Equipment Review and Discussion :: Thermometer habitat and water, suggestions Please !!!

[TartarugaVerde]

Hello,

I am looking to buy a thermometer for my basking area and upper habitat

I found the following:

Marina Aqua Minder Thermometer
http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/p ... atid=15245

cheap Ebay Thermometer
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 580wt_1165

i mean, what do you guys have? because i am tired to ask the petshop people and then learn about it here and exchange the items later...

so i wanna buy something good and reliable.. AND ACCURATE


I tried to find info about it and decided to just post, if there are other post, please let me know because i did not find it,

THANKS ONCE MORE AND I LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR REPLY!!!

[TartarugaVerde]

Oh i forgot to mention...

my room temp varies from 65-75 depending the hour of the day due to sun and ac.

the water heater is preset at 78 and it does its job pretty well,

im concerned about night time.... the turtle might feel is too cold and stay in water the whole time so i need to figure out if the temp changes much or not... and what is the ideal temp for it basking area with light on and at night all lights off and acc freeeezying the house! [my dad is a polar bear huahuahaauha]

i plan on making a duplex/basking area on top of the 10gallon...

wo i need to figure out a way to keep the temperature stable...

do i have a valid concern or just too worried about my turtle?

[BullDog]

That first thermom is pretty fancy, but it looks like it has some neat features.
I looked at those cheap ebay thermometers when I was looking to get a new one, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to trust the no-name brand.

I had the Zoomed digital thermometer for a while, and I was satisfied with it, until my RES bit through it.
http://www.reptilesupply.com/product.ph ... ts_id=1714

Then I tried the other zoomed digital thermom:
http://www.reptilesupply.com/product.ph ... ts_id=2581
But I wasn't happy with it. It's about 60 seconds between readings. It's OK if it's just sitting in the tank, but useless for quick reads.

In the end, I went with a digital cooking thermometer:

It's super accurate, and reads almost instantly. And it was only about $12.



Most turtles sleep in the water at night, so as long as your water heater is working properly, he'll stay warm.

Basking area, you'll have to experiment with different wattage bulbs to find the right warmth. Usually you want the basking area about 10 degrees warmer than the water, so mid 80's to low 90's is good.
As long as there isn't a draft going across the basking area, he'll be warm enough up there.

[marisa]

I don't use either of those, but I do use a digital thermometer to keep track of the water temp (either ESU or Zoo Med, I can't remember which).

Most RES do stay in the water all night, and there's no problem with that.

If it gets really cool at night, it would be good to cover the tank ( In the winter I use plexiglass) to trap the warmed from the warmed water in the tank. It would keep up the ambient air temp. Don't let him get hit by any drafts from the AC. During the day, a basking area temp in the range of 88 - 90F is good.

[TartarugaVerde]

I really like the marina Aqua Reminder - cuz it will manage temp etc for me..... and remind me..... i will prob get it.... then i will let ya'll know how was it............

[TartarugaVerde]

I got a Marina Aqua-Minder off e-bay for $8bucks shipped, sorry you cant beat that...
it has a reminder for 10%water change - filter change- system check - min-max temperature buzzer...hey, i like it very much and i've used a few other and nothing comes even closed to Aqua...and is pretty accurate

http://cgi.ebay.com/MARINA-AQUA-MINDER- ... 500wt_1154

[BullDog]

Cool! I've seen those ones, and wondered what the extra features were. Thanks for the review

[TartarugaVerde]

go for it... ebay has some for pretty cheap...