Dropped a battery in my tank

[MargieInAZ]

Ugh. Last night I put one of those little LED spot lights in my sump so I could see my skimmer better. It sticks on with adhesive. As soon as I put it up there, I realized that I shouldn't have put it over the water in case it fell. But I tried to pull it off and it was stuck really tightly, so I figured I'd just deal with it later, and went to bed. When I checked on the tank this morning the little light was shining up at me from the water. I fished it out immediately, but there's a little rust coming out of the battery.
I changed a full canister of carbon yesterday on the tank, so that's totally fresh, but is there anything else I should do for damage control?
What do batteries have in them that can cause harm to the tank, anyway? Is there copper in them? I know this can't be good...
There were three AAA batteries in the fixture. I have a 110 gallon tank, and a sump with about 30 gallons in it.
This morning the corals and shrimp are looking fine, but I have no idea how long it would take them to react to something like this.
Thanks! Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[400M1963]

Water changes, PolyFilter and "wet" skim.

 

[walkthedog]

Most batteries have zinc and brass (copper) surrounded by a steal sheet. Run some carbon, GFO and maybe a water change but I wouldn't worry too much. It wasn't in the tank for very long and most of the metal will quickly be removed by the carbon / GFO.

 

[luther1200]

If it was only in there for a few hours you will probably be OK. I would still do some WC and a Polyfilter though.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

About 1.5 years ago, my autofeeder fell in my tank overnight, had 2 batteries in it, slightly rusted just like you said... no issues. Just this past week my tunze osmolator controller fell into the sump... when I picked it up nasty brown water was dripping out of it... again no issues.

 

[sanababit]

i wouldn't worry to much, just run carbon and a polypad

sana

 

[MargieInAZ]

Thanks!
I did a 20g water change and picked up some poly filters. Hopefully that, along with the carbon and gfo, will take care of it. Everything looks fine so far.