I cleaned out my sump, pulled my Mag 12 for routine cleaning and found RUST on all of the face screws. The screws are rusted to the pump face, there was so much rust it even discolored some LR next to it...

This can't be normal, is it?

I just lost 2 brittle starfish, that have been in my tanks for 6+ years. I have a large 12"+ Derasa clam, who isn't looking as good as he normally does. He isn't opening like normal, and there isn't any nip markes or anything in paticular that would make him close. The other Maxima's look fine, for now.

Could this rust be the reason?

The pump is only about 1-1.5 years old, and I've had it out at least 3-4 times since I bought it. It's never had rust before... WTF? The pump was putting tiny, tiny bubbles into the tank, I thought I had a small leak in the plumbing. I put in a back up 9.5, and voila! No more tiny bubbles.

Perhaps the tiny bubbles caused some of the demise of the starfish and fractious state of my Derasa? I thought I remember something about tiny bubbles getting caught and causing tissue necrosis in inverts?

Any ideas here? And what to do about this RUST!

And thanks.