# Poison?



## StryfeMP (Apr 26, 2007)

Alright, this is a sad sad day for me. I lost my lone survivor as well as 2 recently acquired fish when I put them in a 40 gallon breeder tank that I have. I woke up the next day and found them on the ground dead and lifeless as can be. I looked around the tank because I thought that the tank was fine only to find that the floating glass thermometer had been broken and the little metal balls at the tip of it was scattered amongst the rocks and had gotten under it, only the tip of the thermometer was broken. Today I cleaned the tank and there are what looks like burn like spots from where the little balls were sitting. I definately think it was what caused my fish to die. Anyone else have this happen before and how do I go about cleaning the tank in order to be able to safely use it to house fish in the near future? Anyone know what those little balls are, what they're made of? Any help will be greatly appreciated, thanks.

P.S.
This blows. >>=[~


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## Piranha Guru (Nov 24, 2005)

Those burn like marks are rust...those balls are metal, but non-toxic. The liquid in the thermometer should have been alcohol based and harmless in that amount.

Was the tank cycled? Was the heater working properly?


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## StryfeMP (Apr 26, 2007)

Yes, the tank was cycled and the temp read 82degrees. If whatever was in the floating thermometer is non toxic, I don't understand what could have caused the fish to die. I just threw in an angelfish that I had in there after doing a water change and gravel vac and he showed signs of death just after 5-10minutes. What else could it be if the tank seemed fine? Ph was 6.8, Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, and Nitrates at or below 10ppm.


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## vinizuh (Apr 1, 2007)

isnt there mercury in thermometers?


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## Dezboy (Apr 2, 2006)

There should be mercury in any thermos. sold today.....................


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## StryfeMP (Apr 26, 2007)

mercury... so what does that mean, I don't understand? What could be causing whatever fish I put in there to suddenly want to die?


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## Dr. Giggles (Oct 18, 2003)

I think he meant "no mercury" since the floating thermometers do not contain it. If you just took a fish and threw it in the tank without proper acclimation that could be the problem.


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## StryfeMP (Apr 26, 2007)

Yea, that's what I thought, new therms don't have mercury, but then again this one didn't look too new for I had gotten it from a friend. How do you properly acclimate a fish to go from tank to tank? They share basically the same params, I don't think that could have been the problem because I switch around fish a lot, it's just with this one tank that I'm having problems with. Is it a curse? Should I break it down and bleach it and start over with it? What about the gravel, should I throw it out? I'm running out of ideas here, I don't understand what's going on with it. If it is mercury and for some reason I had gotten a mercury based therm from the person I got the tank from, how would I go about making it fish-safe once again?


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## Dr. Giggles (Oct 18, 2003)

One way to find out if you need to break down the tank is to throw some barbs in the tank and see if they thrive or die.


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

was it a new therm or an old one (multiple years old)
now it should be harmless but therms used to years back contain mercury which im assuming would be able to kill them


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## StryfeMP (Apr 26, 2007)

i believe they were fairly old. i'll get some fish and put them in there and see if htey die or not...


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## nick007x (Sep 9, 2005)

easiest way to tell is the color of the stuff in the tube that moves up and down and marks wherever the temp is at. if it was red is wasn't mercury. if it was silver it was. id also do some more water testing before just throwing more fish in. whether they die or not really isn't going to tell you much.


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## StryfeMP (Apr 26, 2007)

nick007x said:


> easiest way to tell is the color of the stuff in the tube that moves up and down and marks wherever the temp is at. if it was red is wasn't mercury. if it was silver it was. id also do some more water testing before just throwing more fish in. whether they die or not really isn't going to tell you much.


Yea I understand what you're saying. I didn't throw in any fish in there yet, it's sitting outside right now and I"m brekaing it down and cleaning it up nice and well.


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