Mercury Thermometers Warning

[PaintingPintos]

Just thought I'd let you guys know....
Mercury thermometers are dangerous. However, if you play with the beads for a few minutes, not enough would evaporate or even absorb into your skin to harm you at all (though I don't recommend it).



If you do spill, though, please use this website in aid of proper cleaning.


So please, if you're out at the petstore and you have an old thermometer (one with silver liquid in it!), please buy a new one that contains colored red liquid or something other than mercury.
Stainless-steel thermometers are very accurate and work just as well as mercury.
http://www.petco.com/product/110175/...s_Thermometers
Please remember that it is very cheap to buy a new thermometer, and you'd be better off safe than sorry.

So if you plan on keeping a mercury thermometer, be extra, extra careful.

[SparklE fin]

What do you do with the thermometer if you have it? I have an old one that I don't use

[SparklE fin]

Oh never mind I found it XDD

[aokashi]

:/ I didnt think those were around any more :O

[KukaaKatchou]

I had two floating thermometers break. I wasn't sure what the little metalic balls were so I threw out all my gravel and everything that came into contact with them. *sigh*

[eaturbyfill]

Originally Posted by KukaaKatchou

I had two floating thermometers break. I wasn't sure what the little metalic balls were so I threw out all my gravel and everything that came into contact with them. *sigh*

The same thing happened to me once. It was a plastic 2g though, so I just threw it out. I freaked out.

[PaintingPintos]

Originally Posted by eaturbyfill

The same thing happened to me once. It was a plastic 2g though, so I just threw it out. I freaked out.

Yup....I'm pretty sure those metal balls are mercury :/
That's the one that I broke.
I'm still nervous about going into my parent's bathroom though, because I broke it in the bathtub, and the mercury beads evaporated (around half of them) and some went down the drain into the septic, which apparently they can stay for years to come and evaporate into your lungs while you shower :P
Ah, well. I'm trying not to live in the bathrooms though. Hahahah as along as I'm not breathing it 24/7, I should be alright.

[Olympia]

Huh that webpage doesn't open for me.
Anyways the liquid is the mercury, the balls are just weights.
The red liquid is coloured alcohol.

[jCo72]

Just what Olympia said, the little balls are not mercury. Mercury is a liquid at room temperature so the balls would not be able to stay formed if it was in fact mercury. (Actually, mercury is a liquid all the way down to -38 degrees C/-37 degrees F)

Mercury is a silver liquid and I was also unaware that they were still around (unless you bought the thermometer a long time ago). I was surprised to even see a thread for this.

[PaintingPintos]

Originally Posted by jCo72

Just what Olympia said, the little balls are not mercury. Mercury is a liquid at room temperature so the balls would not be able to stay formed if it was in fact mercury. (Actually, mercury is a liquid all the way down to -38 degrees C/-37 degrees F)

Mercury is a silver liquid and I was also unaware that they were still around (unless you bought the thermometer a long time ago). I was surprised to even see a thread for this.

:O
SO there was no need to panic!
But yes, mercury thermometers aren't being sold much anymore, BUT I got mine from my aunt who has had it since....well, the early 90s. She had a freshwater community tank for a few months, got bored of it, then gave away the fish and put all the supplies away. Sadly, she's just one of those people that buys animals on impulse without prior knowledge and then gives them away a few months later.

WELL, anyway if anybody has silver liquid in their thermometers, be careful!