Pls Read - Corrosion

[krisiks]

Hi people,
Since one month ago I have planned to start a saltwater tank, I have bought all equipment needed and the only thing I need to do is... fill in the tank with live sand, live rock and water. Now that I am all excited and happy to start setting up my tank I am facing a serious problem
Having heard that I am doing a SALTWATER tank my parents disapproved because the evaporation of saltwater is going to make corrosion and make every metal rust in the house Is this true???? Does that means that everybody (here in this forum) is having that kind of rusting problem in their house???? Please can any one tell me what to do????
Thanks.
Kr|S

 

[mimzy]

wow. And I thought MY parents came up with creative reasons for why I couldn't get pets.
Salt water will not corrode things in your house. Make sure you don't drip salt water all over everything, and wipe up any spills you may have. Unless you put the metal DIRECTLY INSIDE the aquarium (which you should NEVER EVER DO...but I'm sure u know that), ur tank will not cause anything to corrode.
There WILL be salt creep (salt that crystalizes after water that's been splashed outside of the tank has evaporated), but that only occurs on the lid or sometimes the sides of the tank, and anywhere else there was a spill that wasn't wiped up.
I hope you get to go on with your tank - and I hope plenty more people respond to this thread so u can show your folks that it's not just hearsay!!!

 

[pumper7]

The salt doesn't evaporate......only the water does. There is no difference between what would evaporate off a freshwater system and a saltwater tank.

 

[krisiks]

Hi, thanks for the reply.
Therefore even if water evaporate in the air, nothing (metal thing) will be affected and going to rust in the house? This is because if this ever happen later, I am sure my parents will shout at me and if metal rust, it will be too late
I am going to print this thread later on and show to my parents
Thanks.
Kr|S

 

[krisiks]

Originally Posted by Pumper7
The salt doesn't evaporate......only the water does. There is no difference between what would evaporate off a freshwater system and a saltwater tank.
How do you explain that....
My friend has a saltwater tank and on top it has lights (about 20cm above the tank) and it's stand is made up of metal. When looking at the stand I can see crystal on it and the metal stand is getting a bit of rust on it after 2 months. How does it get the crystal on it if only water evaporate and not salt????

 

[tim_12]

Like Mimzy said, unless the salt water comes in direct contact with metal, it wont rust. You and your parents have nothing to worry about.

 

[krisiks]

Thanks for the reply.
Ok, I will setup my tank tonight, and start the cycle.
Only my parents are worried, not me I personally don't have any problem with corrosion, my only problem is my parents
By showing this thread to them, they will see that everybody doing saltwater tank are not having any problem with corrosion.
Thanks.
Kr|S

 

[merredeth]

Originally Posted by Krisiks
Hi people,
Since one month ago I have planned to start a saltwater tank, I have bought all equipment needed and the only thing I need to do is... fill in the tank with live sand, live rock and water. Now that I am all excited and happy to start setting up my tank I am facing a serious problem
Having heard that I am doing a SALTWATER tank my parents disapproved because the evaporation of saltwater is going to make corrosion and make every metal rust in the house Is this true???? Does that means that everybody (here in this forum) is having that kind of rusting problem in their house???? Please can any one tell me what to do????
Thanks.
Kr|S
Sweetie:
Please tell your parents I have a home that is almost 4000 square feet and has every conceivable convenience known to man in it. Since I love different woods, metals and stone in my home, when it was designed one can see it was not an inexpensive home by any standards. I have a catwalk that goes over my formal living room and that is full of custom iron work I had done. Both of my tanks are saltwater.
I have never had a rust problem on any of my metal work. When I have dripped water or cleaned up salt creep, I use a bucket of water with a cleaning cloth and nothing but plain water in it with about a 1/4 teaspoon of dish soap in it. I wring out the water out of the cleaning cloth so there is little water left in the cloth and I mop up my mess and scrub the area down if necessary. I will then take a squirt bottle of plain old water and wet it down and dry the area off completely with a dry kitchen towel.
I will readily admit to being a messy person when it comes to water issues, so putting down a drop cloth is a good idea, but I don't do it. If I did it when doing the water changes, I wouldn't have a mess to clean up but it never fails, I make a mess.
I do water changes each week on my tanks, so it is a guarantee that I have to clean the areas up weekly and any salt issue is handled by cleaning up in this matter the areas where my tanks are.
Since my larger tank is near and literally on a lot of custom metal work I should see signs of rust damage if I was negligent in taking care of my tanks and the surroundings. I don't see any signs of rust on the custom iron work, nor do I see signs or woods being warped.
My woodwork in the house is treated with Old English Oil several times a year and in between Old English cleanings, I do use Murphy's Oil Soap. The stone work in the house has never showed signs of damage as well and I do nothing to the stone work or to the grout work beween the stones on the walls that have fireplaces.
I also own a business in my office there is a saltwater tank. No computers or other electronic equipment have suffered any damages.
As a mother and a step-grandmother, a lot is going to depend on how responsible you are. My youngest daughter wants a saltwater tank in her room. For Christmas I plan on getting her one for her room. She is 13-1/2 years old and is very responsible, does her chores and takes care of her room, takes pride in our house and her bedroom. Because she is that type of teenager and earns her own money I am going to allow her to have a tank in her room. She wants a 55 gallon tank, but for Christmas, I am going to buy her a bigger one as our entire family loves the saltwater hobby. She helps out with the upkeep on our tanks, I think she has earned the right to have a bigger one.
Denise M.

