Broken Thermometer

[Xcric]

alright so my tank was going good, and then about a week ago i lost two surinam geos
they took me forever to find, and it was rather sad that they died, i also noticed that quite a few other fish weren't looking as healthy
so i did some water changes and that sort of thing, and it seemed to help a little
but today i noticed, the thermometer i have in the tank was broken, i'm not sure how long it was in the tank like that
but i was wondering if thats what might have caused the geos to die, and what kind of effects its going to have on the rest of the fish, or what i might be able to do to counter act any kind of harmful effects it might've caused

 

[Castellop123]

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[TerraDreamer]

Gotta love 'em...

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[Xcric]

well, the thermometer has been in there for over a year, and the temperature of the tank hasn't changed by more than 2 degrees in that time either, the broken thermometer may not even be related to the two deaths

but, just in case, i'd liek to know if theres any kind of harm that can come from having had one in there for at least two weeks (i don't check the temp often) or any ways to counteract anything harmful that might've happened

whats weird is, about 10 minutes after i took out the thermometer all the fish that had been hiding and acting sick for days, were suddenly all out and about and acting normal

 

[jollysue]

Was it an aquarium thermometer? Did it leak mercury or anything into the tank? I stopped using the glass thermometers, because some fish have broken them--most notably the goldy. But aquarium thermometers that I am familiar with haven't broken where the red stuff is, just the glass on the outside that makes it float. Gaaa, how to explain/make a picture of what I am talking about.

Anyway, if anything from the thermometer leaked into the water, I would make every effort to get the water as fresh as I could without upsetting the fish and tank cycles. Aslo a heavy metal removing water conditioner, like StressCoat or NovAqua+Plus might help, although if anything like mercury leaked in, I doubt the conditioner could deal with it.. Other than that, just the glass in the substrate to be concerned about.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yes if it's a glass thermometer then mercury can leak into the tank, it's happened to us and killed inverts but no fish.

we don't use glass thermometers where there's any boisterous fish who could break them.

I'd just do daily water changes to get it al out

 

[rjsmith]

If it was a red or coloured liquid in the thermometer then it's just dyed alcohol. This will evaporate over time as it has a lower b.p. than water. Don't know the relative densities off the top of my head but if it's noticeably higher or lower than water then you can use that as a guide where to take the water out from (i.e. top or bottom of tank) the tank to remove it next water change.

 

[Xcric]

yeah it was a glass one with the red dye
i'm not 100% sure it was the problem, but ever since i took it out after noticing it was cracked, and did a pretty decent sized water change, most of the fish have gotten their color back and come out of hiding, so i really hope it was the problem and that its done with now, and not some other thing corrupting the water or something