Coralife thermometer trouble

[youincolor]

I bought another Coralife thermometer for a new 20 gal tank I set up, and I thought I had gotten a defective one, so I returned it and bought another one. I was comparing the readings with another of the same thermometer on my 40 gallon reef and the readings were always really high, by about 8 degrees. I grabbed another of the same thermometer out of my 55 gal brackish tank and put all the diodes together in the 40 gal reef and looked at the results.

 

 

The oldest thermometer is on the left and it is the one in my reef tank. The second thermometer is the one out of my 55 gal brackish, and the third and last is the newest thermometer I just bought from Petco today. (I would never usually buy anything from there but we had a gift card...) So as you can see, they are all reading very different. How the hell am supposed to tell which one is right, or are they all wrong? Has anyone had any experience with this before? Without buying a proper temperature reader what should I do? I have noticed a little browning on some sps recently, I turned the heater up a bit to help during the nights with the windows open recently, I wonder if I am cooking the tank now with a defective thermometer? Any help would be great.

[davidr2340]

It is really hit or miss with those... Some say they are spot on, some say they are WAY off!

[SPerry]

I did the same test with 6 Coralife thermometers, that I had installed new batteries in, with similar results as you. Compared to a $2.00 floating glass thermometer 1 Coralife was accurate and 1 was close enough to measure my water change mix. While 4 of the glass thermometers all gave the same temp reading.

 

All my tanks have the glass thermometers now.

[xenon]

I had the same problems. Ditital thermometers are junk IMO.

 

[gvidoni]

Same experience here. The only saving grace is that they are consistently off so if you can calibrate it against something that is accurate you can "correct" it with a permanent marker notation on the front.

 

They stink...

[masterbuilder]

One of the worestest aquarium products ever. (as with most coralife products)

[Sergeant-G]

I had the same thing happen to me between my reef computer a toms thermometer and a corallife the corallife was always the highest, but the toms seem to be pretty close to the glass thermometers I have in my tank.

 

Casey

[youincolor]

i checked all three against a friends chiller and the new one is actually right, which means that i have been cooking my tank for who knows how long by +8 degrees, and the brackish tank by +4 degrees. pretty ######ty. is that pinpont monitor worth anything xenon? i would like to get the ph/temp monitor.

[youincolor]

Is anyone using the HANNA HI 991401 GroChek® pH/Temp Monitor/Meter/GroCheck? It looks like one of the only ph/temp continuous use monitors out there unless I am missing something. It doesn't look like Pinpoint makes a dual monitor.

 

http://www.automatedaquariums.com/h_991401.htm

[xenon]

i checked all three against a friends chiller and the new one is actually right, which means that i have been cooking my tank for who knows how long by +8 degrees, and the brackish tank by +4 degrees. pretty ######ty. is that pinpont monitor worth anything xenon? i would like to get the ph/temp monitor.

 

No it was pure junk. Not sure about their other products.

 

They should have at least made it so that I could calibrate it with crushed ice water.

[youincolor]

No it was pure junk. Not sure about their other products.

 

They should have at least made it so that I could calibrate it with crushed ice water.

 

wow is the only option like fda approved hydroponics monitors like hanna or milwaukee or what? i thought pinpoint was swore by. im not going to be buying any $600 controllers either... the reef fanatic ph/temp monitor looks good, any one had experience with that brand?

[xenon]

wow is the only option like fda approved hydroponics monitors like hanna or milwaukee or what? i thought pinpoint was swore by. im not going to be buying any $600 controllers either... the reef fanatic ph/temp monitor looks good, any one had experience with that brand?

 

I read good things about pinpoint but it's almost unanimous that their digital thermometer is crap.

 

Keep it simple. Get a glass thermometer. They are accurate, fool proof and cheap.

[redfishsc]

Is the opinion the same on the Rainbow Time-n-temp/ Little time-n-temp?

 

Right now I have one set up with the heater set at 79, and the tank temp is reading 79.0 and the house temp is 71.

 

I will be buying a glass one very soon to use as an insurance.

