HELP.. Broke my Thermometer!!!

[scott martin]

Yikes, can someone please tell me what I should do? I was cleaning the glass walls of my tank and must have broken the tip of my glass thermometer. It might have been in the water for about 5 minutes before I noticed that the red stuff was dark brown where the glass was missing at the very bottom of the thermometer. Is the stuff in fish tank thermometers toxic to fish and corals or is it something special used specifically for the aquarium hobbist? Please help...
Thanks,

Scott

 

[brianjfinn]

No experience with this, but I'm pretty certain it's good old fashioned mercury. Get it out immediately and try a water change.

 

[weaglereefer]

Really, I thought they used metals that were liquid at room temp?

 

[rolo65]

brianjfinn;562989 wrote: No experience with this, but I'm pretty certain it's good old fashioned mercury. Get it out immediately and try a water change.

+1......try to do a big WC.....mercury is found in sea water but in very minute concentrations....it can be and is toxic to fish especially in a contained system....I would suggest doing 15-20% WC per day for the next 2-4 days

 

[cshoneyman]

If the liquid was red then it was most likely ethanol alcohol and should not cause any major problems. A water change would of course not hurt anything.

Mercury themometers are not very common these days outside a lab and would have a silver looking material inside that would sink to the bottom of the tank.

 

[scott martin]

Wow, you guys are great. I never though about the fact that Mercury is silver. I hope that it is really ethanol and not going to kill my fish or coral. I will do a water change, but don't have a RODI so I have to go to the LFS tomorrow to get the water. Hopefully it will be ok until then.
Thanks again,

Scott

 

[rolo65]

The red is ethanol....missed that it was the red in the OP...oops.....so no worries.....just do a water change anyway....won't hurt....

 

[moebious]

+ 1 on the alcohol. Probably no need for WC. Alcohol evaporates quickly. If it hasn't already done damage it probably never will.

 

[jead85]

First day of vodka dosing ;-)

 

[hnguyen]

lol if you start seeing your fish swim kinda funny than you know their drunk!! :lol2:

 

[smallblock]

I did the same thing and didnt have a problem i removed what i could but I never had an issue with it. This happend in a 65 gallon with no sump. It was the cheap on that looks like a tube with a white background and a green section for proper temp with a red bottom right. I didnt do a WC but if it gives you peace of mind it couldnt hurt

 

[shrimpy brains]

+1 o Mercury being silver! I don't think they make thermometers like that anymore!

I remember, when I was a kid, we had a thermometer that broke. My mother put the mercury in a bowl and let us play with it!
After that, I used to break thermometers on(accidentally) purpose! Then, my mother discovered it wasn't safe and woudn't let me play with it anymore!

Hmmm.....guess that explains alot about me! :lol2:

 

[brianjfinn]

dawgdude;562995 wrote: No if its red its not mercury guys! Mercury is silver! That and they stopped using Hg in the 90's because it was too risky. The red ones are alcohol and food coloring, however I don't know what kind of alcohol it is. Try to google for it.

D'oh! Forgot about them not using mercury anymore. But I thought even the old mercury thermometers were tinted red.

 

[jead85]

Nah, they were silver!

 

[jr78]

carbon lots of it never hurts