It's mainly used in cooking. Stick the sharp metal probe into meat to check temp. Works just as well with water. The best part is you get a reading in just a second.
Why hands make terrible thermometers...
- Thread starter FINWIN
- Start date
If you don't want to deal with a needle one there are always laser thermometers, I have one and I love it.
I don't know about laser, but I have an infrared type, and I don't believe they work with water. Testing the infrared unit on my tank, I believe it actually goes right through the water, and picks up the temp of the glass or other solid substances that it makes contact with.
As I'd stated, what I really like about these instant read thermometers, is that you simply calibrate it with a glass of iced water. So, it is very accurate!
I have one and works for me. Maybe 1 degree off It’s close to the same temps I’m seeing on my temp probes on apex.
Above is what I used in the states, the thermometer is resting in the PVC running tap water to the sump.
I never ran tap water, straight to the tanks, always to the sump first, and with this thermometer sitting in the direct flow, allowed for a quick glance to access temp, and going to the sump first gave me a slight margin of error to catch, and temp sway anomaly..
Most of the time with Lake Michigan tap water, I ran out of warm, and needed to watch for a drop in temp (in winter my tap water easily ran only 39'F).
These Fisher Scientific type thermometers were very accurate, although occasionally needed calibrating.
But, is it reading the water temp or the first solid substance that it comes into contact with (glass, gravel, etc)?
Try this: run one of your hands under very cold water for a minute, then get a reading of the water from the top of the tank, now stick your hand about 10" into the water and get another reading with the beam hitting your hand under the water column.
So, if it's actually reading the water temp, at what depth is it reading it at?
It’s reading gravel and driftwood. Tried those out. The readings have been about. 5 inches from the bottom and at the bottom (gravel).
Will try out the hand under faucet and see.
So, then this would really not work out for the OP, who wants to check the water temp coming out of the hose during refills.
The instant read thermometer reads what is actually touching the probe.
I did read up on the lasers and it did say they can read other surface temps. The ones strictly for water were more pricey...I've ordered one of the 'pin' thermometers and will see how it works next fill up.
A follow up to the temp issue in the 225...as I suspected the temps were reaching an equilibrium and still too high for what I wanted. In the overnight hours it went from 84.3 to 83.6. So less than a degree in nearly 12 hours.
Went ahead and did a straight cold tap partial. Waited for cold temp to 'bottom out.' All filters/ aeration stayed on.
The numbers:
Initial tank temp 83.6 degrees
15% volume cold tap at 56.3 degrees
20 min later current tank temp 80.3 degrees
Nailed my calculations. The fish are swimming freer and exploring now with no 'ambush syle' aggression. Also the spitting of food has stopped. At too high temps I've discovered fish actually lose appetite (past 83 degrees). They show interest but won't actually eat much.
A follow up to the temp issue in the 225...as I suspected the temps were reaching an equilibrium and still too high for what I wanted. In the overnight hours it went from 84.3 to 83.6. So less than a degree in nearly 12 hours.
Went ahead and did a straight cold tap partial. Waited for cold temp to 'bottom out.' All filters/ aeration stayed on.
The numbers:
Initial tank temp 83.6 degrees
15% volume cold tap at 56.3 degrees
20 min later current tank temp 80.3 degrees
Nailed my calculations. The fish are swimming freer and exploring now with no 'ambush syle' aggression. Also the spitting of food has stopped. At too high temps I've discovered fish actually lose appetite (past 83 degrees). They show interest but won't actually eat much.
