Pretty good chance you found the culprit. Second the cuprasorb.Eureka!…? Perhaps?
Got home and checked my power heads. On the pump side of the inner magnet, hidden from view I found this….
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I think it’s a piece broken off my long scraper that uses razor blades. It’s definitely steel as you can see and at 12:00 on the magnet you can see the orange spot where it was stuck. Definitely smelled like rust.
It’s small, but definitely rusting as the metal pieces just flake into pieces.
Could I have found the smoking gun?