broken thermometer has lead?

[hc8719]

my excessively clumsy clawed frog must have slammed himself against it at one point, and pushed the bottom part into the glass was, taking the bottom part of the thermometer with it, excluding the red mercury liquid thing.

anyone who has a glass thermometer will notice at the bottom part, there is lead or some sort of metal inside used as a weight to keep the bottom part down.

now my new bgk is in that tank, being treated with pimafix, and im afraid the lead may be lethal, (considering it is lead)

i cant find any traces of the metal balls, and have done 1 pwc this morning after realizing my problem, i suppose its possible the metal dissolved?

the pimafix did slightly make a fiz noise when i put it in, could it be reacting to the lead?

 

[Guest]

if it's the same kind of thermometer i have, with the red liquid and little balls in the bottom, i read on the package when i bought it that it was not toxic. put some pimafix on something lead and see if it fizzles, then you will know.

 

[Toirtis]

I believe that zinc is usually used for those balls, and the red liquid is alcohol....even if the little balls are lead, one or two left in the aquarium is not going to have any real impact.

 

[Reefmonkey]

If it is a red color, it's not mercury, it's a silicone or organic or fluorocarbon liquid.

Even if the balls are lead, the toxicity of metalic lead is low. Metallic lead must undergo a redox reaction before it can become a dissolvable ion which can be absorbed. Lead oxidzes and dissolves very slowly in fresh water. Look at non-rooted bunches of aquatic plants, they always are bound with lead foil. Having a little metallic lead in your tank is obviously safe.

I imagine though that the little balls, being as shiny and perfectly round as they are in my thermometer, are steel, not lead, and probably so in yours. Try running a magnet around in your gravel, you may accomplish both the removal of the pellets and the peace of mind of knowing they weren't lead in the first place.