Thermometer

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scotty

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i have one of thos thermometers you stick on the front of your glass,and another one thats made out of glass inside the tank,both are next to each other,the one outside the glass is at 26 the one inside is 25,what one would be the most accurate.another thing my tank is in the kitchen,and i am finding it hard to keep temperature constant overnight,its going down by one and a half degrees,would i be better upgrading to a 200w heater and take my 100w heater out.
 
I don't think a couple of degrees gradually through the night is anything to worry about. Big, quick drops are what causes problems, mostly.

As for the thermometer, use the one inside the tank that's actually in the water, as the stick on ones outside measure the temperature of the glass.
 
Yesterday I went out and bought three glass thermometers for all three of my tanks, they had the stick on thermometers previously and they were rubbish! Had a really hard time getting the stick-on ones off though.
 
Yesterday I went out and bought three glass thermometers for all three of my tanks, they had the stick on thermometers previously and they were rubbish! Had a really hard time getting the stick-on ones off though.

I spent a, small, fortune (£100) on a Digi thermometer. only to find, after a day or so. spirit are just as good. sure, in theory, they are more accurate. but that is of little consequence, any spirit is well up to the job. many "cheaper2 Digi's are far less accurate. and, as yet, i have never seen a spirit break down, or run out of batteries. lol, I have not even dropped one.
 
Agree with AL up there, 2 degrees or less during the night is not something to worry about and might even be a more realistic simulation of their original natural environment anyway!

The question about which equipment is best to use for measuring the tank water temperature seems to have come up periodically on TFF since the beginning. There is a cheap answer and an expensive answer.

The cheap answer is that many, many (most I might venture) of us, including me, use the cheap spirit thermometer that's inside a glass float tube with little metal shot at the bottom to help make it sit more upright and a suction cup to stick it to the inside tank glass somewhere you you can read it from the outside. Along with this cheap piece of equipment we try to add the knowledge of what kinds of little "ranges" of temperatures are usually "good enough" for things to be ok. Are they always truly accurate? No. Is there a rare chance they are completely wrong? I guess so. But most of us still use them.

Periodically somebody goes nuts over this and starts buying lab-grade equipment in multiples but most of us just never get pulled in to this level of paranoia! :hyper:

~~waterdrop~~
 
A

Periodically somebody goes nuts over this and starts buying lab-grade equipment in multiples but most of us just never get pulled in to this level of paranoia! :hyper:

~~waterdrop~~

lol, my ears are burning! :lol: :lol:
 
A

Periodically somebody goes nuts over this and starts buying lab-grade equipment in multiples but most of us just never get pulled in to this level of paranoia! :hyper:

~~waterdrop~~

lol, my ears are burning! :lol: :lol:
I don't think it was you BBB/dino :lol: ... I think there was some other person a while back that fit the description. wd
 
Reading through posts on this site and am surprised that "most" would rely on "cheap" thermometers.

I use this since it's good enough when adding new water. Little lines for every 2°F and I'm looking for an odd number...not so good. This is where 'green is good' comes into play for most people.

501447.jpg


I have have this with a probe at one corner near the bottom to measure the cooler side of the tank. Readings range from the same as below and up to about 1.4°F difference from below (have to take into account that the Fluval only goes in .5° increments).

a-digital-thermometer-26648.jpg


And have this built into the heater which is pretty neat. I have it set to 75°F and it is either reading that or 75.5°F. I don't think it can read anywhere in between.

eheater-combo-black.jpg
 
But I see this as but the beginning of an endless spiral of trouble. These things would all need calibration to know whether they were really "on" such that one could trust fractions of a degree from them. The fact that they display in digital simply misleads us into thinking they might be already set to some "correct" measurement and they aren't! Go to any University lab and ask them what a pain it is to really calibrate instruments!

I'm not saying they aren't good pieces of equipment, just that they have to get set with some starting point and that process usually leaves just as much variation in a sensor/display system as in a seal-the-glass system.

~~waterdrop~~
 
But I see this as but the beginning of an endless spiral of trouble. These things would all need calibration to know whether they were really "on" such that one could trust fractions of a degree from them. The fact that they display in digital simply misleads us into thinking they might be already set to some "correct" measurement and they aren't! Go to any University lab and ask them what a pain it is to really calibrate instruments!

I'm not saying they aren't good pieces of equipment, just that they have to get set with some starting point and that process usually leaves just as much variation in a sensor/display system as in a seal-the-glass system.

~~waterdrop~~

I "tested" the two near each other and from what I saw they were good enough for the task. So they have been "calibrated" for use in my aquarium. :hey:

Both are better than the cheap floating kind where it's more of a guess.
 
I'm not trying to be difficult but that's not what calibration means. Calibration is where you have a reference standard or process that verifies the correctness of a measuring device. So, for instance, the clock on a personal computer might periodically check itself against a "clock server" that's maintained at a standards organizaton. The standards organization might use an "atomic clock" or a "cesium clock" or some other device that is more accurate than a regular clock. In the same way, we could buy two uncalibrated temperature measuring devices but they might both be off by the same amound and we'd never know it.

~~waterdrop~~
 
I always go to a pet shop and look at all the glass thermometers they have. They may not be perfect but the half dozen that match each other well are my choice over the one or two that read some other value. They may not be accurate but if I want to move a fish from one tank to another, I figure I can trust whether or not they are temperature matched. The comparison between a couple of digitals, finding them matching, would equally give me confidence that any comparisons that I make between them later on was probably OK. If I needed a truly accurate reading, I would not trust a temperature measurement that had not been calibrated recently and had a cal sticker showing the accuracy of the meter that I was using. The degree of accuracy, maximum error acceptable, is always specified on a calibrated meter.
 
But I see this as but the beginning of an endless spiral of trouble. These things would all need calibration to know whether they were really "on" such that one could trust fractions of a degree from them. The fact that they display in digital simply misleads us into thinking they might be already set to some "correct" measurement and they aren't! Go to any University lab and ask them what a pain it is to really calibrate instruments!

I'm not saying they aren't good pieces of equipment, just that they have to get set with some starting point and that process usually leaves just as much variation in a sensor/display system as in a seal-the-glass system.

~~waterdrop~~

I "tested" the two near each other and from what I saw they were good enough for the task. So they have been "calibrated" for use in my aquarium. :hey:

Both are better than the cheap floating kind where it's more of a guess.

firstly, as the owner of two high quality (commercial) units. calibration is only as good as the last date it was done. from then on the begin to drift. yes, even the worlds most expensive temperature measurement instruments are, calibrated, just prior to use. because it will have drifted, even if the last measurement, was only a short time ago.

you say your system is "better". in what way. do your fish benefit from temperature control to the 100th of a degree? you see, i would say NO. most fish wont notice a 2 degree shift. and that's either way.
there are many things we could, usefully, spend money on in this hobby. things that would benefit from the extra expenditure. temperature monitoring is not one.lol, or, if it is. its very low on the list. :nod:
 
I have have this with a probe at one corner near the bottom to measure the cooler side of the tank. Readings range from the same as below and up to about 1.4°F difference from below (have to take into account that the Fluval only goes in .5° increments).

a-digital-thermometer-26648.jpg

I use a couple of these Coralife units as well. They cost ~$6 and their readings match two other of my glass thermometers - that's good enough for me.
 

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