Simply Koi and More Koi

My inbox gets some odd questions and here's one that I've never come across before. It's about the toxicity of AAA batteries. I've made the obvious suggestion that, if it's possible to remove the bottom drain lid, the battery might still be there in the bottom, but what if it isn't possible or the battery has disappeared inside the pipework where it can't be reached?

Not much will happen until the steel case rusts through but then the contents, zinc, manganese dioxide and potassium hydroxide, will be exposed to the water and will begin to leach out. Personally I wouldn't think that there would be enough of any of them to cause a problem but I thought I'd throw it open in case anyone has any ideas about toxicity or the possibility of recovering the battery. Any ideas?


hi Syd sorry to trouble you again, cutting the story short, dual temperature thermometer sitting by the pond,, probe in water so giving water temp and air temp. has now fallen in, as its dropped the back has come off and the battery has fallen out,
removed thermometer from pond, got the back out by purging bottom drain,
I guess the AAA battery is in the bottom drain

its 1 battery, long term effects? Im purging my bottom drain when I can did it 5 times yesterday,
effects the battery will have on the fish and water quality?

Hi Syd
I have a hose that fit's on my pressure washer use for unblocking drains, as you put the hose in the pipe the water pulls the hose down as the water comes out the hose end backwards,that should get the battery out.

Regards Geoff

That's an idea Geoff,

I also have one of those, it wouldn't be powerful enough to lift the battery up the pipe at the filter end where I assume it will have something like a four or five feet rise but if he can feed it in from the bottom drain end where I'm guessing the pipe is horizontal, he should be able to blow it back towards the bottom drain.

At the moment he doesn't want to drain the pond so he is going to try a powerful magnet pushed down on a hose from the filter end but I'll suggest the drain cleaning attachment for when he has to drain the pond to get the battery and the magnet back out.

Try tape the magnet to the drain cleaner, several magnets might work better.

Interesting, if it were fed in from the filter end, the hose would help find its way round bends in the pipe but the water jets wouldn't have the power to lift a battery up the rising pipework. If the magnet(s) was/were taped onto the hose a little way behind the jets, the magnets could pick up the battery and easily lift it when the hose was pulled back. I'll pass that idea on.

A quick update. He has managed to retrieve the battery with a very powerful magnet fed down from the filter end.