Stainless Steel In Saltwater Aquarium

Is it safe to use stainless steel (304) in saltwater aquariums?

 

sure, but even SS will pit in SW over time.

 

I have SS 304 floats. I guess I'll just need to monitor for rusting.

 

Not long term. Even stainless will eventually degrade, titanium is about the only affordable metal safe in saltwater reef tanks.

 

+1 There are different grades of Stainless Steel 304, 316 and other higher grades.304 is the lowest and will corrode.

Stainless steel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Yeah that's what I was figuring. I think I will switch to plastic then. I just wasn't sure about reliability, that was the reasoning for going with SS. They do have SS316 but is much more expensive. I have redunancy worked into my float setup, but was hoping the SS would give me even more reliability. I tried looking for an optical sensor (like the Tunze ATO) as a primary to hook up to my Neptune but couldn't really find one. I plan on having a primary float and 2 backups connected to a Neptune. Maybe overkill but I had a canister filter fail and dump water all over my carpet and I don't want to repeat that again when I install my sump.

 

I got a stainless steel collar for one of my pumps from Lowes....let's just say it either wasn't SS or it was extremely low quality. It is rusted and I need to replace it....

 

We call 304 "crappy stainless" in aerospace... Really any 300 series is.

You might want to consider doing it entirely different and use a few redundant float switches in a break out box.

 

Yup this is what I have planned right now. I have the Neptune B/O box and plan to have 3 float switches dedicated to sump water level.