My Review of the aquaPlanner App (Pro version... the paid version)

[Electrobes]

My review of the aquaPlanner (Pro version.. meaning the paid version)

I'd like to think myself as a pretty well put together reefer. In this day in age, I am thankful that in addition to having the slight perk of being OCD, making me pretty consistent and motivated to keep my mixed reef healthy and clean, I also live in a time where the entirety of my tank's info lays in the palm of my hand.

This fascinating App started off as a bit "meh". You see, though I am clearly a technology adopter, I am a lazy one, at times. When I first purchased this app (There is a free, but limited version), I only wanted to use it for it's alert features. It would basically ding me when the day and time arrived for me to work on the aquarium. It kept me not only punctual but consistent. I thought, "That's that" and away I went.

It wasn't till about three months later where I found myself staring at my aquarium bored to tears. I don't remember the circumstances that led to this boredom, considering how hectic my life usually is, but it began with me staring at this application... begging for it to bug me to do something to the tank. Being diligent and iron-minded, it did not. I decided to probe further into this app when I saw the back tab, realizing there was more to play with. And boy, did I ever find it.

So let's look at this app from the beginning. Oh.. the short version of this review? It's bloody fantastic and well worth the three or less dollars I invested. If you are diligent about putting info into it, you will love this app.

So here's the home screen: Assume that 40Br line isn't there. To get started you need to select that plus sign to add your aquarium.

You are greeted with this menu to add a new aquarium. You have pretty basic choices as shown here:

Don't be fooled by this simplistic entry to this App! The real number crunching fun will begin shortly!. Once you have entered the basic information about your aquarium, you will be greeted with this menu, a menu that you will ultimately become very familiar with as you use this App more. It makes for a great "Home Base":

Listed you see:

Alerts

This simply lets you set alarms/alerts. When you press on "Alerts" you are greeted with this menu:

To add an alert, you simply press the "+" at the top right. You will get a scroll menu as this:

 

[Electrobes]

You can choose presets like "Add Calcium", etc, or you can even make a custom alert. When you make a selection, you will be greeted with a sub-menu. Here's one for the "Custom":

After you have made the appropriate selections, you'll have a brand new alert listed in the Alert Menu. You'll notice a dot to the left of each individual alert. Green means you have a day or more before said alert will go off. Yellow means the day has arrived, but the actual time of said alert hasn't been reached yet, and Red means that it's past due.

Water Tests

This sub menu is for logging any tests you do for the aquarium. Again, press the "+" button, and you'll be greeted with a fairly long list of possible parameters to fill in. You don't have to fill in all of it, just whatever it is you tested for. Once you're done, you just hit save and the information is kept and dated for later viewing.

My one gripe about this? You can't custom a parameter to be saved, that I have found anyway. Thankfully, I can't really see a need for it, but some hardcore reefers may be bothered by this.

Once you've completed several entries, you can take advantage of the "Charts" button on the bottom of the screen of logged data entries (In the Water Tests sub menu). It's nothing too fancy, but none the less, it should appeal to quite a few hobbyists out there. It gives you the option of looking at the day, week, month, six months, and year!

Inhabitants

This is going to be a bit of a pain in the rear for those who have short attention spans, or who have a fairly exciting life. Selecting the "Inhabitants" menu brings you to an empty list (Assuming you've just got this). Keeping things consistent, this App wants you to select the "+" on the top right, to start adding your list of livestock in your created tank profile.

Here's a full list of livestock for my tank, and even now I still have no completed it.. but I am getting there!

When you hit the "+" button, you'll see this:

There are currently 1423 inhabitants listed in the database, and it actually tells you that upon attempting to add an inhabitant. Just to warn you, these listed critters are fairly limited and sometimes even wrong, BUT you have a very useful solution that this App gives you... customization!

 

[Electrobes]

Here's an example of me adding a fish to this list:

First, it asks if it's freshwater or marine

Selecting marine, as we are talking reef tanks here, you get a pretty generalized list of fish.. many common ones we're used to seeing in the hobby will be listed.

Selecting Blennies as example, you'll probably find what you're looking for:

You'll be greeted with this menu about your selection.. pretty typical info you'd like to keep on hand, plus some more specifics you wouldn't have expected to see in a typical App. You can even add a picture!

The same goes for the rest of the livestock list, it's pretty intuitive. And the customization function of it is just as straightforward.

Equipment

I actually haven't done this yet. So what better time to look at it than now?

Pressing the Equipment tab sends you to an empty list.

 

[Electrobes]

As usual, pressing on the "+", brings you to this screen:

And as human intuition this day in age would command of you, you'll touch the "New Addition" tab to get this:

It's incredibly easy to add equipment.. and not all that fancy in terms of details. Instead the creator of the program made life easy for both him and his customers by just adding a "Notes" section.

My gripe in this section is the lack of electricity/power usage that could have been easily implemented. A power calculator would have been an awesome addition to this section.. and using the same chart function from the Water Tests section could show the difference in power usage over the course of time, via the use of different equipment. Maybe this will be an upgrade in the future?

Notes

This is just as it sounds, a simple note function for whatever you feel like mentioning, that doesn't fit in the other sections. It's useful and simplistic. Hurray.

History

An interesting feature, though I don't have a real use for it. It merely tells you of changes or additions you've made in the App.

The very bottom of Home Base

This is a grey'd out tab on the bottom of "Home Base" that gives a very brief description of your tank. You can see an example of my tank here:

 

[Dsdaley77]

Great review.

I love this app. BUT a couple gripes though......
1. Very small specimen lists and like you said some are wrong.
2. Once you add info to a section/box, the title of that box is gone. It should stay labeled somehow.
3. Only one pic per inhabitant/ equipment entry. Ability to create a photo diary could be beneficial.
4. Chart section should be more detailed and easier to read in some instances.
5. The rest of the lacking features you mention pretty much cover it

Overall a great app for the money and it really does give you a place to centralize your efforts towards a great tank.

Thanks again for the great, detailed review


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KEEP CALM AND REEF ON!!

 

[Dtech07]

FYI... True it does have a small specimen list BUT you can edit and add your own plus photos of the correct one:wink:. I'm geeky/OCD like that.

 

[Dsdaley77]

But in the custom entry it doesn't link to wiki or give you compatibility info. That's why I don't like the custom specimen entries...... Although 82 out of 103 specimens I own are custom entries lol


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So You Can
KEEP CALM AND REEF ON!!

 

[Dsdaley77]

FYI... True it does have a small specimen list BUT you can edit and add your own plus photos of the correct one:wink:. I'm geeky/OCD like that.

And don't you mean "photo" lol


Sent Via the R2R Forum APP
So You Can
KEEP CALM AND REEF ON!!

 

[karenvas2]

For a newbie, I love this app on iPad.

 

[jleoni]

I personally use the app to keep track of all of my clients tank conditions. The fact that I can input stuff from my lifeproof cased iphone while on site and then because the data is stored in the cloud, I can review the data and charts on my iPad later or before my next visit to ensure that I'm bringing the right stuff with me.

 

[Dsdaley77]

Great idea!!