Found several pieces of metal in new sand. Removed + 90% WC. Tests still show TIN

[smartwater101]

This is a refresh of a tank that sat empty for 2+ years. 70g. Tropic Marine Pro salt. CaribSea florida crushed coral (bag was purchased two years ago but just opened)

All the power heads are new. Pumps are clean and there are no rusted screws and all metal brackets are coated with plastidip. No GFO.

Test from a month ago.

Analysis
97 µg/l

Setpoint
0,1 µg/l

Deviation
96.90

After this Triton test, I originally thought the new PVC was the culprit (but still crazy high) Then ran a strong magnet through the sandbed I found several pieces of metal in the tank! Enough to fill a quarter of a shotglass.

I did a 90% water change after removing these pieces and a month later I'm still seeing tin in the latest test.

Analysis
23 µg/l

Setpoint
0,1 µg/l

Deviation
22.9
23 µg/l 0,1 µg/l 22.9

So I'm at a loss at this point. Confused about how it got there in the first place and wondering why I still have elevated levels. And I don't see any stand-alone tin test kits.

Thoughts on how to proceed?

 

[Diesel]

Tin can come from several sources as dosing mixes, food, salt, and equipment.

I have a question for you: if you lived in the pre-ICP age when there was no ICP testing, what external symptoms would you observe in your reef tank today, i.e. corals, invertebrates, fish, cyano, algae, etc., that would cause you concern?

I am wondering if we are worried too much and micro-managing our tanks unnecessarily. For example, a research article I read indicates that it is not a good idea to manipulate individual trace elements. Dosing a balanced trace elements is much safer than overdosing an individual trace element even though you may overdose balanced trace elements. The article can be supplied on request.

 

[smartwater101]

After aclimating a few corals from my reef tank, they died off almost over night. My flower pot was moved back to the reef tank and the few polps that survived haven't extended in a month. The Xenia completely disappeared. And the BTA was happy for two days and shriveled up and died.

This quick change to corals after only a day or two is was motivated me to do a broader test. (Fish and eels are fat and happy. Doesn't seem to be an issue there)

I don't dose anything in the tank. Just run carbon every other month.

 

[Diesel]

Have you done a Detox treatment yet?

 

[smartwater101]

Have you done a Detox treatment yet?

Not yet. I thought manually removing the metal and water would be the best long-term solution. I suppose trying DETOX is the best way forward. Hopefully there isn't something I missed that will be a problem in the future.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

You could also try the usual metal binders such as metasorb, a polyfilter, or cuprisorb.

 

[MnFish1]

Tin is paramagnetic ie only weakly attracted to magnets. My guess is that if you’re finding metal attracted to a magnet that either it’s not pure tin, or you aren’t getting all of the tin out with the magnet. Since you don’t mention any other high levels of metals in your tank which should be the case if tin were merely part of a bigger piece of metal, my guess is that either you haven’t removed all of the pure tin in the sand or the metal on the sand isn’t the source of your tin

 

[MnFish1]

Tin is paramagnetic ie only weakly attracted to magnets. My guess is that if you’re finding metal attracted to a magnet that either it’s not pure tin, or you aren’t getting all of the tin out with the magnet. Since you don’t mention any other high levels of metals in your tank which should be the case if tin were merely part of a bigger piece of metal, my guess is that either you haven’t removed all of the pure tin in the sand or the metal on the sand isn’t the source of your tin

Ps if there is really metal in the sand I would be complaining to the manufacturer. Also. This could be a recurring problem since the polysorb metalsorb solutions are designed to remove trace amounts. If you still have metal in the sand you’re going to spend Imho a lot on testing etc. if it’s from the sand I would siphon all of it out and do water changes. The key words there being if it’s from the sand. You will never get all the metal out with a magnet. Every time a coral dies you will be sending in a metal test. Get rid of the sand imho

 

[Joe Batt]

A few months back when I restarted my tank and did an ICP test, I had high levels of many metals, including tin, zinc, magnesium and iron. I also ran a magnet through the sand and particles sticking to it, I wouldn't say the amount that you did but still there was a noticeable amount.

https://www.triton-lab.de/en/showroom/aquarium/auswertung-b/icp-oes/57210/

I followed the ICP recommendations and backed them up with CupSorb and Metasorb with Detox thrown in for good measure.

My latest ICP is now spot on. I notice lithium is creeping up from somewhere, not sure where?

https://www.triton-lab.de/en/showroom/aquarium/auswertung-b/icp-oes/57118/

 

[smartwater101]

Still have tin somewhere... Even after detox and several water changes.

Analysis
24 µg/l



This is driving me bonkers. At this point I'm going to remove all the rockwork and sand. For my eels, I glued sand to PVC to hide it so there is a good chance a piece of metal is on it.

The more I think about it, the rockwork I got at the LFS has just been sitting in a tub in the back of the store under some dirty shelves. Some contaminants could have gotten in.

I'll quadruple check the pumps again as well. This tin must die!

 

[MnFish1]

Still have tin somewhere... Even after detox and several water changes.

Analysis
24 µg/l



This is driving me bonkers. At this point I'm going to remove all the rockwork and sand. For my eels, I glued sand to PVC to hide it so there is a good chance a piece of metal is on it.

The more I think about it, the rockwork I got at the LFS has just been sitting in a tub in the back of the store under some dirty shelves. Some contaminants could have gotten in.

I'll quadruple check the pumps again as well. This tin must die!

Are any of your animals/corals, etc having a problem? If not - perhaps ignore it? It might be a test error. Or just keep up with the detox. (removing all of the rock and sand is a lot of work - and could will cause major upset to the tank). ?

 

[smartwater101]

Are any of your animals/corals, etc having a problem? If not - perhaps ignore it? It might be a test error. Or just keep up with the detox. (removing all of the rock and sand is a lot of work - and could will cause major upset to the tank). ?

Corals don't last long in the tank. So it has to stay FOWLR for now

Absolutely not a testing error. I have 2 tanks and only one tank shows tin 3 months in a row.

I already planned on redoing rockwork to give the eels more space as they get older. Figured I get to it in a year or so but might as well do it now. Only 2 fish an 2 eels are in the tank. They won't like me but I'll try and make the swap quick.

 

[MnFish1]

Corals don't last long in the tank. So it has to stay FOWLR for now

Absolutely not a testing error. I have 2 tanks and only one tank shows tin 3 months in a row.

I already planned on redoing rockwork to give the eels more space as they get older. Figured I get to it in a year or so but might as well do it now. Only 2 fish an 2 eels are in the tank. They won't like me but I'll try and make the swap quick.

Yes that makes sense - I was picturing a 180 gallon tank all set up with corals, etc.

 

[Land Shark]

How are things with the tin situation?

 

[stacksoner]

Are you using any equipment with push-to-connect fittings? If so, you may want to grab a flashlight and look at the teeth inside that grab the tubing. I'm not sure if the inner teeth are made out of tin, but have seen them rusting out in my RODI and dosing setups. It seems like everyone is showing tin on their ICP's nowadays and nobody knows what the source is. Keep us posted.

 

[smartwater101]

After the latest test I removed all the rock and sand. Ended up finding a lot more metal shards in the process. I still don't know where it came from but it was a lot in total.

I eventually just decided to break the tank down. Electricity, in the summer, brings a massive bill and a second tank wasn't helping.

I just wish I knew where all these freaking shards came from!!!

 

[smartwater101]

Here is what I was finding (coin for scale.) I fond about 1/3 to 1/2 of a shotglass worth of these little metal shards.