You should really be running a controller on your heaters or chiller (If you run one.) Heaters are know to fault out and stick in the heat position :twised: a controller will give you the correct temp and will prevent you from over heating. I am sure there are a few of us that have killed off our tanks because of a faulty heater. No need for a glass thermometer that way.:wink:

Agreed with Marlin. I run a digital thermometer in my tank, as well as a heater that is seperate from the control unit with it's own probe measuring the temperature. Redundant, and not that expensive.

Could you not just run a magnet along the bottom to collect all the lead balls? I still believe the glass would be more worriesome but if the lead balls bother you or they try to get eaten... don't know too much about salt water yet but I though this might help.

I thought of one of those. But I figured they arn't to accurate. :lol:

Very good point! Now that you mention it I did have this happen a few years back (caught it on time though) I'm looking to buy a controller. Any suggestions on one? :mrgreen:

:) BRILLIANT! :) i WONDER IF IT WOULD WORK???!! I almost want to tell the boss I'm going home early to... Wait a sec, I am the boss! :lol: Hmm.... I wonder if this would really work though?? Now I wonder if my Tunze magnet would work... hmm....ponder. GOOD SUGGESTION! Thank YOU! I will keep you posted if it works! :mrgreen:

UPDATE: On Stewie (a.k.a Griffie) the porcupine puffer...
 

UPDATE: On Stewie (a.k.a Griffie) the porcupine puffer...

I spoke to soon about him NOT inflating himself. Late lastnight he was blowing up like a big balloon over and over. Poor lil buddy. Although..he wouldn't touch the peas, he did swallow the krill whole. He seems to be having trouble chewing. I'm thinking he cut his mouth on the glass when he had the floating thermometer almost all the way in. :( However; at least he had some food!!! WOoHOOOO! Now he doesn't want anything to do with me. Dashing away from me when I come to the tank. He's acting as if I may have made him swallow the darn thermometer! Usually Stewie follows me around as I walk by. He won't even let me pet him now, he dashes away. :( Humanizing the puffer aside, he's not him self and doesn't want to socialize. Which tells me he most likely is under the weather with lead balls and perhaps glass shards. :( I will continue to monitor and update. I will see if I have some pictures of my pet monster handy.

Yup he has indigestion... not much you can do aside of trying peas and krill. I would imagine if he is inflating he has not tore his stomach up from the glass enough stop him from doing so. I would think this is a good sign but I am not sure. Whenever he did this at my house you would swear he had difficulty chewing as well, but I think it is from him trying to upchuck what is bothering him.

When he had indigestion here, he would not eat for up to a week, and was fine. I would take a shrimp or prawn and almost tease him with it for trigger a feeding response. Be careful when you do this, since once he strikes he tends to get both fingers in his mouth along with the food. How do I know this? He almost came out of the tank with my fingers once. He didn't do much damage but it hurt.

Like you mentioned to me a long time ago... he is getting really bored and needs some sort of stimulation. I am thinking you need a couple of fish you don't care about much for him to hunt. He was a big boy when he was caught, and I think he was hunting in the wild for too long to be totally happy in captivity at times. He is still the largest puffer I have ever seen.

I use a number of different thermometer types including the stick on cheapies. IME, the stick on is within half a degree Celsius (yes I prefer C over F) of the two digital thermometers in the display. I've seen plenty of threads with folks reporting that the digitals are off. No type of thermometer is foolproof. One of the ones I liked the most was in fact a floating glass thermometer/hydrometer combination. The hydrometer part of it was accurate as well when compared to my refractometer. It's well established technology, needs no batteries etc, the drawback being that they're breakable as you've experienced.

As far as accuracy, how much is really needed in the hobby? I often see folks reporting a salinity of 1.0264 on their refractometers. What's up with that last decimal point? The scale makes it almost impossible to read off that level of accuracy, it's at best a guess. If you just need a quick check to ensure you're heaters aren't malfunctioning, a stick on thermometer will do that for you nicely. Even if it's off a few degrees, it will keep you in the 'ballpark' so to speak.

Here is some pictures of Stewie (a.k.a Griffie)

http://i888.photobucket.com/albums/a...ld/stewie3.jpg

http://i888.photobucket.com/albums/a...ld/stewie1.jpg

http://i888.photobucket.com/albums/a...ld/stewie2.jpg

http://i888.photobucket.com/albums/a...ld/stewie4.jpg


Pictures don't do justice, as he looks small in pictures. I assure you need a bucket to get him out of the tank. :lol: