Cant believe this happend!

[bluemandj]

I am setting up a tank for my wifes work.
Long story, short, the thermomiter fell in the sump and sat ther for a few days. the batterie leaked.
HOW BAD IS THIS????????
The battery was zinc carbon.

 

[bang guy]

It could be pretty bad. I'd suggest a couple of good water changes over the next week and use a bag of carbon for 48 hours. A poly pad won't hurt either. Zinc is not a good thing to overdose.

 

[daniel411]

How is the tank doing? Any noticeable change in fish behavior, ph, etc? I'd run a good amount of carbon and do several water changes to dillute as much as you can. Maybe even remove the "sand?" where the battery fell and leaked. Hope everything works out.

 

[bluemandj]

This is a new tank. 180 gal with a 55 gal sump.
Removed the sand already.
Will try the carbon.
TY.
The inversin the4 sup look OK. The tank wasn't runnin so all the water was confined to the sump uin till yesterday when started the tank. That was when I noticed the problem.
What about the copper wires in the themometer. LEaching copper?? Or do I only have to worry about copper sulfide?

 

[oscardeuce]

Carbon will not adsorb metals to a significant extent. Get th Heavy metal sponge and Cuprisorb that will help.

 

[bang guy]

Copper doesn't leach as fast as most people believe. It will quickly develop an oxidized coating and then very slowly leach after that. A couple of days isn't time to leach much copper from a pure copper source in my opinion.
If there was any it has probably already bonded to your rocks or sand by now but a poly pad will remove most of any left over in the water column.