Broken thermometer in tank this am/addl losses

H

horseridingirl

AC Members
Mar 11, 2005
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The 38 gal tank had been close to 80 degrees so I went to check the thermometer this morning and pulled it out, found water in it and the end broke off. :eek: Not sure how this happened or if it was with the most recent tank cleaning over the weekend (let's blame it all on the BF-jj) -- but now I'm even more worried about my fish!

I took it out promptly, bagged it and put it in the trash. Nothing seemed to be leaking out but the red was all running into the mercury balls. It all seemed to be intact. Not sure where broken part is either. I'm assuming down in the tank somewhere. : (

Last night, I found the dwarf frog dead in the back right corner which I'm now calling the "corner of death." I was curious about the dead tetra from 2 days ago which hadn't floated to the top and wanted to get him out of there
(as well as the other "missing" tetras). I took all the fake plants and rocks out and found 3 more neons in various forms of decay. Maybe it was fluctuating water conditions that did them in. Still missing a few that may have fell prey to the spotted catfish that I returned last week.

What can/should I do? Just keep an eye on the fish? Move them?
 
Was it a mercury (silver line) or an alcohol (red line) thermometer?

I suppose in any case the best course of action is to move the fish out temporarily, shut down the tank, drain the water and very carefully, wearing some clean rubber gloves, find the missing, broken piece. Remove all the decorations, rocks, etc. one by one, carefully inspecting each one. Then, divide the substrate into section and vary carefully check through each one.

This may be overkill, but if you've had mercury leak into your tank you really need to get it outta before you can have much hope of having a healthy, sustainable tank.
 
I think she said it was a red line one. So a little safer for the fish then ?

I had the same thing happen this weekend.......I just cleaned out the glass and any particles that came out of the thermometer. If you want to be safe do a water change and remove the substrate where the glass may have fallen. I can't even coun't how many thermometers and cheap heaters my fish have broken over the years, but I haven't lost a fish in any of those tanks. At least for me its time for an unbreakable thermometer.
 
It happened to me too, I bumped it while it was still hot. I picked the pieces out with careful fingers and everything was ok. I never thought about the stuff in it. This was a few months ago and all is ok. A water change is a good idea.
 
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