long term test by soaking them in saltwater to see if they degrade.

The KJ coated magnets are exactly the same as the ones that rusted.

 

[Allmost]

WOW! was just about to get one !!!

thanks for posting it, and sorry for your loss.

 

[travis32]

I was udnder the impression that rust: aka iron oxide is non toxic to corals. Unless its leaching heavy metals such as copper? Are you sure this is the culprit. Not saying its good or shouldn't be fixed but is the rust really the cause of the coral loss/ damage? Someone said they lost a screw in their tank and a year later they found it all rusted with no damage to their corals. Don't know if its factual or not but my understanding is that corals can tolerate rust by itself.

 

[hlsooner]

I have some of those Salty Critter frag racks in my tank. Time to inspect all magnets tonight. Sorry for the loss.

 

[raynist]

I think rust is not so bad. I have read that these neodymium rare earth magnets have boron and some other stuff in them and that is the problem.

Actually, I was hoping someone in this forum knew if that was the problem.

 

[teebs]

From K&J website:

Neodymium magnets are a composition of mostly Neodymium, Iron and Boron. If left exposed to the elements, the iron in the magnet will rust. To protect the magnet from corrosion and to strengthen the brittle magnet material, it is usually preferable for the magnet to be coated. There are a variety of options for coatings, but nickel is the most common and usually preferred. Our nickel plated magnets are actually triple plated with layers of nickel, copper, and nickel again. This triple coating makes our magnets much more durable than the more common single nickel plated magnets. Some other options for coating are zinc, tin, copper, epoxy, silver and gold. Our gold plated magnets are actually quadruple plated with nickel, copper, nickel and a top coating of gold.

I'm using the rubber coated N52 magnets in my tank and so far no issues with them. Is salty critter using the plastic coated magnets from K&J? As what I know, plastic coating is thinner but according to K&J, it is the preferred choice for use in sea water.

It seems from your photo that the plastic coating has been worn off, thus exposing the magnet to salt water which will make it corrode very quickly.

 

[lrowland]

I used a few of the epoxy coated K&J N52 magnets for holding pumps and heaters. I checked at lunch and they all seem to be fine. Of course these item don't move much so the chance for wear and tear seems low. I will have to keep an eye on them to make sure they don't breakdown and start rusting.

Again, raynist, thanks for the heads up on this.

 

[NewBostonConst]

I have super glued frags to those magnets for a couple years and the frags actually encrust right over the magnets even when they are disintegrating. They can't be that bad if the frag will encrust right to the rusting magnet.

 

[David Grigor]

It's pretty tough outside of the more obvious signs to determine acro loss especially when it's over the coarse of a few months. Sudden ALK,PH,Temp spike. Low ALK/CA/Magnesium levels, pests etc.

Extremely unlikely that a rusted magnet would be the root cause. Throughout the years many of times I've lost sps/acros with no real explanation that's the frustrating aspect of the hobby. Just too many variables that we can't really measure.

Best you can do is keep the ones you can measure as stable as possible and quarantine/dip all corals in effort to keep pest out.

 

[bertoni]

I would try a PolyFilter, lots of fresh carbon, and some 15-20% water changes, although I agree that the the magnets might not be the problem.

 

[kevinpratt823]

From K&J website:

Neodymium magnets are a composition of mostly Neodymium, Iron and Boron. If left exposed to the elements, the iron in the magnet will rust. To protect the magnet from corrosion and to strengthen the brittle magnet material, it is usually preferable for the magnet to be coated. There are a variety of options for coatings, but nickel is the most common and usually preferred. Our nickel plated magnets are actually triple plated with layers of nickel, copper, and nickel again. This triple coating makes our magnets much more durable than the more common single nickel plated magnets. Some other options for coating are zinc, tin, copper, epoxy, silver and gold. Our gold plated magnets are actually quadruple plated with nickel, copper, nickel and a top coating of gold.

I'm using the rubber coated N52 magnets in my tank and so far no issues with them. Is salty critter using the plastic coated magnets from K&J? As what I know, plastic coating is thinner but according to K&J, it is the preferred choice for use in sea water.

It seems from your photo that the plastic coating has been worn off, thus exposing the magnet to salt water which will make it corrode very quickly.

"They are coated with nickel, COPPER, and nickel again". Big red flag! If your magnets had copper in them, then I could certainly see an issue.

 

[raynist]

The majority of my loses have come in the last 2 weeks.