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Re: Metal nuts in the tank
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 11:07:04 -0500
> From: "Rod Hanks" <rodchanks at hotmail_com>
> Subject: Metal nuts in the tank
>
> While replacing a fan, I managed to drop two #6 nuts into the tank.
> This tank is full of plants, 2 feet deep, and has a sand and fine
> soil substrate. The nuts are gone. I'll never find them.
>
> These were regular hardware item bright finish nuts, probably some
> kind of steel with a zinc coating. How worried should I be about
> metal toxicity? Is there anything I can add to the tank to make it
> safer?
Get a strong small magnet on a string, and go fishing. The Nuts should be
easy to remove, that way.
I would be mildly worried, depending on relative size of nuts and tank. The
bright finish is, unfortunately cadmium on common hardware-store nuts. It is
pretty soluble, particularly in an acidic tank.
I'd find a magnet and get them out, if it was my tank.
Wright
--
Wright Huntley, Fremont CA, USA, 510 494-8679 huntley1 at home_com
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and
thus clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series
of hobglobins, all of them imaginary." -- H.L. Mencken
http://environmental.networkroom.com/