 

[krisiks]

Hi,
Thanks for your reply.
I will show what you wrote to my parents and hopefully they agree with me setting up the tank. I think I will also have to show them some pics of saltwater tank so that they can see the beauty of it as they have never see one. They know only freshwater and specially discus fish because I have a discus tank which they spend some times watching every night.
Anyone : - Do you cover your tank???
Thanks.
Kr|S

 

[mikeyjer]

Originally Posted by Krisiks
How do you explain that....
My friend has a saltwater tank and on top it has lights (about 20cm above the tank) and it's stand is made up of metal. When looking at the stand I can see crystal on it and the metal stand is getting a bit of rust on it after 2 months. How does it get the crystal on it if only water evaporate and not salt????
He probably dripped water on the stand to cause that, he needs to wipe up with wet clothe everytime he drips. I have a metal fan near by my tank, there's NO rust on it! I had to vaccum up all the dried salt crystals behind my tank the other day though, that's from me splashing behind the tank during water change which is no big deal. Like it was said before, only water evaporate, not the salt! That's why you have to do fresh RO water with no salt from time to time to keep the salinity down. When you change water, you don't take out the extra salt that's left in it, but you add more, that's when you dilute with fresh RO water. I hope this make sense!

:happyfish

 

[mikeyjer]

Originally Posted by Krisiks
Hi,
Thanks for your reply.
I will show what you wrote to my parents and hopefully they agree with me setting up the tank. I think I will also have to show them some pics of saltwater tank so that they can see the beauty of it as they have never see one. They know only freshwater and specially discus fish because I have a discus tank which they spend some times watching every night.
Anyone : - Do you cover your tank???
Thanks.
Kr|S
Yes I do cover my tank with glass top because of my hairy dog(Siberian Husky), but I leave the plastic strip on the back off for some air circulation. You don't really have to cover your tank if you have lights with legs or a hanging fixture like I have. I cover because I don't want my tank full of dog hair. There's dog hair EVERYWHERE in my house, always vaccum, but never seem to cut down. Hair on the bed, furniture, everywhere you can think of, plus the bird too, feathers and dust everywhere. Air purifier is a must in my house!!! I spend more time cleaning dog hair and bird dander then anything else!

 

[crazyzeus1]

Just wanted to post to say that we also have a large home (5000 sqft) and have also gone "all out" with our design choices. We would NEVER have put a tank in our home if it was going to compromise our metals, woods, etc.
We have not had any metals rusting what so ever. There is not nearly enough evaporation to cause a problem. If you splash/spill a bit of water, clean it up...simple as that!
Good luck & Keep us posted!

 

[krisiks]

Thanks for all your replies.
I sincerely appreciate them.
I have printed the thread and show to my parents and finally they approved but told me if anything starts rusting I will have to remove it. So, yesterday I started by filling the sand with saltwater mixed and went to the beach to get some "live sand" directly from sea, then I added it to my tank. I will just leave it like that and by next weekend I will go to the seaside again and get live rock.
Thanks again.
Kr|S

 

[mikeyjer]

Originally Posted by Krisiks
Thanks for all your replies.
I sincerely appreciate them.
I have printed the thread and show to my parents and finally they approved but told me if anything starts rusting I will have to remove it. So, yesterday I started by filling the sand with saltwater mixed and went to the beach to get some "live sand" directly from sea, then I added it to my tank. I will just leave it like that and by next weekend I will go to the seaside again and get live rock.
Thanks again.
Kr|S
That's not a good idea!!! You do not know what's living in those sand and you may have problems down the road. Same with the live rock. I have read anything close to the beach might have pollution, I think you have to go quite a bit outwards into the ocean. Just my thought! :happyfish

 

[merredeth]

Originally Posted by Krisiks
Hi,
Thanks for your reply.
I will show what you wrote to my parents and hopefully they agree with me setting up the tank. I think I will also have to show them some pics of saltwater tank so that they can see the beauty of it as they have never see one. They know only freshwater and specially discus fish because I have a discus tank which they spend some times watching every night.
Anyone : - Do you cover your tank???
Thanks.
Kr|S
I cover my tanks because there are two dogs in my home. One is a schipperke and the other a black lab. Believe it or not the black lab sheds more than the schipperke does and the schipperke has three times the amount of hair.
So either I'm vacuuming all the time or the lady the lady that cleans my house weekly gets to do overkill on the vacuuming. But, hair is the promary reason for keeping covers on the tanks.
I read in another post you were going to the ocean to get sand. Because of pollution issues close to land I've read about a lot, I urge you to buy live sand at your local LFS. Why start a saltwater tank and spend money on fish that are destined to die if you don't start out with good base? From what I have read you would need to go out miles into the ocean to get good sand.
I want to see you succeed at your tank you have researched out, and my suggestion is to buy the live sand you need for your base. There is too much potential for dead fish down the road.
Your parents should be proud of you for the research you have done to plead your case.
Good luck sweetie!
Denise M.