Stainless steel hose clamps.. reef safe?

Thanks for info - it is actually a 300.

 

Hi....just use those plastic hose clamps the ones that ratchet together.
Then you will have no worries!

 

You look at all pumps with a solid shaft the way the housing is sealed then the shaft never really is ever exposed to water or liquids. When the impeller shaft is placed through the housing portion of the shaft seal then that impeller has a place to hold to opposite end of that seal and when the impeller is screwed up onto the shaft end the two halves of the seal meet up and make a water tight seal and that keeps the shaft dry and when the shaft ever does get wet then there is a leak . And in magnetic drive small pumps this is never a issue .

This is why every tr I totally pull my main pump down and check the impeller for any stress cracks on the seal recess area and I pull motor apart and clean and oil the bearings and replace the seals and align shaft and put it all back together .. You'd be surprised how many pumps do not have S.S shafts for aquarium use. Pools and spas are different they fall under a heath code so many of them do have a S.S shaft but the seldom see water and when they do start to get exposed to water they then sling it everywhere . Below is the best thing I ever found to lock tubing to a fitting

 

Hey Matt,

I have a 33' Silverton & have been around boats all my life. There are different grades of stainless steel. Also they will ALL rust over time. I wouldn't worry about the stainless so much, but I would worry about the grease that they use in the clamp assy that houses the screw. It is NOT water base!

 

lol.. What an idiot I'm at times. I have these & I forgot to mention them, but a couple people have already mentioned was the plastic hose clamps. They work very well, but I would depending on pressure on them & size replace them once every year or every 2.

Plastic Hose Clamp

 

that's exactly it.

Now there are a ton of different alloys of SS out there. Cheaper ones that magnets can stick to are definitely not for submersible use in a SW tank.

 

I used to be an engineer doing experiment integration with NASA, and as you probably guess they go overboard with everything. One of the things they went overboard with was a gun used to apply zip ties to a specific tightness (lbs). Now the specific tightness is overboard, but the gun applicator is not. Without a gun, getting a really tight zip tie is not really possible. With one you can get as much pressure as a standard hose clamp. They also then cut the tie right at the clip.

Here is a link to one gun with adjustable tension.

 

One more thing... stainless steel in a tank is not a deal killer. Ever see what holds the large Mag pump housings together? Stainless steel screws. When steel oxidizes (rusts) it releases its iron content. Iron is naturally present in low levels (up to about 3ppb) in sea water and you can get iron supplements for salt water aquariums.

Now, does that mean that I throw stainless steal hardware willy-nilly into my system? No. Too much of anything is a pollutant. This applies to hose clamps/steel/iron. I use the standard Home Depot hose clamps for external pumps. I'm not concerned about rust outside the system and I want the security from release that those hose clamps provide. Inside the system I feel comfortable using plastic hose clamps or, more often, zip ties because if they fail you're not dumping multiple gallons of salt water on your floor.

Edit: Adding in the bit of info that plastic tends to get brittle over time and will fail under too much pressure. Zip ties are more susceptable to this than the plastic hose clamps, but it will happen to both. Of course it happens to stainless too, but it is easy to see when that is happening

 

I bet the pump makers use a really rigid and corrosion resistant alloy specifically for their pumps. Hose clamps alloy is far more pliable.

I know for a fact marine grade hose clamps will rust, we replace them all the time on our bilge pumps. In fact every good captain keeps a few spares in his back pack for emergencies.

 

Wow - interesting stuff all! 8)