Digital Thermometers

[rich_one]

What do you all think of digital thermometers vs. the glass one that go in the tank? Is there any specific brand that is more recommended than another? Thanks!

-Rich​

 

[emartin]

For Glass thermometers I only use Marina brand (a Hagen Company). Kensfish sells them for $1 under "Won Glass Thermometer" (no idea why he hasn't updated it because every time I've ordered them I always got a Marina glass thermometer). I've had one Marina thermometer apparently explode (well, it broke in a strange way) on me once...I found shards of glass in one of my growout tanks with that red chemical stuff on the bottom of the tank (not sure if it was mercury, alcohol, or something else). Fish were perfectly safe though, I'm guessing either the fish broke the thermometer or temperature shock caused it to shatter. Every other one I have though still works and reads accurately two years later. Only one of the six I have in my tanks reads 1dF warmer than what my digital thermometer reads.
http://hagen.com/usa/aquatic/product.cfm?CAT=1&SUBCAT=110&PROD_ID=01112010020101


For Digital Ones...I like them when they work properly. I've had the Coralife ones be as much as 10F off calibration (it would read 69F instead of 79F (another digital thermometer and two glass thermometers both read 79F)), and one fail on me (just broke). The only other downside is that they begin to read temperatures inaccurately when the battery life starts to diminish, but a simple way to prevent that is to just turn off the thermometer when you don't need a temperature reading to preserve battery life.

You can get generic Coralife/Zoomed digital thermometers on eBay for dirt cheap from Hong Kong sellers. You have to wait 1-2 weeks for them to arrive, but they're new and very accurate and come with a battery to power it. I know of one seller on ebay that has them for $2.94 each (INCLUDING shipping!) available in black or yellow colors. That one took about 5 business days to arrive (ordered it on a thursday, shipped out the next day on friday and it arrived the following thursday or friday).

 

[rich_one]

Yeah... so far, folks are generally advising that I stick with glass... so that's probably what I'm gonna do. Was wondering if they were better, but doesn't seem so.

Thanks for the input!

-Rich

 

[emartin]

Glass is okay, but when in doubt it's useful to have a spare digital thermometer laying around to double check the temperature or to add an extra glass thermometer to the tank to make sure that they're both reading the same temperature/accurate.

I really like the Marina ones, they've never been more than 1dF inaccurate for me. For $1/ea from kensfish they are more than worth it..

 

[davidhusker]

Most of my tanks have the stick on ones which are pretty accurate. Sometimes in the winter they read a little cooler (tank is 75, strip reads 70 etc.)

 

[dlfn1]

i was using digital ones (coralife) but after discovery that a couple of mine were as much as 10F off, i went to glass. thankfully, no fish loss.

 

[cmcpart0422]

I use both of the mentioned glass and digital ones and they are both pretty good.

 

[Tony]

I have glass thermometers in every one of my tanks. Some folks poopoo on them because some are not calibrated right, but they're really cheap and you can easily weed out ones that are off a couple of degrees. Buy a box of them from Kens... if 1-2 of them is off, pitch them in the trash. You're out a dollar or two, big deal.

After you confirm one is good (by comparing it to another one or a digital), it should be good for the long haul... no parts to wear out, no electronics, no batteries to replace, etc.

IMO, a no-brainer for someone who has multiple tanks.

 

[Cartel]

I was about to compliment my Marina digital thermometer but after checking it this morning it's reading 18.9F riiiiiight so time for me to switch the batteries or just buy some new ones.