# Stainless Steel and Shrimp



## Kibblesnbits (Aug 4, 2007)

It's possible that you could leach Nickel and/or Chromium into the water if the water has high alkalinity or is above 100C... but at that point, everything would be dead anyway.

Stainless will be safe.

_edit: Could you post links to the "mixed results"?_


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## bigboij (Jul 24, 2009)

as long as its quality stainless you should be fine


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## PRSRocker3390 (Apr 20, 2009)

*stainless steel shrimp*

I've read so many and I didn't save any pages. There was one on here I remember though were someone used a stainless steel bolt inside their aquarium and lost some shrimp within very little time so they wound up removing the bolt. Something like that....let me see if I can find it again.

EDIT: Here is the one thread: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/g...iscussion/33535-stainless-steel-w-shrimp.html

Is stainless steel really capable of fouling things up bad for shrimp? I can always just tie the moss to manzanita and play it safe I guess.


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## OverStocked (May 26, 2007)

Doubt it. For instance, many filters have a stainless shaft on their impeller.


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## Kibblesnbits (Aug 4, 2007)

If anecdotal evidence carries weight around here (and it must since that one guy said SS hurt his shrimp...), all of the hardware (bolts, nuts, etc) that I use at the lab are stainless. All of my apparatus is machined from stainless (granted, it's superaustenitic, generally). We do this because any contamination of the samples can lead to anomalies during spectro and petro analysis. I've had RO water in contact with stainless at temperatures beyond boiling for 24 hours with no leaching. I've also had extremely basic and acidic solutions in contact with stainless for upwards of a year at 80C, resulting in barely detectable amounts of contamination (the amount by mass of Nickel in the solution at the end of 14 months was less than the error introduced by the instrumentation, for instance).

SS = Shrimp Safe


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## PRSRocker3390 (Apr 20, 2009)

Kibblesnbits said:


> SS = Shrimp Safe


I like that. Thank you all for the advice. I guess I will go forward with my stainless steel moss wall. :thumbsup:


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## Green Leaf Aquariums (Feb 26, 2007)

PRSRocker3390 said:


> Has anyone had problems with keeping RCS or others in a tank with stainless steel mesh (316 type if that helps)? I want to use the stainless steel mesh to make a moss wall in my future RCS tank and didn't know whether or not it would be safe over a period of time. I've read mixed results online searching so I thought maybe someone has some insight as to using it recently or in the past.


 For a while now folks have been using stainless steel filter pipes with the most sensitive sp. of fish and shrimp without a hitch.


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## PRSRocker3390 (Apr 20, 2009)

That's cool. Another question would be does the grade matter? I am using type 316 Stainless Steel. That doesn't make a big difference, correct? I know nothing about stainless steel types and grades and what they mean.


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## Kibblesnbits (Aug 4, 2007)

316 would be the way to go here. It's one of the more common steel alloys, readily available, and cheaper than many others. It is an austenitic steel incorporating molybdenum for corrosion resistance. Generally has 10-14% Nickel content, 16-18% Chromium. It's one of the more chloride and acid resistant 300-series steels. Gets used a lot in laboratory and pharmaceutical equipment and in situations where it'd be exposed to chloride and sulfate attack in water (marine applications).


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## Momotaro (Feb 21, 2003)

I used stainless steel rods rolled up into concentric squares to hold down _Riccia_ with absolutely no adverse effect on any shrimp.

My suspicion is that the mesh isn't really stainless steel.


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