Can Ceramic rock leach Tin (Sn)

[VJV]

Hi, for the longest time my reef had perfect parameters for Calcium, All, Magnesium (and all others according to recent Triton tests) but acros have always struggled. They would hold for about a month and than they would slowly loose colour and eventually die. My nutrient levels have always been at zero (Hanna ULR Phosphorus and Salifert NO3) but what I have found in the Triton tests to be very high was Tin (Sn).

The levels were at 4,75 which is apparently too high.

I have not found any rusting piece of equipment (and in fact another test 3 months later showed a level of 3,49) but I have stumbled on the following article:

"The major commercial applications of tin are in tinplate, solder alloys, bearing metals, tin and alloy coatings (both plated and hot-coated), pewter, bronzes, and fusible alloys. In its chemical reactions, tin exists in two valence states (II and IV) and is amphoteric (able to react as both an acid and a base). In addition, it can link directly with carbon to form organometallic compounds. These properties have given rise to many important uses for tin chemicals—for example, in electroplating, agricultural and pharmaceutical products, and plastics and ceramics."

I have always used ceramic rock from a French company called "Aquaroche" and it is what I have in my system. Could the Tin be coming from those rocks?

I am not a Chemist so go easy on me :lmao:

 

[bertoni]

I suspect that the rock is fine, but I can't be sure. You could try using a PolyFilter for a while. I suspect that it'd remove any extra tin. One issue to keep in mind is that Triton tests have accuracy problems with trace elements. There's an article available, if you'd like to do some reading.

There could be a number of issues involved in the coral problems. What other corals are in the system, and are they doing well? I'd check lighting levels and other water quality parameters, too.