Thermometer broke in my tank! Will it kill the fish?

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Jeffd1979

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Nov 18, 2003
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I just noticed that one of my thermo's in my FW tank was broken .. here is a pic of the same kind i have

thermo.jpg


The bottom broke off below the red stuff.. some of the pellets came out.. i got all that i could see on the bottom of the tank... is that stuff toxic to the fish???
 
There are two types of thermometers (at least the last time I checked... It's been awhile), alcohol and mercury. Mercury thermometers are the original, and still the best for most applications. They are more sensitive than the alcohol models, but are extremely toxic. Now is when you take a deep breath, because you have the alcohol model. In a mercury thermometer, the liquid inside is silver. Alcohol models are dyed either red or blue. So, you just released alcohol in a VERY tiny dose into your tank. Do a water change and remove all of the pieces of glass, and your fish should still love you.
 
He said that it broke off below the red stuff that means that the alcohol didn’t go to the tank, only pellets. I believe they are made out of lead, which is not toxic.
 
christopher1260 said:
There are two types of thermometers (at least the last time I checked... It's been awhile), alcohol and mercury. Mercury thermometers are the original, and still the best for most applications. They are more sensitive than the alcohol models, but are extremely toxic. Now is when you take a deep breath, because you have the alcohol model. In a mercury thermometer, the liquid inside is silver. Alcohol models are dyed either red or blue. So, you just released alcohol in a VERY tiny dose into your tank. Do a water change and remove all of the pieces of glass, and your fish should still love you.
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None of the red liquid got into the tank.. that part was still intact.. the bottom part with the little balls just broke off.. none of the red liquid got into the tank at all.
 
Lead is toxic
thats good that it didn't shatter.....in my old tank my jaguar cichlid liked to break the floating type, she would break them every few weeks, till I ot one of the stick on types.
 
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depends because my salinity tester cracked and the balls started rusting which tells me they are steel shot, not lead. In this case, the rust could cause a problem in large amounts but if you get as much as you can out, I wouldn't worry. Mercury cannot be used anymore thanks to the clinton administration and their "might be bad, let's ban it" mentality. they never proved anything was caused by mercury but just in case.....due to this, we lost one of the best fish meds, mercurochrome which was sold for human antiseptic use. Kyle
 
These types are REALLY fragile. I had one in a 5 gallon tank and just a light tap broke the darn thing. I use the stick on types now, the readings are accurate enough, they are actually about spot on to the other types I've noticed. Room temp doesn't effect them that much at all really.

Tom
 
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