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View Full Version : does brass contaminate?


spoon25
03/09/2006, 10:13 AM
should i be worried about contamination with a my spray bars....they dont have plastic connections at lowes only brass to fit 1/2 fittings so i could connect my spraybars to the lines...they dont have plastic barbs to connect 5/8 tubing to 1/2 inch thread...i had to go brass....is this bad? i m getting worried

Stephany
03/09/2006, 10:19 AM
yes... you should switch them out.

spoon25
03/09/2006, 10:28 AM
i could swear zooqi said not to worry about them at one point in his lectures about my tank....how does brass effect...what contaminates does it produce?

fishesRdelicious
03/09/2006, 10:43 AM
any metal will corode eventually and will leach chemicals in the tank, deffinately not worth the risk. so i would swap the brass for something plastic. post of the picture of the fitting and we can see what you need to change it

Highlander
03/09/2006, 10:44 AM
The major component of brass is copper.
You don't want copper in your reef system.

spoon25
03/09/2006, 10:47 AM
the have been in there 6 months, no corrosion yet and i have done 2 types copper test...and theres nothing that shows up...thank god

spoon25
03/09/2006, 10:48 AM
i need 2--- 5/8 barb by 1/2 male thread, anyone have these...lowes or any hardware store around here doesnt.....

Devildogg9745
03/09/2006, 11:17 AM
Lowes here carries a plastic 5/8 by 1/2 barb but it is not by the rest of the other barbs it is by the sump pumps for trailers. I spent 2 hours ther e debating if I could use brass until somebody working there found them for me.

spoon25
03/09/2006, 11:29 AM
yea i need the 5/8 barb by 1/2 male thread not 1/2 barb....they dont make it in plastic....ive looked in books at lowes and everything

fishesRdelicious
03/09/2006, 12:03 PM
you are going to need to get the 5/8 barb with threads and then get a reducer to 1/2, i am going to lowes later today and will look

spoon25
03/09/2006, 12:24 PM
in that case look for an angle 5/8 barb ...i tried everything down here, nothing i could find, no reducers or anything

Stephany
03/09/2006, 12:25 PM
You may have to do a fosterandsmith order, they have lots of reducers. I know there's other places, maybe premium aquatics that may have them too...
reefgeek?

spoon25
03/09/2006, 12:29 PM
thanks babe....lol...ill look....ya know how hard its gonna be to to replace those 2 little fittings, ill have to move 180 lbs live rock from my tank...cant beleive it...oh well, i dont care these things happen i guess

fishesRdelicious
03/09/2006, 03:37 PM
here is the piece you want to get:
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a226/fishesRdelicious/putmeinthetrash.jpg
it is called 1/2'' male adapter. it is called 1/2'' but really the barb is closer to 5/8''. you may need a ziptie just to make sure it stays on

spoon25
03/09/2006, 03:46 PM
yea i tried them, but the hose i use is double braided and its very durable and very hard to squeeze shut, it come blowing off its just not big enough the barbs are quite big enough...i have about 2400gph pushing through these spray bars

Stephany
03/09/2006, 03:50 PM
Put the hose in hot water first before putting it on the barb end. That way you can get it on all the way.
They also have plastic clamps available that should be used.

Zip ties work too, but you would have to cut them off.

spoon25
03/09/2006, 03:54 PM
no the barb is too small, and if i use 1/2 inch barb it will lose alot of water pressure, i wont get 2400gph, ill cut that in half if i go to smaller fittings...

spoon25
03/09/2006, 03:54 PM
ill just rip out everything and run 1"pvc as a spray bar

fishesRdelicious
03/09/2006, 03:59 PM
if you have 2400 gph going into that small of a hole you need to upgrade to bigger hose and bigger pvc. if you are getting 2400 gph out of that size fittting then it has to be like a presure washer. looking at the peice i got, the outlet hole is about 3/8'', so you are losing probably 50+% on the flow, not to imagine what you are doing to the pump.
explain how your plumbing goes, sizes of pvc,etc.

Stephany
03/09/2006, 04:00 PM
Get a bigger barb! lol

spoon25
03/09/2006, 04:09 PM
ok, here is how it goes....reasoning would be to stop electrical currents running through water from pump...the way to do that would be to reduce pump flow, some use a ball valve to do this...but the same people use one spray bar....i have 2 spray bars...so i have 1 inch pvc braided hose that splite at my spray bars into a 3 way with 2 -5/8 adapters conncting to the spray bars....,now i have 2-5/8 hoses going to 1/2 spray bars that are 3 ft long...i lose about 6 gph wich is perfect, i have zero voltage from the pump and 2 spray bars that are 3 ft long and water goes through all 15 holes on the spray bar.....see my rocks are in the center through the tank and its lays on top of the spray bars both pointing in oppiste directions to blow detritus out from the rocks....alot of people have there tanks up against a wall and build the rock on the back wall with there spray bar in the botton rear corner...i dont have botton rear, cuz how i have my rocks so i must bury the spray bars under the rock throughout the center of the tank.....its different but now i have 3 sides to look at my tank as a room devider....most people have just front and sides, i have both front and back and one side of the tank i must clean .....its kinda cool how i have it setup

spoon25
03/09/2006, 04:10 PM
600*gph

spoon25
03/09/2006, 04:13 PM
i fugure if you have 2x5/8 tubing this equals about 11/8 inch...which is more than plenty for a pump with 1 inch hole on it

spoon25
03/09/2006, 04:15 PM
1 &1/4 inch sry 5/8+5/8=1.25

fishesRdelicious
03/09/2006, 04:16 PM
ok, so it is split 3 ways. still you are loosing a lot of flow but if it works for you...

