Son of a B#@$h

[PRC]

I'm checking out my tank this morning. and I look in the front right corner and I see about 50 small little black circles. I think hmmmm. They look like some sort of eggs. That's odd since I don't have anything in my tank. Maybe somethings hiding in the rock. I've seen plenty of posts about things hiding in rock...

Upon further inspection Here's what I found.. The cheap piece of crap thermometer that the fish store gave me broke. The mercury bulb is still in tact. But there are these little black balls surrounding it, they were all over the sand bed. I took a hose and sucked them out as fast as I could, but I'm certain there are more in the tank...WTF? Does anybody know what those things are? Am I going to have to drain my entire tank?

 

[Reefrookie]

I think they are heat conductors for the thermometer. I would skim out as many as you can and maybe even the sand around the spot where they were just in case you missed any.

 

[ccCapt]

There is no mercury in the thermometer, so no worries there. They are filled with alcohol I believe. The BB's are iron or steel and a magnet will pick them up. No problem tho if you can't get them all.

 

[mng777777]

They are lead I believe. They are the weight that kept that thermometer from floating. I'd just do your best to get as many out as you can simply because you don't want to allow anything metal to remain in the tank. If there's one or two that remain it won't hurt. You don't need to drain the tank.

 

[PRC]

Thanks. I'll run a magnet through the sand and see if I can ge tthe rest.

 

[U4BOYZ]

Oh yes I would definitely be bringing those pieces back to my LFS...sounds like a customer credit is in order IMO.....

 

[PRC]

No doubt...The LFS owner happens to be one of my customers. He ain't gonna give me any problems. I can tell you I won't be getting another in water thermometer. I'll stick to the one that came with my tank.(One of those that sticks to the outside glass) it seems to be just as accurate as that other piece of crap.

Thanks to everybody, I got all of them out...I have a sweet magnet:bounce: I just tied a string to it and lowered it into the sand...It sucked 'em right out.

I would have never thought that those things were metal.

 

[Bifferwine]

Yep, it's not lead and it's not mercury. They are made using non-toxic materials in case they break in your tank.

 

[mng777777]

No doubt...The LFS owner happens to be one of my customers. He ain't gonna give me any problems. I can tell you I won't be getting another in water thermometer. I'll stick to the one that came with my tank.(One of those that sticks to the outside glass) it seems to be just as accurate as that other piece of crap.

Thanks to everybody, I got all of them out...I have a sweet magnet:bounce: I just tied a string to it and lowered it into the sand...It sucked 'em right out.

I would have never thought that those things were metal.

Glad you got them. I'd consider getting one of the $10 battery powered thermometers too. You can find them at just about any LFS. I have 3 in my tank (in case the batteries go bad in one I always have a cross reference) and they work great and give a digital read out so it's easy to see the temp at a glance.

Yep, it's not lead and it's not mercury. They are made using non-toxic materials in case they break in your tank.

I questioned lead even as I typed it but I know it's a pretty commonly used weight. It's great to see that they actually use some logic in the products they sell these days...

 

[Rcpilot]

This same thing happened to somebody else just a few weeks ago.

 

[U4BOYZ]

I have a cool thermometer. It wasn't very expensive. Only the wire goes in the water....the little box stays outside the tank. I really like it because it has a memory on it...so I can see how cold my tank gets at night. My sump is in my cold basement....so that's really been helpful for me.