Obtaining correct tempreture readings

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Gemma

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I am getting conflicting tempreture readings which is causing stress (to me) as well as my fish i'm sure. I have a small grey digital battery operated thermometer which has a white lead prob. I also have one on those cheaper glass floating thermometers. They differ by 4 degrees. What should I do. Spend money on good water heaters which have their own inbuilt thermometers or buy more expencive thermometers with supposidly cheaper heaters. My system is 200litres so should I have 2 smaller heaters or just 1 large? I realise the more one spends the better the product but we all know about budgets so maybe someone has a good working combination.:whistling:
 
Hello Gemma - The digital thermometer would be the more correct one of the two. I have seen on someone's tank where they have both as well, I have seen the same phenomenon. I would rather believe the digital one.

BUT - I have been to Ivan's house - saw his tank (Irie Ivan) and he have shown me that even the digital thermometers become less reliable over time....
 
I use/buy the floating alcohol ones and check all the store has and buy one that shows the average. Even on the shelf they differ quite a few degrees.
 
Personally i would buy two smaller heaters, and look at buying a fairly expensive thermometer (not thousands but something decent you know you can rely on.)
 
Midasblenny said:
I use/buy the floating alcohol ones and check all the store has and buy one that shows the average. Even on the shelf they differ quite a few degrees.
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Yip, my LFS had a stock of about 15 digital thermometers, I think only 3 or 4 showed the same temp, the others were all different.

Wee-Man said:
Personally i would buy two smaller heaters
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I agree, Murphys law if you have one heater it will fail in the middle of winter on the coldest day of the year :p Buy 2 smaller ones so you have a backup should one fail.

I personally have a floating thermometer, a cheap digital one and a Tunze temperature controller, they are all different by a degree or so. It's best just to work on a sort of average but most importantly is not to have large temperature swings in the aquarium.
 
i have 3 on my system.one is the reef fanatic electronic one,the floating glass style and my chiller.
found that the Reef Fanatic electronic one and my chiller is exactly the same reading where as the glass one is 2 degrees higher
 
Just remember from all the water parameters temperature is the most important. So it is worth while to spend some money on it.
 
So how can one check/calibrate our temperature equipment. just having 2/3 different type of thermometers, is never going to be accurate. You would have to have at least 10 to get a statistically correct mean.

And 10 would still allow huge error % to skew the mean result, ideally you would need 100 thermometers, which is just crazy.

Any ideas ?
 
Warr7207 said:
So how can one check/calibrate our temperature equipment. just having 2/3 different type of thermometers, is never going to be accurate. You would have to have at least 10 to get a statistically correct mean.

And 10 would still allow huge error % to skew the mean result, ideally you would need 100 thermometers, which is just crazy.

Any ideas ?
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Go expensive I suppose. Other that that I suppose a test in a lab environment. Out of all of mine I would tend to trust the hell expensive Tunze temp controller as being the most accurate, well it should be for the price!
 
Get a thermometer that is stated with an accuracy of less than or equals to 0.2C - they tend to be more expensive but typically very good. Look at Hanna - they have several ranging between R500 and R2000
 
Until they break in your tank like mine did. Try picking up 1000 small lead balls in water.
 
Oops That Must Have Been Hectic, Fish Having Discussion In Your Tank, Hey! Whose Got A Shotgun? Ps Did You Lose Any Fish Because Of It?
 
They Come Without The Bearings Too , But I Suppose One Must Be Carefull Not To Put Them In A High Flow Area
 
I think this is where the various reef clubs could help out. Why not have a calibration session at a meeting? This could also be done for hydrometers. Although I have a refractometer, I find a glass bulb hydrometer usefull when making up saltmix. 'm sure there are people within each club who would have access to lab grade measuring devices and could set up a calibration tank for these instruments
 
Hi everyone - just to add another bit of my thoughts here - take into account that the life we keep are extremely adaptable, IF things happen VERY slowly. I would think that it is MORE important to keep the temperature with a narrow range, if not the SAME, than the exact accuracy of the temperature gauge you might or might not be using?

Or am I drunk?
 
jacquesb said:
Hi everyone - just to add another bit of my thoughts here - take into account that the life we keep are extremely adaptable, IF things happen VERY slowly. I would think that it is MORE important to keep the temperature with a narrow range, if not the SAME, than the exact accuracy of the temperature gauge you might or might not be using?

Or am I drunk?
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I would agree with you, and you`re probably drunk, hehe
 
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