New to the site, seeking some advice. Broken Glass Thermometer in tank!

Hi,

I am new to the site and have joined in hope of gaining some useful knowledge in the future. I have been in to the hobby for a couple of years now and yesterday ran into a problem with one of my two tanks.

I was doing one of my regular biweekly water changes and during the process the pump I use to remove the water for my changes lightly bumped a floating glass aquarium thermometer which was in my sump and it broke!! Thankfully the mercury tube in the center did not break, but the a new of the little lead balls did manage to escape from the small break in the outer glass layer. I was able to collect all the lead (I believe it may be lead) that escaped when it broke. Should I be worried about any sort of poisoning to my tanks inhabitants? What should I do? I have found a few other posts on various web sites but couldn't find anything helpful. Should I worry about the lead coming in contact with the water or is there anything to measure if the water now has any lead in it?

I have now purchased a new digital thermometer for both of my tanks

Setup is as follows:
I currently have two systems, this one has been up and running about six months.
90g tank, 15g sump, bio balls, reef octo hob skimmer, 2-175w 10k mogal mh, 4 48'' VHO super atnic, 100 lbs. live rock, large scopas tang, med blue hippo, med tomato clown, med bullet goby, worm goby, 2 pj cardnals, 2 sally's, few skunk cleaners, 40-50 red legs, 10 mexican turbos, serpant star, some mushroom corals, a few different kinds of polyps and a bubble tip.


I am still doing some researching and will be very thankful for any help.

Thank you in advance for those of you who read this,
Dave

 

Welcome to 3 reef Davey

IMHO, you dont have any worries , with the small QTY of balls that may have escaped

lead is present in salt water in trace quantities anyway
see below link
Sea Water Composition - ReefPedia

and as such the very small quantity that may have escaped your attention is not going to do any immediate harm

do you perform water changes?
if so , you are going to be diluting the concentration each time you do change water
so IMHO, its not something that would concern me

Steve

 

Welcome to 3reef. Most aquarium grade liquid thermometers are filled with alcohol BTW. The lead missed will soon be covered in bacteria and should be of little worry as Steve said.

 

Wanted to say thank you to Steve and 2 in 10 for the help! This forum is awesome and I has been wonderful so far.

Happy Holidays to everyone!

Thanks,
Dave