Digital thermometers

[Guest]

Do those outside stick-ons work well?...How about for an acrylic tank?

 

[peterp]

If you mean the plastic stick on ones where the liquid crystal changes color with the temp then no they are not accurate. Hard to find two that agree with each other. The glass floating ones are a bit better.

If you mean a real hang-on tank digital thermometer (electronics & probe ) then yes they are.

(I have a stickon on each tank but don't rely on them). The real digitals can come with Hi/Lo temp alarms and give room temp and time as well.

 

[Guest]

I meant the stick-on. Do you know if they work equally on acrylic tanks (as opposed to glass)?

 

[justDIY]

they probably work better on acrylic tank, as plastic conducts heat much better than glass does.

 

[peterp]

I've only used them on glass tanks, but see no reason they should not work equally poorly on acrylic tanks.

 

[sweetsuvvyb]

the LCD technology is actually very precise (maybe not accurate, though). You will be hard-pressed to find much by way of accuracy in the thermometers you're gonna buy for an aquarium (since they aren't calibrated to a high standard of accuracy), unless you are using a mercury one...which I personally wouldn't use around fish.

My LCD works for me.

 

[possum]

My brothers college proffessor told him that the lcds are actually more accurate than the glass ones.

 

[Terry]

I find that the only problem with stick on thermometers is that they will also read the room temperature as well as the tank Temperature.

 

[Guest]

I have heard that the stick-ons are supposedly calibrated to take into account the conductivity of the tank, which I imagine is assumed to be glass. If that's true, then I would think there must be some difference if used on an acrylic tank if acrylic conducts differently.

Oh well, I sent an e-mail to one of the manufacturers (Hagen)...so, we'll see what they say. Im not too concerned since it's a small tank with a good quality heater...I have found that the good quality heaters have reliable thermostats, especially for small tanks where temp won't vary much.

Thanks!

 

[guppylove]

i would not wast your money them as they are not very good i uesed them and did not think they were very reliable get one that gos inside the tank they work much better

 

[sweetsuvvyb]

I humbly beg to differ.

Similar items are used extensively in hospitals, the technology has been found to yield better results in a great deal of instances than digital thermometers.

I think it's important to understand that you are going to be hard-pressed to get some ulltimate exact reading on ANY aquarium thermometer. They're role should be more along the lines of monitoring CHANGE in temperature. If your heater is set at 78 and your thermometer is reading 76...it doesn't mean that either are wrong, simply that they were calibrated differently. Same goes if you were to buy 2 of the liquid crystal thermometers....if they read 2 different temperatures...it isn't because the technology is faulty, it's because the method of calibration during mass production is less than ideal.

 

[Scottw68TN]

I use them and they seem to be accurate and reliable. Even if the outside temp does effect it (which mine is not affected by, on a 75) you can easily find the difference with an inside the tank therm and subtract or add the degree difference.