Brass leaks copper and zinc when exposed to saltwater at an alarming rate. Back in October, this was discussed on the reef-l list.
I think the following post from Ron will help you to form your own conclusion:
From
[email protected] Wed Oct 6 23:01:37 1999
From: "Ronald L. Shimek" <
[email protected]>
To: <
[email protected]>
Subject: Re: What about Brass
Date: Wed, 6 Oct 1999 22:00:51 -0600
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2014.211
Reply-To:
[email protected]
Folks,
Some 30 years ago the University of Washington marine labs at Friday Harbor
had a flow through system that was all glass or glass-lined. This included
the pump that ran water through the system. I should emphasize the system
was immense, it served about 10 separate buildings and probably entrained
upwards of 100,000 gallons of water at any one time.
A new maintenance man was on call one evening when the pump broke down.
Rather than try to fix the glass-lined pump, he fastened on a brass-lined
pump. The residence time for water inside this pump was less than a second
(from the bay thru the pump into the glass pipes of the system). Within 1/2
hour of the pump being installed researchers noticed mortalities of their
animals. Within about 2 hours effectively every organism in all the flow
through tanks was dead.
Brass at the peril of your organisms.
Cheers, Ron
