TDS water testing device…..anyone using it?

[TUCCI]

Alright, since I strive not to dwell in ignorance I googled my FLUKE meter and read through a download of my owners manual and concluded it has 3 Emissivity settings and the reason it wasn't accurate is I was in the HI setting when I needed to be in the MED setting using my body temp as a baseline for which one works for my needs. The Low setting showed my forehead temp in the 112 area. The High (which is where its been) showed a 94 area and the Med where I know my body temp to be.
I then did a water temp reading on my aquarium and finally I've got a collaborative reading...
Just the acknowledgement of it likely being Operator Headspace made me want to Google my meter and the apiphony being the result.
My thanks to the members who got me asking the right question and coming up with the end results.

 

[duanes]

If you live in an area with a very consistant water supply (such as one of the Great Lakes, or on a stable aquifer or a large stable reservoir) a TDS meter may not be needed, and overkill, once you know your waters average.
But....If you live in an area, where your cities water supply is a river, shallow aquifer, or climate change is playing hell with your reservoir, you may need to be more vigilant.
If you have the consistent type, its about jreally ust acquiring fish that fit your water.
As an example where I lived before, my water came from Lake Michigan, a very stable source, a consistent pH @8, 250ppm total hardness, high TDS, was the norm, so I knew (once I realized the importance of water parameters), it would be useless to try and keep and breed Amazonian soft water species, and chose species accordingly.
Early on, when I tried to keep and breed soft water oscars from the Orinoco, even with massive water changes, they would breed, but eggs wouldn't;t hatch, or if they did, fry wouldn't survive
Some aquarists in my area did choose fish from out of the normal ,parameters but found they needed RO/DI systems , and regular addition of acids, and tannins to be successful (especially at breeding). Or extensive rain water catchment apparatus, and storage
Being a bit of a sloth, I chose hard water, higher pH species, that were evolutionarily equipped to live in my water.

 

[jjohnwm]

Lol, yes, "usd" was indeed a fat-finger typo that should have read "use". I suspect that your initial attempt to ascribe some arcane significance to those three letters signifies a fundamental difference between your approach to things and mine.

Your Fluke temp gun is a few grades higher in quality than my Mastercraft one, lol, but mine serves its purpose for me. I can scan the readings off all my tanks, my water storage vats, stock tanks, etc. in seconds . If all those readings are a degree off one way or the other...well, see my earlier comment about not stressing or fretting about trivia. I enjoy the new laser device and use it a lot...mostly to project a red dot that gets my Red Wolffish dancing and looking for food...

I spent decades measuring aquarium water temperature with cheapo glass thermometers, still have at least a dozen floating around as I write this. They were "calibrated" by comparing all the ones in the store and then buying only the ones that were in the middle of the average range observed. I very much doubt that I ever lost a fish due to erroneous temperature measurements while using those stone-age tools.

I try not to actually dwell in ignorance, but I do enjoy having a cottage there and spending lots of time at the beach.

 

[TUCCI]

Lol, yes, "usd" was indeed a fat-finger typo that should have read "use". I suspect that your initial attempt to ascribe some arcane significance to those three letters signifies a fundamental difference between your approach to things and mine.

Your Fluke temp gun is a few grades higher in quality than my Mastercraft one, lol, but mine serves its purpose for me. I can scan the readings off all my tanks, my water storage vats, stock tanks, etc. in seconds . If all those readings are a degree off one way or the other...well, see my earlier comment about not stressing or fretting about trivia. I enjoy the new laser device and use it a lot...mostly to project a red dot that gets my Red Wolffish dancing and looking for food...

I spent decades measuring aquarium water temperature with cheapo glass thermometers, still have at least a dozen floating around as I write this. They were "calibrated" by comparing all the ones in the store and then buying only the ones that were in the middle of the average range observed. I very much doubt that I ever lost a fish due to erroneous temperature measurements while using those stone-age tools.

I try not to actually dwell in ignorance, but I do enjoy having a cottage there and spending lots of time at the beach.

? my wife says I tend to visit it as well especially when she tries telling me something and she can tell I'm somewhere else.... ?
When it comes to properly using instruments and such I set high standards for myself especially when I have a high quality device like my FLUKE and I don't know how to properly used the dang thing....that just won't do ☺
When I do over 50% pwcs and its a couple of degrees off because I'm a dumb butt, it tends to put me off.

 

[duanes]

I should have mentioned, that if water changes are not large and frequent enough, TDS can build up in the tank over time, especially if just evaporation make up water as added, as opposed to replacing old with new .
So a TDS meter might be an important tool for those not into water changes.