Broken Mercury Thermometer

[badreverend]

l know the searchbar is my friend, but l didnt see anything about broken mercury thermometers- l never leave them in the tank, but last night l had it in there during a water change, and forgot about it- so this morning when l got up, it was in pieces- l found the weighted end in one piece but thats it- any of my fish could have chomped through it, lm about to do another water change and pick out anything l find, but lm worried about the mercury getting eaten by my fish, and particularly the big bottom dwellers laying in it and/or eating it- thanks in advance everybody

 

[krichardson]

Interesting situation but not a whole lot you can do if you cannot locate the broken pieces.Good luck.

 

[TwoHedWlf]

l know the searchbar is my friend, but l didnt see anything about broken mercury thermometers-

First thing, is it actually a mercury thermometer? Because other than some specialist thermometers they haven't used mercury in decades. Aquarium thermometers for probably the last 40-50 years have used dyed alcohol.

If it's your normal floaty $5 aquarium thermometer the only dangerous thing if it's been broken is the sharp glass.

 

[badreverend]

First thing, is it actually a mercury thermometer? Because other than some specialist thermometers they haven't used mercury in decades. Aquarium thermometers for probably the last 40-50 years have used dyed alcohol.

If it's your normal floaty $5 aquarium thermometer the only dangerous thing if it's been broken is the sharp glass.

Yes, it was one of those $5 ones, but it was sinky one
Ive never heard that theres alcohol in them before, l hope youre right, because l dont see a trace of liquid metal anywhere- l would never have guessed alcohol has similar expanding and contracting properties like mercury

Thanks for the responses guys

 

[TwoHedWlf]

Was the line to show you the temperature red? Then it's not mercury. There is no such thing as red mercury.

l would never have guessed alcohol has similar expanding and contracting properties like mercury

It doesn't have similar properties, mercury has comparatively pretty poor thermal expansion properties. Mercury has a thermal expansion coefficient of 182, Ethanol it's 750. So, basically ethanol expands 4 times as much with the same amount of heat.

 

[Lepisosteus]

This used to happen to me almost weakly with my monsters. As said, it’s not mercury. I did cut my finger on a piece of glass from one of them when cleaning the substrate though. The only real issue I see. The small metal balls are used to keep the thermometer upright in the water.

 

[badreverend]

Yes the line was red, that eased my mind-
All the metal balls were still together in what was left in the thermometer- thanks for the help and piece of mind everybody

 

[skjl47]

Hello; Just for fun let me tell a story of what we did when I was in the 5th -6th grade. back then it was common to find a thermometer with mercury in it. We would buy several and take them to school. Then we broke them to get at the mercury. We played with it because it was so very interesting. We would put it on pennies and have it in our hands.

Another thing that comes to mind is the CFL screw in bulbs ( the corkscrew fluorescent type). Not long after they first came out there was some press about how they had a bit of mercury in each bulb. I recall a story about a woman who called the local authorities when one went bad. Not sure if she broke it or it just failed. Anyway the story was a hazardous waste team came to get it and she was charged a big fee.
To me the irony being that all the long fluorescent tubes we have been using for many decades before then and since then also have had a tiny drop of mercury.