2 Thermometers Reading Different Readings?!?!?!?!?&#33

[Deleted member 107737]

Hi All.
 
Bought another glass thermometer sat side by side with the other thermomter.
 
Set my heater to 26 Degree C at the far right of my tank.
 
Placed both thermomters far left of the tank.
 
One thermometer says 23 degrees C and the other says 24 degrees C.
 
How accurate are these things??
 
I wanna buy some fish but worried they will die from it being too cold.
 
 
Thanks,
 
dave
 
 

 

[MBOU]

Are they both exactly the same make and model of thermometer? You might also find it has something to do with the flow? Maybe the thermometer closer to the flow that brings warmer water from the heater is the one with a higher reading? Or could it just be the angle you are reading them from?
 
Either way... a fluctuation of 1 degree will hardly bother the fish...

 

[Deleted member 107737]

thanks

 

[Royston]

I have two glass thermometres and they both have different readings , I also have a juwel digital, a digital probe thermometre From tool station and just got a stc 1000 wired up.... All read different up to 3 degrees c.. The stc 1000 I calibrated with a glass of ice and water

 

[balraj_bangar]

I got my heater on 31 but the glass temp reads 25 it does scare me. I have felt the water and its defo not cold. I put it down to the green bit being fine. If it falls then its time to panic!

 

[Deleted member 107737]

well im planning on keeping tetras or barbs. is 23C ok for keeping this sort of fish??

 

[Royston]

Fill a glass with ice and top up with water, give it a good stir and put your thermostat in the water .. It should go down to 0 if its accurate

 

[eaglesaquarium]

For the above, make sure that the ice is FINELY crushed, otherwise, it would only go down to about 2C or so...  (Trust me, I do this lab with my students... The ice is best in TINY chunks... crushed ice works best, if you happen to have some.)
 
Also, adding chilled water, rather than tap water is also best.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

I got my heater on 31 but the glass temp reads 25 it does scare me. I have felt the water and its defo not cold. I put it down to the green bit being fine. If it falls then its time to panic!

 
 
No sense in panicing... more than likely your circulation is too low, or your heater is too small for your tank.    Have you moved your thermometer to a variety of spots to test what the temp is in various locations.  More than likely, you aren't getting only a "local" temp, and not a "mean" temp for the tank.  Increasing the flow of water over your heater would more than likely raise the temp at the location you are measuring, and give you a better idea for the mean...  Also, moving the thermometer to about 6 or so different locations: top-front-right, top-front-left, bottom-front-right, bottom-front-left, bottom-back-right, bottom-back-left, top-back-right, top-back-left and just above the heater should give you a fairly good idea of what the true mean of the tank is, you might be surprised at how different it is at different locations.

 

[Dazzer87]

I got my heater on 31 but the glass temp reads 25 it does scare me. I have felt the water and its defo not cold. I put it down to the green bit being fine. If it falls then its time to panic!

Its likely that your heater is on its way out. I had a 2nd hand setup running for about 12months with the heater reading the same as yours. Eventually it failed and the temperture fell to 21c and fluctuated a lot after this point. couldn't get a new one straight away as it was a bank holiday weekend but luckly fish where fine. I was told the thermostat was the likely cause as it ages they can become inaccurate, stick or fail completely.

Hi All.
 
Bought another glass thermometer sat side by side with the other thermomter.
 
Set my heater to 26 Degree C at the far right of my tank.
 
Placed both thermomters far left of the tank.
 
One thermometer says 23 degrees C and the other says 24 degrees C.
 
How accurate are these things??
 
I wanna buy some fish but worried they will die from it being too cold.
 
 
Thanks,
 
dave
 
 

thermometers specially those glass ones are not all that accurate. if you go to the shop and look at the readings of them they usually vary a lot. Your heater wont even be that accurate, the Jagar heaters I use are + and - 2c accurate and I have seen a 4c difference comparing those thermometers on the shelf. I normally pick up the thermometer that matches the average reading, more luck of the draw if its near the correct reading.