samplesj
02/26/2007, 11:24 AM
I had a Lighthouse on both of my tanks. Recently I took down my smaller tank and merged them (a suicidal jumping 6-line was the catalyst :( ).
Unfortunately I didn't think about the orp probe and it sat dry for a day and a half. Since I wasn't using the lighthouse for a display tank anymore I moved it to my QT system. Without thinking I just put all the probes back in. The ORP probe seems to read just fine, but it leaked goo after a couple of days in the water. Instead of just having gel ovaled around the probe it actually slid down and was hanging below the plastic shields. After I cleaned off that first glob, its gone back to the normal ovaled appearance. I'm pretty sure I managed to wipe off all the extra gel and there doesn't appear to be any in the tank. I did run a decent amount of carbon for a day. Do I need to completely change the water in there or will the carbon have gotten anything harmful?
For safety I've put the probe in a glass of saltwater beside the tank, but is there anything harmful in the gel? Is it even likely to leak again now that it appears to have sealed itself back?
I now know that drying out the probes can ruin them, but in this case is it going to work ok? If it won't contaminate water I can calibrate both probes and compare them in the same water to see if there is a difference. I don't really need the orp probe for the QT tank, but I hate to let it ruin by drying it again so I'll keep it in there if it isn't contaminating anything.
Unfortunately I didn't think about the orp probe and it sat dry for a day and a half. Since I wasn't using the lighthouse for a display tank anymore I moved it to my QT system. Without thinking I just put all the probes back in. The ORP probe seems to read just fine, but it leaked goo after a couple of days in the water. Instead of just having gel ovaled around the probe it actually slid down and was hanging below the plastic shields. After I cleaned off that first glob, its gone back to the normal ovaled appearance. I'm pretty sure I managed to wipe off all the extra gel and there doesn't appear to be any in the tank. I did run a decent amount of carbon for a day. Do I need to completely change the water in there or will the carbon have gotten anything harmful?
For safety I've put the probe in a glass of saltwater beside the tank, but is there anything harmful in the gel? Is it even likely to leak again now that it appears to have sealed itself back?
I now know that drying out the probes can ruin them, but in this case is it going to work ok? If it won't contaminate water I can calibrate both probes and compare them in the same water to see if there is a difference. I don't really need the orp probe for the QT tank, but I hate to let it ruin by drying it again so I'll keep it in there if it isn't contaminating anything.