Rust, Is It Harmful?

[sezra]

Hi, im not really new to fish keeping, but I thought this would be the best place for this question. Recently I removed a fake plant (see the green bushy plant in the pic?) because on one of its leaves, the wire has become exposed and has started to rust, i dont want to cut the leaf off, because it would create a rather sharp edge that may damage some of my fish, espeacially my fire eel. As it is, the surface isnt sharp, but im worried about the rust and wether it will damage/poison the fish in my tank. I dont really want to bin it and buy a replacement, as it cost me about £10 and im short on cash at the moment. So is it still safe to use? or shall i leave it out and wait until next month when I can afford to get a new one?

 

[Azaezl]

I'm not sure whether rust will do any damage but I'd leave the plant out just to be on the safe side and buy a replacement when you can. Or even better get some real ones, you can get alot of plants from online plant shops with £10(not inc p&p), I got over 50 for £6 and that was enough to do my 4ft tank, not heavily planted but it went a long way for what I paid.

Just curious what size is your tank?

 

[CFC]

Yes rust is poisonous to fish, any metals which leach into the water are toxic to fish and cause problems with the slime coat and nervous system eventually causing death.

A while back a friend of mine was having problems with a mystery illness which was killing off all his fish, no treatments helped and only constant water changes seemed to keep it in check, it had everyone stumped. Then one day by chance i was in their house while they were doing a water change and with the lower water level and my position on the sofa i could see the lighting and more importently the rusting metal clips that held the light tubes in place, once the rusting clips were removed and changed for plastic ones the illness never returned and the tank has been running well ever since.

 

[raptorrex]

Yes rust is poisonous to fish, any metals which leach into the water are toxic to fish and cause problems with the slime coat and nervous system eventually causing death.

A while back a friend of mine was having problems with a mystery illness which was killing off all his fish, no treatments helped and only constant water changes seemed to keep it in check, it had everyone stumped. Then one day by chance i was in their house while they were doing a water change and with the lower water level and my position on the sofa i could see the lighting and more importently the rusting metal clips that held the light tubes in place, once the rusting clips were removed and changed for plastic ones the illness never returned and the tank has been running well ever since.

i assume that the same is not true of marine fish. rotting ocean wrecks are usually a veritable hive of activity. even where the water is contained, the fish and inverts thrive. i must admit i thought only suspended iron was a problem.

 

[sezra]

I'm not sure whether rust will do any damage but I'd leave the plant out just to be on the safe side and buy a replacement when you can. Or even better get some real ones, you can get alot of plants from online plant shops with £10(not inc p&p), I got over 50 for £6 and that was enough to do my 4ft tank, not heavily planted but it went a long way for what I paid.

Just curious what size is your tank?

I have toyed with the idea of planting real plants, but, from what i have heard they are quite hard to maintain, and need replacing more often because they die. Is this just because it is not being done correctly? They do look nicer.

My tank is a duo deep 800, 800 x 350 x 450mm (L x B x H) 27.5 gal. 800mm is about 2.6 feet in length.

 

[Azaezl]

As you rightly guessed they die off because they aren't being looked after correctly. You can't just chuck plants in and leave them to it, they will eventually die off, they need feeding as well. There are many routes to go down with planting but if you just want a few plants for some hiding places and to help keep nitrates etc down(not an alternative for water changes / proper maintenance) then I'd suggest getting some fast growers & some bottled plant food. If you decide you want to get serious with planting and want to go down the Co2, E.I route etc then read up about it all on the plants section & get some ideas of what you'd like your tank to look like / what you can afford to do in the journals section.

As for your tank size it's not big enough for all the fish you have. Do you have plans to upgrade very soon? Your correct your tank is roughly 27.5G but that's not taking the decor, gravel etc into consideration it's probably more around the 25G mark but either way it's too small for some of the fish you have.

The bichir needs a 30G min, but at a push your tank may be ok, I'm not sure about the actual dimensions a bichir requires(I only owned them for a short time in a 66G so space wasn't an issue)

The common plec gets waaaay too big for the tank you have, ideally it needs a 4ft x 2ft tank(but some people keep them in slightly smaller tanks)

The fire eel again gets too big for the tank it's in, ideally it requires a 6ft x 2ft x 2ft as this has the potential to grow to 24inches(which isn't common they usually don't get to more then around 20 inches)

The tiger barbs & corys are fine in the tank you have(depending on exactly how many you have?), the corys, bichir, eel & the plec would benefit more having a sand substrate rather then gravel. If you can't upgrade your tank very soon then I suggest you rehome the bichir, eel & plec. If you do upgrade you need to keep the corys in a different tank to the bichir as it will at some point try to eat them, I'm not sure if the eel would have a go as well, I've never kept them and don't know very much about them. Is the picture above the tank they are all in? Just I can't see any sign of any of the fish apart from the corys and what looks like a gourami in the top left corner and some sort of small fish in the top right.