Taking Accurate Shots with the Pro Exotics PE-1 Temp Gun

Every now and then an aquarium product comes along that earns a spot on the fist shelf. After a few minutes playing around with a Pro Exotics PE-1 Temp Gun this holiday, it quickly took a spot next to the refractometer. That is, once I could put it down.


Pro Exotics PE-1 Temp Gun

One could argue that few things are more important than your aquarium's temperature and it is surprising how often that is an after-thought on even the most advanced setup. Even when taken into account, few to none actually obtain temperature from more than one area of the aquarium. We appear to be comfortable living with a lot of assumptions.

Enter the Pro Exotics PE-1 Temp Gun. The PE-1 Temp Gun is "an infrared thermometer that takes non-contact surface temps of just about any object or liquid, including clear water."



Unlike other thermometers that require time to adjust, you can get a fast reading with the PE-1 as it fires up almost instantly. With the only controls being a minimum, maximum and lock setting, the PE-1 is an intuitive tool. You turn it on and point for a reading. As noted above, the Temp Gun takes surface temperatures, so simply pointing the gun at the side of your aquarium will reveal the temperature inside. Within a short time, it became apparent that the real gain with the Temp Gun is the ability to do temperature scans of your whole aquarium - quickly and accurately.

The test subject was a cool-running 75 gallon show tank. A quick shot at the side of the sump revealed a reading that was later determined to be within 1 degree of the glass thermometer inside the sump. Then, holding in the scan button, I then scanned across the length of the sump and got a little big-eyed as I noted a variation of temperature than spanned about .7 of a degree. Releasing the button locked the PE-1 Temp Gun on the last reading. I then focused my attention on the aquarium itself and did a broad scan the whole length of the length of the tank. This scan showed a broader temperature range than in the sump which seemed logical. It also showed that the tank was actually nearly 2 degrees warmer than the sump. I thought this was interesting and attributed to the large wet/dry, contact with the cool air and the sump being closer to the floor.

In short, I was learning a lot about this aquarium and its circulation with this tool.





I quickly thought of several other techniques to use with the Temp Gun. Rather the horizontal scans, vertical ones would show how much heat is coming from air contact and aquarium lamps. Scans across the length and width of the aquarium could give you a pretty good heat map of your whole aquarium if you made a grid on paper and jotted the readings down.



In just a few minutes of use, it became apparent that the Pro Exotics Temp Gun was going next to my refractometer and other handy aquarium tools. I will be using it on all my aquariums from here on out. I keep thinking of new uses for it - I just thought it would be cool to take the local fish store when shopping for fish to see the temp on the tank the fish was coming from. And on and on.

Big thanks to 3reef Sponsor Robyn at ShipYourAquatics.com for sending the PE-1 Temp Gun my way to test out. It was easily the coolest Christmas gift I received this year. I hope you don't want it back.


matt

The PE-1 and PE-2 Temp Gun is available at:
www.tempgun.com
www.proexotics.com

 

Great review matt
interesting product, Id like one of them myself, very convenient and I can see benefits of finding ambient temp , rather than just temp in area thermometer is located

Steve

 

It's a great tool to have and have used one for over a year. It started out in my RC Nitro Car Tool Box now sits near my tank for all the reasons mentioned above. Another fun thing to do is watch the fish chase the laser pointer around.

 

One thing to remember Matt (I've owned this style temp gun since 99 in various forms) is how it works. Defraction can change the actual temp and you may not be getting a "true" reading from glass surfaces and water surfaces. I've checked them against my lab grade mercury thermometer in the past.

FWIW you should see the unit I have at work. It doesn't relay on just one beam but TON of beams. We can plug it into a computer to get the readings off it if we so desire.

Like Ardo, my first one was for RC Nitro cars

 

Very cool I want one!!!


Now to find a Canadian retailer

J

 

The one above is a mass produced Chinese one re-branded. You can find them all over the web.

 

One thing to watch out for is these will set off smoke detectors that use infrared as well. I found out the hard way

 

I use my IR digital pyrometer for my reef tank fro the same purposes. My pyrometer was originally used for boiler work, but I use it for getting instant heat readings on my motorcycle tires and a lot of other things.

These are fun tools, and the price has come down a TON versus when I got mine.

 

Yeah it's only $30. I keep thinking of new uses for it. Do you have a link to the one you are talking about?