Stick on thermometers?

I have a stick on thermometer on my axie tank but its really weird.

There are no windows or anything in the room but I can go in there and itl b about 20deg, but I can go in an hour later and it'l say its about 24deg. My axies never seem upset by the temp change or anything and when I put my hand in he water I cant even feel a difference.

How accurate are the stick on thermometers, am I better off getting a digital one or something?

Hi Nattles88,

I am afraid to say stick on thermometers are not very accurate. Firstly, they have a rather short and limited lifespan and you have to replace them rather frequently. I used to be on economy drive and thought i could get away with using just those sticker type thermometers on tank glass.
Then a good aquamarine vet friend of mine showed me an experiment where he stuck 3 thermometers (same type) on three different sides of the tank. And they all showed a difference in reading! They are sensitive to ambient temperature changes, even to a jet of water directed at it from interior of a tank.

I would recommend investing in a quality thermometer. I never looked back since.

Cheers

G'day Nattles,

I've never had any problems with the stick-on thermometers, but having said that, I did convert to the digital thermometers.

Generally speaking, room temperature shouldn't affect the stick-on thermometers; however, exposing it to the sun for a prolonged period can disrupt the liquid crystals that constitute the thermometer. In this case, you will get inaccurate readings. Another thing about these thermometers is that they must be placed above the substrate level.

Just out of curiosity, what is your tank made of? Is it acrylic or glass? Acrylic is a good heat insulator. Using a stick-on thermometer on an acrylic tank, as opposed to a glass tank, will give you inaccurate readings.

If you do decide to invest in a digital thermometer, try to find one that is calibrated to a tenth or hundredth of a degree.

Jay.

A stick-on is better than nothing, but not very good.

well in that case I will just get a digital thermometer, I don't mind paying extra cus its rather hot it NZ at the moment and the main reason my tank is where it is, is to try get the temp down. When I first got it it was getting the sun so maybe that mucked it up a bit.

I was getting paranoid though, I thought there musta been gremlins in my bathroom, making the temp fluctuate like that