Thermometer?

Jim Miller · Post by **Jim Miller** » Sat Jan 15, 2011 10:49 pm

I bought a Coralife digital on Friday thinking it would be easier to read. I tested it against several thermometers here in the house that all agree with each other and the Coralife was 1.5* low.

I tested it in an icebath and it was also 1.5*-2* low. I suppose I could just put a reminder sticker on it. Maybe I should just get a liquid column floater...

Anyone have something better?

Thanks

Jim

chris_todd · Post by **chris_todd** » Sun Jan 16, 2011 1:49 am

The ones I find most reliable are the old school glass thermometers. Not exactly pretty, but they seem to work well.

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » Sun Jan 16, 2011 9:30 am

One and a half degrees shouldn't make much difference. Just for the record, somewhere around 74-76 degrees is the sweet spot for planted tanks.

Jim Miller · Post by **Jim Miller** » Sun Jan 16, 2011 10:20 am

I'll go get a glass one and use it to sanity check the Coralife. I do like the visibility of the display.

Thanks

Jim

Rick Dotson · Post by **Rick Dotson** » Sun Jan 30, 2011 2:28 pm

I got one of those Coralife thermometers and I did not bother to check it. Now that I read your post I will have to get a decent thermo for a reference.

Jim Miller · Post by **Jim Miller** » Sun Jan 30, 2011 8:20 pm

Man with two clocks never knows what time it is.

I thought I would be clever and get a glass thermometer and check with that. I had one laying around that I bought a couple of years ago that I never used. I started to check it against either of the Coralife or our indoor/outdoor Sam's $22 special and found that it registered 10* low!

Trashed that one...

The Coralife seems to be within reason. I'll get a glass aquarium one when I go to Exotic Aquatics again.

J

Rick Dotson · Post by **Rick Dotson** » Sun Jan 30, 2011 9:47 pm

In ancient times like 50 years ago that was very true. Watches were wound and people used telephone company time as the standard. But today with digital clocks and GPS updates the boss doesn't believe my watch was slow?

I work in the industrial controls field and will install several meters in a system ie. pH, temp or level and then the fun starts. How come these two meter are not reading the same. This one says 6.57 pH and this one read 6.52. You can explain that the accuracy is 1% full scale and that the computer update time is 5 seconds and that the fluid in the tank is not laminar but they still want them to read exactly the same.

Make it so!!

Rick Dotson · Post by **Rick Dotson** » Sun Jan 30, 2011 9:56 pm

Some off topic info on heaters and temperature control.

Also of note there are many temperature probes and switch with a deadband of 1C or 2F. This prevents the heater from cycling on/off frequently which saves energy. The inrush current for turning on an inductive load is very high and if your heater is turning on/off every couple of minutes the electricity cost would be a lot more than the standard 50W rating would imply. You have to look carefully if you want to maintain a temp of + or - 1F and consider the reason.

I use a two stage heater in my sump. When I do an automatic water change the water is a lot colder. So I turn on my second stage 300W heater. The main heater in winter is 500W. In the summer I use two 300W because the differential between the city water and my tanks are a lot less.

Temperature seems simple but can be tricky.

Thermometer?

Thermometer?

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