[Phixion]

I have the Tom's digital and it's pretty spot on with my ACjr. temp probe, granted it's always about 0.2 higher, but that's not as significant of a differance as the CoralLife I used to have, which was inconsistant all across the board to my Tom's. Sometimes it was +2 differance, other times +0.5, and yet other times -1.5 off... Hey, you get what you pay for. I've wondered about the PinPoint wireless too, but I guess I'll pass on it. All their other probes/monitors are A+ though, so even if their thermom sucks, I'd still trust their other products, one of which I use in my tank (pH probe).

 

JT, I wouldn't say you've been cooking your tank as long as everything is thriving and looking healthy all that time. Nothing to worry about really and in all reality if me, I'd probably keep it as is if it's worked so far.

[youincolor]

JT, I wouldn't say you've been cooking your tank as long as everything is thriving and looking healthy all that time. Nothing to worry about really and in all reality if me, I'd probably keep it as is if it's worked so far.

 

i really dont know how long it has been this way but im kind of ocd and it bugs the hell out of me to think that i thought i was doing a good job keeping the temp around 79 all the time, and in reality it was more like 87. also, i have been slowly getting rid of soft and lps corals to make way for sps, and 87 is not doing me any good with such finicky corals. i have not been getting what i thought i should out of the sps i have, and this has to be part of the reason why.

 

I read good things about pinpoint but it's almost unanimous that their digital thermometer is crap.

 

Keep it simple. Get a glass thermometer. They are accurate, fool proof and cheap.

 

i always assumed that those cheap glass thermometers were like someone else said, you get what you pay for. i never thought that they would be so accurate for the price. i actually have a few of them too for mixing water and stuff, i just never put one in my reef tank before. theres one in there now of course.

[Phixion]

Yeah certain corals like most SPS don't generally like warmer water, I'll give you that much, especially if they weren't conditioned to accept warmer water in your tank over time. At least you know you'll be straight in the temp dept from here on out.

[firebirdude]

Huh.... this is a pretty interesting topic. I was thinking of buying one and did a little googling and it brought me right back to NR.com. Guess it's glass for me.

[mrnugget]

Huh.... this is a pretty interesting topic. I was thinking of buying one and did a little googling and it brought me right back to NR.com. Guess it's glass for me.

 

 

Timely post.... saved me having to start a new topic!

 

I've had struggles starting up with the stock Red Sea heater - wouldn't hold a consistent temp, ran thru an 8 degree range - so Red Sea sent a replacement, which was better, but still was up to a 5 degree range over the day. On advice given here, replaced both with a Stealth heater of the same size.

 

Using the Pinpoint wireless thermometer, I tried to 'dial in' the new heater in a bucket of water, adjusting the setting until the Pinpoint held constant at 79.5 degrees. Looking at the dial on the heater (74 degrees), I was having some doubts on the Pinpoint.

 

Went out today and picked up two additional therms - a stand-up 'mercury' model ($2) and the Coral Life.

 

All three in the same tank - mercury reads ~76 degrees; Coral Life reads 75.5 degrees; Pinpoint reads 81.0 degrees.

 

I'm keeping all three in the tank for awhile - now that I have my answer on accuracy, I'm looking for consistency. As was mentioned, if the Pinpoint is always off by 5 degrees, I can adjust for that in my head. If it starts to fluctuate while the other(s) remain constant, it goes in the drawer until I can write a nasty letter to Pinpoint.

 

In woodworking, I keep one ruler which is my 'master' scale. It might not be exact, but I set all my other measurement devices off what that one shows as 1" so all my tools are set to a consistent standard. In this case, oddly enough, it sounds like the $2 option is the 'master,' and the other devices might be used for convenience, but don't count on them for accuracy. If I use either the Coral Life or the Pinpoint, I'll recheck against the mercury therm on a regular basis (probably during one water change of the month).

[HankB]

...

In woodworking, I keep one ruler which is my 'master' scale. It might not be exact, but I set all my other measurement devices off what that one shows as 1" so all my tools are set to a consistent standard. In this case, oddly enough, it sounds like the $2 option is the 'master,' and the other devices might be used for convenience, but don't count on them for accuracy. If I use either the Coral Life or the Pinpoint, I'll recheck against the mercury therm on a regular basis (probably during one water change of the month).

 

A similar strategy is RAIT (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Thermometers.) Usually most will agree and you'll get some that are obviously off. Then I stick my hand in the tank often enough to get a feel for what the correct temp is and can do a quick cross check that way.

 

-hank