Brass - Does it rust?

Riptide

Riptide

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Nov 28, 2003
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Simple question. Does Brass rust out?

I went to get some elbow joints today for setting up my UV filter... And they had no plastic ones since they were out of season. They had brass or stainless steel. Since it was cheap I picked up a couple brass ones in hopes that it won't rust out on me.
 
Brasses have excellent resistance to corrosion that makes them a natural, economic first choice for many applications.

Atmospheric exposure of the brasses results in the formation of a thin protective green "patina", a visually attractive feature in buildings.

Brass will remain essentially unaffected for an unlimited period of time, i.e. it will not rust away like iron and steel.

Seawater can be handled successfully providing the correct alloy is chosen, and there is a long history of the use of brass tube and tube fittings, valves, etc. in domestic plumbing, central heating, seawater lines, steam condensers and desalination plant.

High tensile brasses containing manganese have particularly excellent resistance to atmospheric corrosion, continual exposure resulting in a gradual darkening of the bronze colour.


My concern would not be with corrosion (rusting) but rather with the brass leaching zinc. This is one of the worst metal alloys as far as leaching is concerned.
 
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Thanks Gbolton. Should I give these brass elbow joints a try then or should I go back and see if I can find stainless steel? If you think the brass will hold up to the marine environment OK I'll just stick with them.
 
You can give it a try I guess like I said the Zinc leaching may or may not be a problem. I am not sure as Zinc's effect of inverts or on fish. PVC is your best bet just make sure that you glue it carefully. Also with the Brass you do realize that to join it you cannot use standard glue. You have to heat it up and solder the metal.

After cleaning and edging the brass joint, a white flux paste is applied to the two adjoining pieces to help clean and protect the joint during the heating process. The flux will prevent oxidation from occurring in the joint due to the high temperatures required to melt the solder onto the base metal.

After the flux has been allowed to dry, I use an oxy-acetylene torch to heat the work pieces up to the melting temperature before adding the silver solder. Note that the temperature required to melt the solder is well below the melting temperature of the brass base metal.

This method of joining metals is good for joints which will not be subjected to high stresses. It allows me to create a seamless joint which will be ground and finished to match the existing base metal.


If done correctly the silver should not be a problem. Do not use lead as the solder as I am sure this would be a problem. Also if the output on the device is plastic you will need to place a threaded piece on ehre to join to the brass.
 
Thanks again gbolton. I'm going to drop by another hardware store today and see if I can find plastic or stainless steel pieces. I have stainless steel clamps to hold the plastic in place on the joints so it shouldn't leak and I don't think I'll need to do any soldering. The sterilyzer itself came with plastic clamps to fix the hose on the plastic mounts at the top.

I'll keep the brass ones and use them if I can't find anything else.
 
Why? I figured that it would help keep the water clear of some algae and parasites. That's all I intended for it. It was a bit more of a pain than I expected but I should've done more research.

I finally got it set up tonight. I went to Ace hardware and picked up a couple of plastic elbows... So the brass ones are going back. I also got some stainless steel clamps (the screw down kind) and am using those to secure the hoses. After some hassle, it appears to be working with no leaks.

The power head I'm using (and most of the ones I've seen) didn't allow the hose to get very far down on the spout so even with a clamp on there (used a plastic one this time) some of the pressure is lost. I'd guesstimate I'm down to more like 150-200gph flow through the sterilyzer which is a little slower than I'd hoped. I'll keep my eyes peeled for a better power head or pump but for now at least it works! :)

The only downside to this, IMO, is the fact that some corals might not grow on my live rock that might otherwise. I'm not real thrilled about that but I'll take the tradeoff for now. Besides, this tank has been exposed to ich and I can't put a fish in there until after christmas.
 
Ummm, brass is made of copper. And copper will kill off any inverts in your tank. I would say no no no. That green corrosion is simply copper chloride forming and will deteriorate over time. As a conservator of archeological artifacts from a marine context I can tell you that copper alloy aren't great. In fact the only time we find any living tissue on digs is when they are in contact with copper alloys. This is due to the fact that it is super poisonous and kills all bacteria. I would not use any copper products near my tanks, especially those that have a high salt content.
 
Brass is not safe for aquarium use.

Most people take great strides to keep all kinds of metals (except titanium) away from their water, and brass is no exception as it is comprised of copper and zinc. My source water comes through copper pipes, of course, but it also goes through the RO/DI filter before it touches my tank.

Just say NO to brass :)
 
Thankfully Ace hardware had what I needed - 2 plastic elbows.

Between the plastic elbows, some stainless steel C clamps, and a few extra suction cups from a dead fluval 304 I was able to rig up the UV sterilyzer and get it working.
 
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