Thermometers

[Rush07]

I have been using a glass thermometer that has consistently read 80F. I bought a digital thermometer today so it would be more easy to read in the sump and it is reading 78.4. Is one type generally more accurate than the other? I am not sure which to believe. The digital one is by Coralife. The glass one I think in by Marineland, but cant really remember.

 

[Fuzz16]

im sure the digital one is more correct but then again people could argue that the substances are rarely wrong. it might be possible the labels/numbers are wrong though on the thermometer

 

[Rush07]

When you look at them it seems that the piece of paper inside could slip a little and that is all it would take. I think I have an old thermometer around here from when I used to develop black and white negatives (remember those days?). I think that is probably accurate. Whichever it matches up with I am going with.

 

[Rush07]

OK. Found the thermometer I used in my photography days. It measures the same as the digital unit. I am going with that.

 

[CoolWaters]

fyi. years ago (forget exact date) they took out mercury cuz it was....poisonous...and replaced it with a type of alcohol.

my chem. teacher told use this when half the class was using 2 different thermometers...which was +/- 1-3 degrees off.

so im guessing that the glass thermometers is a bit off.

 

[Lotus]

Most of the glass aquarium thermometers are cheaply made. While the science of how much the alcohol expands is right, the scale may be off, or badly placed. I usually have two thermometers on most of my tanks

 

[JeLeAk]

i just use my infra-red temp "gun" to take temps, i leave the stick on cheepy thermometers on the tanks tho, just in case a heater goes outa wack, but my electronic device gives me temps right down to the 1/10th of a degree, so it makes for water changes that more close to being spot on

 

[CoolWaters]

i use refrigerator water so its freezing cold....drops the temp by at least 1-2 degrees

but i microwave the water before i mix it with salt. it helps a little. =/

 

[Joe Fish]

Just make sure to heat the water before putting the salt in. Heating the water with the salt can alter the chemical make-up of the salt water. I usually fill up a 2 liter with hot water and set it in the bucket.