chrome in salt water?

[radar!]

does anyone know if chrome plated steel will be ok in salt water?

i know stainless is better but if i can't find stainless ball bearings for a DIY check valve project will chrome plated be fine?
thanks

 

[gatorracer]

Chrome will rust in saltwater, In fact chrome is nothing but paint really.
You get chrome by dipping steal in the a chrome solution, when it sets up you get pretty chrome. Stainless steel will be your only solution to keep rust from forming. I dont know this from my tank but I am in the manfacturing business and we build flusher trucks. The worst part about chrome is it will in fact peel off your steel before the rust forms. Look at a pitted bumer on an old car, If you have a sharp knife where the chrome is pitted you can scrape it off and find the rust underneath.

Have a good one

Gatorracer

 

[Anonymous]

What gator siad. Have you considered a suction break insted? They are cheep and requite little to no maintenance.

 

[melas]

i can't speak from experience in a tank and i do not know the quality/type of ball bearings you are talking about but i do know that nickel based chrome is used for marine fishing lures/parts as well as on boats for trim and props. they do not rust. the chrome used for a car bumper, as stated above, is certainly not the same as it does become pitted with rust rather easily. not knowing what you have it would probably be easier to pickup a stainless steel bearing or go with what was mentioned above.

 

[radar!]

i have never heard of these suction breaks.
where can a guy get info and the whereabouts of such and animal?

 

[garagebrian]

I have made a top off device that uses a siphon break(might be similar to a suction break?). I detailed the device on another website:

http://www.marshreef.com/modules.php?na ... sc&start=0

Let me know if you have any questions.

B.

 

[Anonymous]

siphon break is where an opening is large enough so that when the water level is below the opening, the air will rush via the opening, and break the siphon. This only work if there is a section of the plumbing where the pipe is above the water level.

>...Stainless steel will be your only solution to keep rust from forming.....

There are many grades of SS, and some are prone to attach from saltwater. I always get them mess up, but if memory serve me right, SS316 is the correct grade.

 

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't use any metal at all. Seems to me you could build a valve with pvc/nylon/plastic. Like many diy borneman surge projects. Or better yet redesign it so the check valve was not necessary.

 

[gatorracer]

Melas,

The chorme you are taling about on fishing lures may be true but as small a surface area as they are and limited use is why they will take dozens of years to rust. But I am very sure that the metal on boat props and such is polished stainless steel. All chrome is treated with nickel thats is the reagent that makes it stick to the steel.

The suction break sounds like the way to go.

Gatorracer

 

[Chemical_Whore]

actuly, if you think about it, werent those bumpers crome dipped, so the back end wasent cromed at all, so they rusted from that back side of the crome?