Tin in black vinyl tubing from brs ?

[Dr. Jim]

@Dr. Jim remind me, in your test did you have the RO water heated?

No. Room temperature, but I don't think there is anything wrong with heating it (although you are introducing one more item/variable, the heater, in the test solution).

 

[TokenReefer]

The RODI water I used was NOT acidic so that wasn't the cause.

What was the PH of the RODI? I'm sorry if I missed that...

 

[homer1475]

I still think this is a correlation doesn't equal causation.

PVC that nearly every tank is plumbed with, also leeches tin, Yet every reefer in the world isn't experiencing high tin levels and dying corals.

Take an ICP of a newly plumbed tank with PVC, high tin. Take the same ICP several months later after bacterial slime has coated it, tin levels come down.

 

[TokenReefer]

I appreciate the effort you put in to bring this to the community. It's excellent information. Idk what to do with it yet tho...

Every person on here has either PVC or soft tubing... What else are we to plumb with? And these are not new methods, they've been in use in the hobby for.....ever, right?

If you're in the no wc regime then this is more of an issue than those who aren't, right? I can see chasing the rabbit down this hole if you are but not nearly so much if you aren't...

 

[Dr. Jim]

What was the PH of the RODI? I'm sorry if I missed that...

I never stated a pH, but my RODI water is generally slightly basic.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I just got my icp results back and it came back showing I have heavy amounts on tin in my aquarium. I recently added a frag tank to my system and plumbed it with vinyl tubing from the Home Depot.

I’ve been reading older post where other reefers have gotten high Tin readings when usinga HD vinyl tubing. Unfortunately I’m using 12’ of both 1/2” and 1” tubing.

It looks like everyone is having better luck with the Tygon brand hose but I can’t seem to find it in stock or better yet locally without having to buy a 50’ roll.

i was wondering if anyone has tested or has experience high Tin reading using the BRS black vinyl tubing since this seems to be my most readily available one at the moment.

I'm not convinced that level is enough to be a problem, but one cannot know for sure by ICP since it doesn't identify the chemical form of tin present, and they will certainly vary in toxicity.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I can understand that. The more I dig in, it looks like tin is used in A LOT of plastics manufacturing. I wouldn't know what to eliminate... Do you have any oddball pieces of equipment? Something cheap you found on amazon perhaps? Def rule the tubing out if you can but if I'm using standard hobby items used by thousands (millions?) I'd be looking for something that stood out from the crowd, like a cheap no brand ph I bought on amazon or something... Not trying to de-rail ya, just help, sorry if I did

Tin is not a cheapo ingredient sold only in bad tubing. Tin as an expensive component and is actually approved for medical and food grades to improve lifetimes of the product against thermal and oxidative degradation.

Reefers just have potentially special needs as tin is especially toxic to many inverts (hence why it was used in anti-fouling paints for boats.)

 

[TokenReefer]

For sure; lol if you've ever bought boat paint you know! Was thinking more of maybe sub-standard manufacturing methods or a mistake made while manufacturing when I used the generic term cheap... was just trying to present a scenario within this mystery

 

[rtparty]

Was it a new glass tank? Glass is floated in tin and if it was not properly cleaned beforehand, it can show elevated tin on ICP tests.

Like Randy pointed out, we don't know the form the tin is in and I have yet to find any concrete info it is killing anything. All we see is, "I had corals die, did ICP test, tin was high, so therefore tin killed my stuff." Hardly scientific. Rarely does anyone tell you that 3 weeks earlier they had temperature drop 8F overnight or they dumped in 500ml of soda ash instead of 50ml....yada yada

 

[Hugo’s_Reef]

Just to give you guys a little more info my tank is a 90g water box glass tank that has been running for over 3 years. It’s been pretty stable, best way to put it is it’s been stable to grow all my acros from frags including some very finicky speciosas(I’ve kept speciosas alive not grown from frags and I’m currently down to 1 frag from the 3 that I had) .

This is my tank

although I run triton method I still do a water change or two when

the frag tank is a 30 gallon acrylic tank. Before installing it I plumbed it alone and ran tap water for 24 hours to rise everything out glue, acrylic, hoses etc. I used very little glue as you can see on the pictures . The glue I used was christys hot stuff . The rest is vinyl tubing. I did use a different teflon tape this time for my threaded parts. It was recommended by my LFS and goes by the brand Blue Monster.

i just did a 20 g water change and I’ll do another this weekend. My total water volume is 110g (I literally measured every gallon when I originally filled both tank and frag tank). I was able to find 1/2” silicon tubing at a local home brewery store.I have now swapped that out from vinyl tubing to silicon . The 1” silicon was harder to find in 15’ lengths so I ordered 2 -10’ pieces from Amazon should be here tomorrow.

once I get that other hose changed out I’ll do another water change and wait a week before I send out another ICP and see if anything changed.

 

[Hugo’s_Reef]

I'm not convinced that level is enough to be a problem, but one cannot know for sure by ICP since it doesn't identify the chemical form of tin present, and they will certainly vary in toxicity.

That’s one thing I wanted to know, I understand it’s high but how high is it . But based on my coral this morning it’s too high

This was my Frankenberry this morning .

 

[Hugo’s_Reef]

This is the set up.