Another Broken Thermometer Thread

[pl*co]

Well, it happened to me today. I noticed that the bottom tip of my thermometer broke off in the tank. I'm not sure when it actually happened. So I did a search here and read through the threads which were all very helpful.

The bulb with the red tinted alcohol did not break, so good there, but it appeared that a few of the metal balls came out. The rest seem stuck together in the tube in a wax-like substance.

The vacuum did not pick them up, so I tried another piece of advice and used a magnet to retrieve them from the gravel. I used 1/2 of my magnetic glass cleaner thingy and picked out a dozen of the metal balls, but that was all I could come up with. Now if I could just find the little piece of the glass tip so easily. It didn't come up with the vacuum. For all I know, I crunched it with the magnet looking for the metal balls.

Meanwhile, what was very interesting was the gravel that also stuck to the magnet. I had not expected that. This is the typical bag of brown and tan color gravel from the fish store.

At any rate, thanks to all who posted previously. It was of great help. Eased my mind too.

 

[ErrorS]

What, are they not dangerous?

Another site told me to completely empty and scrub the aquarium when I broke one.. and this was a fully cycled reef tank i had done, that ended up costing me almost a thousand dollars due to a crash once I reintroduced everything.. I freaked out and replaced all the sand and rock in the tank 'just to be safe'.

 

[pl*co]

OMG. In my case, what entered the tank were the little metal balls, which I retrieved, and a small piece of glass I've yet to find. The red liquid is a small amount of alchohol, but that part of the thermometer is still intact. My tank is a freshwater tank. Was the content of your thermometer actually mercury?

 

[webcricket]

ErrorS - Most of these thermometers now are a red dyed alcohol which is not going to be especially problematic if it breaks in the tank. A good water change would solve the problem. You'd just need to watch out for the broken glass with bottom feeders or when cleaning the tank. Mercury thermometers would be a whole other issue.

 

[ErrorS]

It was just one of those glass thermometers you find everywhere for a dollar. It was just the end with the metal balls, they fell out, I removed them, posted on some forum and they told me to redo everything. They had me believing the metal balls and that whoel lower portion was so toxic I should have almost considered replacing the tank.

Was a bit naive at the time, bleh.

So the liquid is alcohol now and not mercury? even breaking that part I doubt such a small amount of alcohol would have hurt my fish or corals, at least quite a bit less than a complete recycle would have.

 

[liv2padl]

Another site told me to completely empty and scrub the aquarium when I broke one

the amount of erroneous information out there in cyberspace can be astonishing. always check with us first ... we know what we're talking about.