HELP!

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asingh22

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Apr 10, 2011
10
0
1
riverside, CA
Hey guys been on this site a while reading and learning but Ive run into a big problem which I cant seem to figure out. I have a 40 gallon breeder with a small 3" map turtle and 6 small peacock cichlids which have been living in harmony for over a year. While doing a water change I knocked the turtles heat lamp into the water and it immediately exploded and shattered into the water. I put everything into my spare 30 gal and started syphoning out the bits of glass in the 40. I removed about 75% of the water, refilled it and placed everyone back in the tank. In the morning all the fish were at the top gasping for air so once again i removed them along with all the decor and filtration. I boiled all the decor and rinsed my canister media for about 30 mins to rid anything that may have been in it. I continuously put water in the tank and drained it until i thought it was good to go. Put everyone back and about 3 days later the same thing happened with all the fish at the top. Ive had no casualties but ive been doing massive water changes every few days for the last two weeks and every few days the same thing happens with the fish gasping for air and now some are flicking themselves on the sand and rocks. I read that some bulbs have mercury and that i need to dilute the levels down with water changes but that obviously isnt doing the trick. Shall I go ahead and break down the entire tank and get rid of the sand? Sorry for the long post but I cant think of much else to do at this point and Im wondering of any other options before completely taking down the tank. Thanks
 
Whats the aeration mechanism for the tank? What are the tank parameters , temp, ph , nitrate , etc? How did you rinse the external filter? In tap water ? Are you sure there was mercury in the lamp that broke?


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I agree with ufarooqi, are you sure there was mercury. Typically mercury vapor bulbs are dominant in high energy visible light and would make for horribly inefficient heat lamps. Also being liquid at room temperature if you spilled mercury it would run and flow all over the place and be really hard to clean up since it has such a high surface tension. If indeed it was mercury pretty much all filters and media must be disposed of in hazardous waste and will be unfit for use. The tank may be salvageable but you need a sponge type of material that will soak it up since mercury isnt water soluble.
 
Im running an eheim 2215 with just the spray bar it came with, i checked my parameters today again to make sure i wasnt missing anything and my ammonia and nitrate were at 0 and my nitrite was also near 0 (im assuming from all the water changes ive been doing). The temp is at 78 and the media i rinsed with tap water as i didnt want to rinse it with the tank water. I did take filter media from a friends tank to help re-cycle my own.the bulb was a zoo med basking light which I believe is a mercury vapor bulb
 
How did you soak up the initial seepage of mercury? was it just a trace amount or was there enough to actually see?
 
Was the light mercury vapor, incandescent or hybrid? That is the key thing that needs to be considered to determine how much of an effect it could have.
 
I would suggest increase the aeration in your tank, it seems that all the washing has caused the tank to loose the beneficial becteria and start to recycle ( nitrate should never be 0), you may need to get a seachem stability and follow the instructions for cycling, i have had prerty good experience with this product so far, it helps for quick recycle( 7 days). Or you can move the fish in some other tank if possible and let this one cycle properly in due time.


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im reading about the bulb and some of zoo meds bulbs are mercury vapor but im not sure if mine was at this point. I didnt see anything seeping out just shards of glass fall into the tank which i immediately tried to remove. Could it be a possibility that some fragments may have got under the sand mixed are continually giving something off in the tank
 
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