Need an ACCURATE thermometer. Please help.

chocichoci

Can anyone recommend a good (I don't care the price) accurate thermometer?

I'm at my wits end now with my current situation.

I have a 24 gallon aquapod tank that I'm using for a freshwater tank. There are three (3) digital thermometers attached to this thing and I have 3 three! different numbers staring at me and all 3 are wildly different. This tank overheats and I'm trying different things to cool it down: extra fans, chiller, etc. But how can I know if what I'm doing is making a difference if the thermometers are all lying to me?!!!

sigh... I just want one (1) thermometer I can rely on.

I used to have one that you point and press a button. I think it was a laser thermometer but I can't find that one anywhere so I'm on the market for something new that works!

Mikaila31

How hot does it get to over heat? I honestly think you are over worrying about the temp. I use horrible sticky thermometers. I recently had a heater die and my tank has had a rollercoaster temp. I know it went from 75 to 86 or higher within one day before I dropped it back down. I have not had a problem except for one fish. For more accurate temps I use this meat thermometer we have. Its digital and I just stick the fork end in the water. I don't own a digital aquarium thermometer for any of my tanks.

chocichoci

meat therometer? I'll take anything as long as it's accurate.

The temps in this tank range from 79 to 86. It's at 83-84 right now if I go by the one thermometer I've been relying on the longest. 81-82 if I go by the other two.

Editing to say that this is an aquapod aquarium. It's meant to be used for saltwater. It's completely enclosed (the top leaves no place for air ciruculation over the water) there are fans and vents on the top to cool the lights, but with two dual daylight lights, the builltin fans are not keeping up. I've tried adding four extra fans on the top of the hood pointed at the vents. Plus a nano chiller.

The temps used to be 86, now it looks like 83.5 or 81 but I can't tell who's telling the truth here.

LisaC144

Here is the thermometer I use. It's worked perfectly since day 1 and can be used to test the temperature is numerous tanks.

Aquarium Water Temperature: Coralife Digital Thermometer

zof

Its not uncommon to have to identically thermometers vary 1-2 degrees unless they are specially calibrated for scientific use. I also use Coralife thermometer and while I know its not dead on I know its close enough. The only thing you should be looking for is drastic changes in temperature such as 5-10 degrees, 2-3 is not much to worry about.

chocichoci

hah! That's exactly the thermometer I'm using. I have two. One is reading 82.3 right now. The other 80.7. I have a third digital from radio shack. That one is reading 80.9 right now. So, I'm thinking I might have to go with the majority.

I looked into meat thermometers and found one for 26 bucks I may get just because I'm anal like that. I can also do the boiling water test to see if the 1st coralife thermometer is bad.

Thanks for everyone's help. I looked at scientifically calibrated thermometers but I don't want to break the bank. Those are insanely expensive!

Mikaila31

lol normally you calibrate them yourself.

jeaninel

I've used the Corallife digital thermometers before and found them to be off by as much as 5 degrees F or so. I just use the glass thermometers with the suction cups. They are very accurate but a bit hard to read if your eyes are going bad like mine are. lol

Freddy

I got a digital thermometer today... I hope mine's not lying to me. It says my water is about 82 degrees, which is a huge relief from what the sticky thermometer said: 90 degrees! I paid 10 dollars for that thing (10 whole dollars!), so I hope it works.