Cheap stick thermometer saved me from a bad week, what else is in your fish room toolkit?
After the temp swing talk in my bare bottom thread I bought a three dollar stick thermometer and checked the refill bucket. It was 4 degrees off from the tank. Flashing stopped the next day once I matched it. What small cheap tools do you actually use every week? Mine so far is the thermometer, a turkey baster and a headlamp for checking tubs at night. Pic of my cabinet setup below.
9 comments
a pipette and masking tape for labeling tubs, i'd be lost without both. headlamp is a good one, stealing that
Small scissors with a curved tip and a bottle of tank water for rinsing plants. Also a notebook, I write down every change or I forget by Friday.
a little scale for the shrimp and food tubs is mine, I weigh the wafer pinch instead of eyeballing it. also a cheap TDS pen, it caught my top-off water drifting twice.
TDS pen is going on my list, I only ever test the tanks and never the bucket I refill from. That's probably my next surprise.
Add a cheap drip-edge cup or airline valve tester to that list for me. Honestly my best $5 was a bag of clothespins to hold airline tubing on tub rims.
clothespins, ha, my airline tubing is always sliding into the water. Ordering a bag tonight.
adding a cheap ph pen to the list too, though i recalibrate it monthly or it drifts. TDS pen plus thermometer covers most of my surprises.
good call on recalibrating, mine has probably never been done. adding calibration fluid to the order with the clothespins.
a cheap clip-on lid for the tubs and a small fine mesh net per tank. keeps me from dragging disease around with one net.
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