spoon25
03/09/2006, 04:21 PM
i shoudlnt be losing any flow from the split, cuz if you have 2 streams of 5/8 jet coming out they still equal the same amount of water flow if you would have 1 stream of 1 inch coming out...understand now where im losing flow would be how far the water has to travel before it gets to the "T" and gets to the 1/2 pvc...thats where you lose flow b/c its a mag pump they lose pressure after 8 ft and the water goes about 10 ft through the tubing...thats where you would lose flow unless i go smaller tubing that equals less than 1 inch then i would lose flow....does that make sence...if anyone else has any more input whether my theory on thiis plz join, i am no scientist on water flow...

spoon25
03/09/2006, 05:36 PM
ok, i have been lots f research and brass is made out of compounds that are zinc and a type of copper, together it provides very high strenght durability and corrosion free metal called brass...now it tells me this metal doesnt corrode at all.....unless its broken down from the chemical and physical compounds usually by melting the metal...this is a good thing....that tells me that it wont affect my tank whatsoever...if anyone else sees anything different plz show me a link so i can read and do more research on this

fishesRdelicious
03/09/2006, 06:29 PM
you are losing flow from the split because even if you have 2 5/8'' holes it still isnot giving the flow from one 1''. let me explain:
if you have a pipe that has a 5/8'' diameter, its area is ruftly 1.23in squared
if the pipe has a one inch diameter, its area is 3.14in squared
this tells you the potential amount of water that can pass through the pipe at one time.
now if you add a couple of those fittings to hook up to the spray bars that have an even smaller diameter like 3/8''. 3/8'' has an area of .44in squared. 1/2'' pipe that has a area of .79''. after head pressure and friction in the pipes you will have even less gph. it is always better to have a bigger pipe, the key is you want to have the biggest pipe that you can get that will not sacrafice any of the flow and not too big so the weight of the water it is pushing becomes a problem.
again with the brass, i wouldnt use it personally because i dont like to take any risks like that, also that info is probably not refering to if it was in saltwater. saltwater is much more corrosive than freshwater. you can deffinately find peices to fit it that are plastic, just might take some time in lowes.

spoon25
03/09/2006, 06:38 PM
we talk on the way to calfo meeting, are you goin with us?

fishesRdelicious
03/09/2006, 06:57 PM
yes, just decided
hopefully we all fit in the car

spoon25
03/09/2006, 07:10 PM
what you mean just 3 of us right?

spoon25
03/09/2006, 07:11 PM
i hope i win something..lol...

fishesRdelicious
03/09/2006, 07:18 PM
mo said, me you mo , bill and his wife
maybe bill isnt going anymore, i dont know

spoon25
03/09/2006, 07:34 PM
yea but i thought bill said he was driving with his wife...so guess its just me you and mo....we best be callin people...i wanna get there early, also jon wants moe there by 5 to get the tickets...i wanna get there earlier to look around and spend money....hey when you talk to mo tell him i am beggin to stop at pets and you b/c thats my favorite store in the whole central pa...i wanna make him laugh...we are also going to bmkindig or whatever his name is....if bill and his wife are going...its gonna be tight int he car...no matter what were all gonna have fun....hope we stop at mustangs on the way home...lol

fishesRdelicious
03/09/2006, 07:43 PM
he is going to call me back and i will let you know

MOX
03/10/2006, 03:27 PM
if some one could post a photo or let me know were i could find a plastic hose clamp, zip ties dont seem to hold up i found what was said to be a solid stainless steel hose clamp 3 days later i noticed rust, lol id like to shoot people that make products like that. i cant seem to locate any thing that looks like it would hold my hose on to my pump. the pump has metric fittings so all the standard plumping equp dose not mix.

Critter
03/10/2006, 07:09 PM
This might help get you started

http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=usplastic&category%5Fname=2659&product%5Fid=8236

but you may be able to find them cheaper.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6926367#post6926367 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MOX
if some one could post a photo or let me know were i could find a plastic hose clamp, zip ties dont seem to hold up i found what was said to be a solid stainless steel hose clamp 3 days later i noticed rust, lol id like to shoot people that make products like that. i cant seem to locate any thing that looks like it would hold my hose on to my pump. the pump has metric fittings so all the standard plumping equp dose not mix.