In most cases, the probe can sit flat on the bottom of your tank and this is perfectly fine for the vast majority of installations.
When should I suspend the probe?
If silt or debris regularly builds up on the bottom of your tank, raise the probe slightly off the floor so it doesn't get buried and affect your readings.
How to do it
Raise the probe off the tank floor by a few centimetres.
Coil any excess cable.
If possible, keep as much of the cabling protected from animals by measures such as:
Routing as much of the cable as possible inside the tank, and/or
Covering or shielding any exposed sections of cable
Before the cable enters the tank, secure it firmly so the weight of the suspended probe and cable isn't pulling on the back of the Monitor connector. You can do this by either:
Drilling two small holes and using a cable tie to pin it down, or
Using a metal bracket to clamp it gently in place
Note the exact distance you've raised it — you'll need this for the next step.
Set the offset in MyFarmbot
Because the probe is no longer sitting at the true bottom, you need to enter an offset so your readings stay accurate:
In MyFarmbot, go to your sensor's details page.
Open the Settings drawer.
Enter the distance (in cm) you raised the probe in the Offset field.
Click "Save".
💡 Example: Raised the probe 5 cm off the bottom? Enter 5. The system adds that back into its calculations automatically.