Rust on the magnet of a Tunze 6040 (Pic Included)

[Wiskey]

Hello!

I'm hoping you can help me. About a year ago I bought a Tunze Turbelle Nanostream 6040 to supplement the flow generated by my 6105 in my SPS Tank.

Today I removed the pump from the water to do it's regular cleaning and I noticed that there is a spot of rust on the inside of the internal magnet. It's not terrible yet, but I've seen horror stories and don't want to be one of them so I pulled it out of the tank.

Is this something that is covered by the 2 year Warranty? If so what do I need to do?

Here is a quick pic of the internal magnet:
RustedMagnet by Wiskey2727, on Flickr

Thank you!
Whiskey

 

[jurgenph]

did the coating rub off due to vibrations?

i just put a 6040 in my tank

J.

 

[Wiskey]

did the coating rub off due to vibrations?

i just put a 6040 in my tank

J.

I don't think so, that's not the low point of the mount.

I doubt you will have the same issue, I've been using Tunze pumps for more than 10 years and overall I've found them to be top notch. I'm sure this is just a fluke.

Whiskey

 

[Wiskey]

To be clear, I meant I've heard horror story's about rust in the tank generally, not anything related to Tunze products specifically.

Whiskey

 

[rvitko]

That sure looks like just a stain from some iron that was attracted to the magnet. This magnet model uses rare earth magnets, if they get wet, they swell up and the resin bulges and cracks and that happens very fast. GFO is essentially rust pellets, small piece of it and any stray iron particles can stick to magnets and stain them. I would try just wiping it off after a soak in vinegar.

 

[rvitko]

Rust in and of itself (ferric oxide) will generally do little more than feed algae and cause a loss of color in SPS, in very high doses it could be toxic to some inverts but we use it everyday as GFO and the abundance of corals found on drilling rigs and ship hulls would point to it being fairly safe. The main problems comes in with other metals, zinc and nickel are very toxic. We don't use any plating for this reason, I have seen nothing on neodymium (rare earth magnet) toxicity, but I would assume it is toxic as well.

 

[Wiskey]

That sure looks like just a stain from some iron that was attracted to the magnet. This magnet model uses rare earth magnets, if they get wet, they swell up and the resin bulges and cracks and that happens very fast. GFO is essentially rust pellets, small piece of it and any stray iron particles can stick to magnets and stain them. I would try just wiping it off after a soak in vinegar.

Huh! That is a possibility. I don't use GFO, but there are certainly plenty of sources of little iron filings around me. Heck, our soil is full of it in the back yard. (I found that out when I dropped a magnitised screwdriver into the newly turned over soil).

I did have to scrub pretty hard to remove the stain, but once I did I didn't see any cracks or pinholes under it.

I put the pump back in the tank, and I'll just check it when I clean in a couple months. Thanks for saving me the trouble of sending it in!

Whiskey

 

[Wiskey]

Rust in and of itself (ferric oxide) will generally do little more than feed algae and cause a loss of color in SPS, in very high doses it could be toxic to some inverts but we use it everyday as GFO and the abundance of corals found on drilling rigs and ship hulls would point to it being fairly safe. The main problems comes in with other metals, zinc and nickel are very toxic. We don't use any plating for this reason, I have seen nothing on neodymium (rare earth magnet) toxicity, but I would assume it is toxic as well.

It's funny you say this! I was just reading the new issue of Coral Mag today and it was talking about metal toxicity from Tungsten leached from a Chinese made pump. I really wish they had said who made the pump though! I'm not worried about my Tunze's, or my Iwakia return, and the Ehiem CA reactor pump are probably fine,.. but my Bubble Magnus skimmer doesn't have a name brand pump in it, I'm sure of that.

Whiskey

 

[rvitko]

Hmm, I would have thought tungsten would be quite inert. A common problem with metals from China is the purity, it suffers from two issues. It is often recycled and the purity of the original material is questionable as cost savings reduce the separation done of various metals. It is also often made on common machines, meaning, the way you are supposed to do it is that said tooling is only for titanium grade 2 or only for 316 SS. If you run multiple materials in the same tooling, you end up with contamination. This is why when you buy a good American, Japanese or European made tool it holds up, same with cutlery and utensils, but even supposed stainless steel when made in China will rust. All stainless gets some corrosion in certain circumstance but a tool sitting in a dry garage or reasonably cared for in a kitchen should not be one of those circumstances. Their is a long article from Harvard Metallurgy that explains the problems in great detail.

 

[Wiskey]

Hmm, I would have thought tungsten would be quite inert. A common problem with metals from China is the purity, it suffers from two issues. It is often recycled and the purity of the original material is questionable as cost savings reduce the separation done of various metals. It is also often made on common machines, meaning, the way you are supposed to do it is that said tooling is only for titanium grade 2 or only for 316 SS. If you run multiple materials in the same tooling, you end up with contamination. This is why when you buy a good American, Japanese or European made tool it holds up, same with cutlery and utensils, but even supposed stainless steel when made in China will rust. All stainless gets some corrosion in certain circumstance but a tool sitting in a dry garage or reasonably cared for in a kitchen should not be one of those circumstances. Their is a long article from Harvard Metallurgy that explains the problems in great detail.

They felt the same way, they said that initially they were not testing for it for that very reason. But with elevated concentrations they found resesion on the base of acros and light monti colors. Once the pump was replaced and levels returned to normal these problems reversed themselves. It's worth noting that they did not do any water changes. Once the pump was replaced their fuge and normal filtration methods were able to reduce the tungsten levels with time.

That's really interesting info regarding the contamination. I never would have thought,.....

I checked my skimmer pump today, it has a ceramic shaft (whew), but I wonder where maxi jet pumps are made? I use one of those to mix my new salt water.

Whiskey

 

[rvitko]

My understanding is older Maxi Jets were Italian, the last couple years they have been Chinese made. Cobalt sells the original Italian made one still as the MJ pumps.