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Tank Temperature...

Rooster said:
Dont think I am... educate me :angry:
Click to expand...



OK :rolleyes:


Example

Your cheap LCD reads 23 degrees celcius and this is your only means of testing temperature. Fine.

Your fish need a temperature between 22 and 24 degrees celcius. Fine.

Your tank is set up like this for several weeks, or months even. Fine.

You wake up one morning to find floaters. You can't figure out why they died. :unsure:

Your cheap LCD had an error of -6 degrees meaning that the tank temperature was actually 29 degrees celcius. :crazy:




Now do you see the point?

Unless you know the error, there is no way you can know the actual temperature and no way you can know if the temperature is safe for your fish.

Before you launch into rant mode, it is more than possible that an error of six degrees can occur, I have known it several times with cheap stick on type thermometers and suction cup liquid thermometers. Hence the reason I use PT100 probes - my personal choice for accuracy.


If you still have trouble seeing the point, I suggest you go back to school.
 
So unless we all go out and buy hundreds of pounds worth of thermometer then we don't really know what temperature the water is?
I would think that is a bit off, and if a thermometer is off by 6 degrees I would think it is faulty.

I basically set my heater to 26 degrees and see what my thermometer says. As long as the thermometer then reads 26 degrees +/- 1 degree for a week I'm happy. If I'm REALLY bothered I'll grab the thermometer out of my other tank as well and run two alongside each other, (hopefully highlighting any errors in either of them).
I have to say though I use the glass ones that use a suction cup to stick to the inside of the tank, and both of them and my heater's thermostat agree on the temperature of the tank, so I see no need to go to excessive expense on it :good:
 
I use the same glass stick on ones, and compare the temp to to the temp setting on the heater the same as schmill, unless you have a lab calibrated thermometer you are never going to know the true temp, so working out an average between the heater and thermometer is the easiest thing to do.
 
I do agree with you on guesstimating an average, however a certain person refused to see my point so I simply explained it in a way that a child could understand.


In fact, on the same subject, I found out last night that Nero's 55w heater (Hydor Hydromatic) reads 5 degrees under. It was set at 26. He looked a bit uncomfortable so I checked the temperature with a freshly calibrated (less than a week ago by a UKAS laboratory) probe. The actual temperature was 31.5 degrees!


Needless to say, turning the stat down to 20.5 and a careful water change has perked him up a bit.
 
Well here we go again. Even some small aspect of the hobby that one might think keeps it a simple relaxing laid-back hobby gets to go under the TFF microscope, LOL!

Clearly, there's the small chance that any one of us could be found to be living in "La-La Land" with a cheap LFS thermometer that's the odd one and has managed to get off by something rather shocking, like 6 degrees or more! I'd take a guess that if we could know, we'd find only a percent or two of them off like that, but with a ton of people on TFF, that means probably a few members here have indeed got a lousy instrument!

Its just one of the small risks, like some of the other ones in the hobby.

And since its a hobby for pleasure, we're sure to have all aspects represented here: Luckily, we've got Smeg, who will let us know when a world temp standard starts getting broadcast over low-frequency radio and which controller chip is needed for our setpoint computers! We've also luckily got Corleone to interpret what smeg is saying. We've also luckily got Rooster, to remind us that they're just fish dammit and those fish like to swim in streams of varying temps! And now probably Andy will come along and tell us there's no way we need thermometers at all, just use a cold hose when needed! I love TFF! :lol:

As one of the boring middle-of-the-roaders I guess one of the cool things I'll take away from this discussion is the info that a metal kitchen meat thermometer might be one of the nearby, more accurate sorts of thermometers available in many households, as Smeg tells us. I'm going to remember this as a potentially helpful second check on my simple glass suction type ones.

~~waterdrop~~
 
Another easy way to check if the tank temp is ok is to test it with your elbow, if it does not burn it will be ok for the fish...........
 
smegforbrains said:
I do agree with you on guesstimating an average, however a certain person refused to see my point so I simply explained it in a way that a child could understand.
Click to expand...

This is called "flaming" and unacceptable on ALL forums... unless invited :shifty: I dont mind being challenged, but insulted is another matter...

Whilst you are busy waving you finger you missed MY point, unless you do have access to lab quality gear you simply do not know what temp your water is EXACTLY... and MY POINT was that is doesnt matter, as long as its in the ballpark... and a cheapo thermometer will do that.
As an aside, I would even trust the cheapo over the "setting" on a heater/stat....
 
Schmill said:
So unless we all go out and buy hundreds of pounds worth of thermometer then we don't really know what temperature the water is?
I would think that is a bit off, and if a thermometer is off by 6 degrees I would think it is faulty.

I basically set my heater to 26 degrees and see what my thermometer says. As long as the thermometer then reads 26 degrees +/- 1 degree for a week I'm happy. If I'm REALLY bothered I'll grab the thermometer out of my other tank as well and run two alongside each other, (hopefully highlighting any errors in either of them).
I have to say though I use the glass ones that use a suction cup to stick to the inside of the tank, and both of them and my heater's thermostat agree on the temperature of the tank, so I see no need to go to excessive expense on it :good:
Click to expand...

when bought, no thermometer should be out by more than a degree or so, or you would be entitled to call it faulty (sale of goods act, fit for the purpose). and yes only spending £100 will give you a thermometer that is really accurate, but is it worth spending that type of money, imho, NO!!! not even remotely. i have two of these guys, but rarely ever use them. unless you have really sensitive fish, one or two degrees will make no real difference.
 
smegforbrains said:
Your fish need a temperature between 22 and 24 degrees celcius. Fine.
Click to expand...

I am trying and trying, but I just can't think of any fish that has such a narrow temperature range. In the wild the temperatures are likely to swing by at least that amount every single day.

So many tropical fish are so much more adaptable than people on this board give credit for (with regards to more than just temperature).
 
Its just too bad we can't all be laughing over a beer in a brit pub listening to this temperature debate. In my case I'll be smelling chlorine at a kid's swim meet all weekend rather than beer, watching humans swim rather than fish... :beer:

~~waterdrop~~
 
smegforbrains said:
Don't you start. that was purely an example, I was not defining any particular species.
Click to expand...

was that not what andywg meant? put simply, that "example" did not conform to ANY fish, never mind just one! well that's how i read it anyway.
 
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