Stainless steel and a reef

Well I'm stupid and never got around to changing the clamp on my return pump to the plastic ones. Last night I moved my skimmer and noticed it has rusted pretty bad (it's only in the water when the return pump is off). I put zip-ties on it for now but I have a sickening feeling that I've just poisoned my entire tank. Is there anything I can do, or will I just have to wait it out and hope all is well?

 

A little bit of rust is not going to kill your tank. Some things actually like the extra iron, like macro algae.

 

Activated carbon might help?

 

Shouldn't be a problem. The small amount of rust i.e. iron oxide won't hurt anything. The other metals such as chromium or nickel should also not cause any problems since they occur in small quantities in natural sea water.

 

It's free gfo

 

Thanks guys! I don't feel as terrible now haha my Elegance coral was just beginning to really grow!

 

So I have a similar thing going on in my tank. Should the metal be removed from the tank? I didn't really think about it but it does some dangerous if it is constantly in the water.

 

Great CORAL Article

Jan/Feb issue of CORAL mag. pg 113 entitled "Not So Cheap In The Long Run," might be worth the read.

 

I wouldn't leave it in long term.