it would suck to spend that much to get readings for thirty minutes and then toss it in a drawer to collect dust
Agreed, although I do not believe that will happen.
The human brain is fantastic at recognizing benchmarks.
- You could probably draw me a line about 12 in long
-you could probably put sand in a bucket until it weighed about 5 lb
-you could probably geuss when an hour of time has passed.
- you can go outside and tell me approximately how warm it is .
Interestingly, the brain can only make assumptions on brightness. Even as there is no incremented memory of luminosity, the brain can be just as bad perceiving in real time. For example: you look at a canopy and it appears to be evenly lit, you pull out the meter and you start seeing readings that are only 30% of peak luminosity.
The meter may tell you that a certain patch is twice as bright ,and to the eyes it appears the same.
I have owned an Apogee meter for years, and it surprises me every time I pull it out.
Also , on pumps.
The pump that you posted appears to be a pressure pump, as opposed to a volume pump. For that kind of money you think they would give you an output graph. If you're looking at pumps in that price range you cannot go wrong with Iwaki.
Iwaki External Aquarium Pumps