Thermometer ?

[Anonymous]

I got a Rainbow Lifeguard digital thermometer. It was working fine. When I added sowm water to my sump some water spilled onto it. NBow the numbers stay put and are way off.

Is thing a gonner?

What do you use? I dont trust those stickers on the side of the tank and dont want to use a floating thermometer in my tank of sump.
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[O P Ing]

hi.
Almost all digital thermometer are measuring resistance one way or the other. If there is a slight short between the contacts of the probe, the measurement will be way off. See if you can clean up the spill and get the problem fixed. Good luck. (it is only ten bucks, so get a new one if you had tried your best...)

 

[Marrowbone]

That reminds me O P, I once spilled some water on a PH controller for my FW plant tank and it made it display wierd things. Boy was i pi$$ed! I unplugged it for a few months, and then on a whim I plugged it back in and it seems to be working fine. I never did recalibrate the thing, and I'm still just dosing CO2 in there steadily by eyeballing it. The reef tank is consuming all my aquatic creativity! So, I guess my point is don't throw it out right away. Let it sit for quite a while and really dry out inside, it may come back to life... you know you can always use a spare!

 

[Reefguide]

On both my tanks I use a digital Indoor/Outdoor thermometer. I just drop the probe into the sump. The indoor reading is rather useless but the outdoor one is the tank temp. I like it beacuse it will record the High and Low temps till I reset it. Helpfull in determining daily temp flutuations... Only $20.00 at Radio Shack too !

 

[Anonymous]

The probe is in the water like always. The readout piece got wet and thats what stopped.
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[O P Ing]

hi.
The contacts are in the readout piece. Open up the case, and you will see where the two wires from the outdoor probe are soldered onto the PC board. Just use some water and a Q-tip to clean the area between the contact if you see any salt deposit/saltwater between them.

 

[brandon4291]

Rubbing alcohol is another nice electrical cleaning agent, I use it on my receiver contacts for my remote control airplanes every time I send one spiraling down into a hapless pond or city lake (common with the way I fly). It helps to evaporate water on the boards, and is a good solvent of salt deposits, etc. I think if you cleaned it, it has a chance of coming back to life if the initial short didnt kill some components with overload, good luck I bet it'll work.

brandon

 

[Expos Forever]

I'm probably going against the grain here but I find the sticker type thermometers suprisingly accurate. Not sure what you have against the floating type as they usually come with suction cups and can be hidden in the sump.

 

[Anonymous]

I,ll open it up and clean it when I get home.

As for the floating thermometer adn sticker it will be hard to read under the stand. Plus I have never seen those suction cups last more than a month.
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[O P Ing]

hi.
For the color sticker thermometer, it is telling you the temperature of the air near the sump, not the temp. of the tank water. This is more of a problem if you have an acrylic sump, since the plastic is a good thermo insulator.

 

[Mogo]

Colour Thermometer stickons measure the temperature of the glass (or acrylic). I believe they tell you subtract 1 degree or something. I have found them to be very accurate on my cichlid tanks and. I used to cross-reference them with my probe thermo and have never found any variance.

 

[Terry McGee]

Color Thermometer stick-ons measure the temperature of the glass (or acrylic). I believe they tell you subtract 1 degree or something. I have found them to be very accurate on my cichlid tanks and. I used to cross-reference them with my probe thermo and have never found any variance.
We agree, we use two sometimes to make sure and verify, if they don't agree with each other we find out why. Best Reguards Terry

 

[LFS42]

If saltwater got into an electronic device not meant to get saltwater in it, it's probably a goner.

I'm one for the floating hydrometer/thermometer.
I can't say the lure of digital isn't there, but I find if I keep the hydrometer/thermometer in the sump, I can instantly see salinity and temp.

It's not for the hard of seeing, those numbers are getting harder to see the older I get.

 

[Go Fish]

Rubbing alcohol is another nice electrical cleaning agent, I use it on my receiver contacts for my remote control airplanes every time I send one spiraling down into a hapless pond or city lake (common with the way I fly). It helps to evaporate water on the boards, and is a good solvent of salt deposits, etc. I think if you cleaned it, it has a chance of coming back to life if the initial short didnt kill some components with overload, good luck I bet it'll work.

brandon

I agree with brandon. I always use rubbing alcholol on anything electrical that needs to be cleaned. Water, on the otherhand shouldn't be used, it'll most likely cause more problems.