What is the most reliable thermometer?

stanleo

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I might be over thinking but I got my back up heater in and it is an Eheim Jager 300W. I need to calibrate because I only want it to come on if the temp goes below 77F. I am unsure about what thermometer I should trust. I have a Coralife digital. I tried calibrating it using the ice water method. I filled a large container with crushed ice and tap water, stirred it and put the probe in it. The thermometer read 30.5F so that should mean that it is off by 1.5F, Correct? My Apex says the temp in my tank is 78F and the digital says 76.8 so that is about right, correct? How much should I trust the Apex probe?
 

vetteguy53081

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For your heater I use inkbird controller but pinpoint digital thermometer as well as glass thermometer for aquariums are good
 

mdb_talon

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I find the old fashioned mercury thermometers to be the most reliable. I like the convenience of digital, but got a bunch of old mercury glass thermometers around that i use to confirm results occassionally.
 

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I’m a food nerd and have a Thermapen instant read thermometer for when I need to do any calibrating. If you’re at sea level, you can do the boiling water test to check and verify... it should read 212 degrees Fahrenheit.
 

Dolphins18

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It's hard to 100 percent trust any, they all generally use the same mechanical parts therefore when buying an expensive one you are just paying for higher priced parts. I order 4 or so from amazon, super cheap ones and always use 1 or 2 of those in addition to my main temp reader.
A common habit of the old days was to purchase stick on glass thermometers, I still use them to this day, only to verify that the electronic equipment I am using is working. I let my apex run my temp, but on another tank I have a inkbird, and on another I have no temp reading beyond the heater preset and a few stickers on the glass. All methods have their positives and negatives, but as long as you have a fail safe, or one additional temp reading method, it should not matter what you go with.

Many meat thermometers also go down to 0. You can use one of those to calibrate, alternatively you can put a glass of room temp water by your house thermometer for 24 hours and then use that to check.
 

Saltyreef

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I trust my oakton ph pens temp readout.

But for super precise temperature I would bet my life on the tropic marin glass thermometer.
As i do with their bulb hydrometer :)

Other than that. NIST tracable is what you want.
 

CanuckReefer

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It's hard to 100 percent trust any, they all generally use the same mechanical parts therefore when buying an expensive one you are just paying for higher priced parts. I order 4 or so from amazon, super cheap ones and always use 1 or 2 of those in addition to my main temp reader.
A common habit of the old days was to purchase stick on glass thermometers, I still use them to this day, only to verify that the electronic equipment I am using is working. I let my apex run my temp, but on another tank I have a inkbird, and on another I have no temp reading beyond the heater preset and a few stickers on the glass. All methods have their positives and negatives, but as long as you have a fail safe, or one additional temp reading method, it should not matter what you go with.

Many meat thermometers also go down to 0. You can use one of those to calibrate, alternatively you can put a glass of room temp water by your house thermometer for 24 hours and then use that to check.
Ok just saw this, feels good that there is another sticky guy out there lol....
 

monkeyCmonkeyDo

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I have a finnex 800 dial controller that runs my temp. The sensor is in the return on the baffle wall. Heater chamber before it. I use a glass thermometer in my DT and a sinking one in my heater chamber but the sinker floats in my baffle prior to return. Lol.
My heater is an ehiem jaeger 300w.
D
 

Greg P

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+1 on glass thermometers. I bought 5 of the Marina floating ones and 4 matched each other. The 5th was off by 1 degree so it went into storage.
 

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