My Bachelor Thesis is based on creating a self-regulating Aquarium. Can you guys help me brainstorm a plan?

[jta117]

Hey guys, I really need your help. I am a mechanical engineer tasked with designing and configuring a self-regulating Saltwater Aquarium but unfortunately I know nothing about aquariums (Well, not true, ive been reading up a bit, but id still consider myself completely ignorant on the subject).

To clarify a bit more, right now I am still in the research phase and to be honest, I am not finding that much success, not that there isnt any information but for the fact, that I dont really know what exactly NEEDS to be regulated. Ive been brainstorming for almost an hour now after some basic reading about Saltwater aquariums and so far this is what Ive got.

Theory behind the Aquarium
Parameters to control
Water Quality
Temperature of the room?
Feeding
Imbalances of the biological system
Types of Saltwater Aquariums
Water Filtration
Biological Aspects behind the aquarium (e.g. Cycling a Saltwater Aquarium or Nitrogen Cycle)
Sensitivity Analysis
Size of the Aquarium and how that affects the parameters that need to be controlled.
Light sources

For the first point (Parameters to control) Ive seen a couple of sites mention around 7 or 8 important parameters but those are all concerning the water. Is water really the only important thing that needs to be regulated in an Aquarium? The rest of the list, Ive been basically coming up with using common sense but I dont know how true they are. Can any aquarists here help me out with the brainstorming? A good question to prompt some good answers would be, for example, what do you do daily to your Aquarium? Literally anything you can think of, not just maintaining the water balance. and of course if youve got some other ideas, it would be immensely appreciated.

 

[brandon429]

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[New&no clue]

WOW! That is a big undertaking for a thesis, people have spent 10, 20, 30 years working on that with their own tanks. For starters do you want corals and fish, or just fish? These two tanks will need two very different things. You will also find everyone's tank is different in what it needs.

I have two tanks and daily they both need to be feed, and to be topped off with fresh water. One of my tanks needs to be dosed with Calcium and Alk. For these three things the only thing I physically do it feed one tank. The other tank is feed with a feeder, the water top off is done with and Automatic Top Off (ATO) system. The dosing of Calcium and Alk is done with a dosing pump. There are other things though, lights need to be turned on (on a timer), heaters need to kick in a regulate the water temp. Pumps need to run to cycle water adding flow and oxygen.

I've found the most important thing with a reef tank is stable water parameters.

 

[jta117]

WOW! That is a big undertaking for a thesis, people have spent 10, 20, 30 years working on that with their own tanks. For starters do you want corals and fish, or just fish? These two tanks will need two very different things. You will also find everyone's tank is different in what it needs.

I have two tanks and daily they both need to be feed, and to be topped off with fresh water. One of my tanks needs to be dosed with Calcium and Alk. For these three things the only thing I physically do it feed one tank. The other tank is feed with a feeder, the water top off is done with and Automatic Top Off (ATO) system. The dosing of Calcium and Alk is done with a dosing pump. There are other things though, lights need to be turned on (on a timer), heaters need to kick in a regulate the water temp. Pumps need to run to cycle water adding flow and oxygen.

I've found the most important thing with a reef tank is stable water parameters.

Alright, youre scaring me now, cause its too late to back out haha.

And to answer your first question, well, the point is that the system needs to be adaptable through software configuration profiles or inputting custom parameters, but to do that, i need to learn the theory behind all this, which is what im stuck on. I dont really know what to research for and in what order or priority.

 

[piranhaman00]

Its not too hard. Many people on here have self regulating aquariums with the right equipment.

 

[Chrysemys]

2 questions....
1.Why would you commit to a thesis about a topic you don’t really understand?
2. Are you going to site the forum as your source for scientific information?
I had to get those out there first. Since you are a mechanical engineer I think books on aquaculture engineering and recirculating aquaculture would be of interest to you. These are for huge system, but the theories are the same. Mechanical, Chemical, and biological filtration and the maintenance of those processes.
You say saltwater aquarium. I would suggest designing fish only if you have to ask what parameters to control.
I hope this doesn’t come across condescending. I really don’t intend for it to. Good Luck.

 

[Tuffyyyyy]

Alright, youre scaring me now, cause its too late to back out haha.

And to answer your first question, well, the point is that the system needs to be adaptable through software configuration profiles or inputting custom parameters, but to do that, i need to learn the theory behind all this, which is what im stuck on. I dont really know what to research for and in what order or priority.

Doe it have to be completely new? There's a group on here that have set up ReefPi that would help you control a lot of what you're going to need to do.

 

[Pkunk35]

So I think if you just go learn the steps of building or creating an aquarium and then just automate everything maintenance wise (feed, water changes, filter pad changes, dosing, etc) I think you’ll find that much of this is already possible and being done.
What cannot be automated is the husbandry of the animals as this takes a person to do. By this I mean disease prevention or awareness, pest control, habitat change, or any kind of growth which would lead to necessary changes in feed or environment of the maintenance equipment.
I think the goal of the automation matters too...as aquarist our goal is to keep not only everything alive in the tank but thriving as much as it would in the wild (the ultimate of which is reproduction). If the goal of the paper is simply to automate the maintenance of the tank, well I would watch some BRS tv and call it day, but without a mind there to control the necessary changes, you will have certain life in the tank eventually dominate (I.e. algae overgrows everything and because no one can go in and visually identify algae to scrape, it covers the rock preventing or smothering coral growth). Maybe only aquarists would care about this and perhaps that’s outside the scope, but if that isn’t considered then I’m not sure if it could be called “self regulating” because the point of the regulation should be the health of the animals (the goal of aquarists).
If It were me I would start by watching 52 weeks of reefing series on BRS tv so that you start with a really good base of knowledge that won’t take forever to intake and will be broken up nicely for you in topics. From here you can plan your own tank and then choose how you automate it. For all intents and purposes, a “fish only with live rock“ tank is going to be probably fairly easy to automate and leave alone for really long periods of time vs a coral reef tank due to growth of coral.
Cool project, hope it helps and GL!

 

[austibella]

Hey guys, I really need your help. I am a mechanical engineer tasked with designing and configuring a self-regulating Saltwater Aquarium but unfortunately I know nothing about aquariums (Well, not true, ive been reading up a bit, but id still consider myself completely ignorant on the subject).

To clarify a bit more, right now I am still in the research phase and to be honest, I am not finding that much success, not that there isnt any information but for the fact, that I dont really know what exactly NEEDS to be regulated. Ive been brainstorming for almost an hour now after some basic reading about Saltwater aquariums and so far this is what Ive got.

Theory behind the Aquarium
Parameters to control
Water Quality
Temperature of the room?
Feeding
Imbalances of the biological system
Types of Saltwater Aquariums
Water Filtration
Biological Aspects behind the aquarium (e.g. Cycling a Saltwater Aquarium or Nitrogen Cycle)
Sensitivity Analysis
Size of the Aquarium and how that affects the parameters that need to be controlled.
Light sources

For the first point (Parameters to control) Ive seen a couple of sites mention around 7 or 8 important parameters but those are all concerning the water. Is water really the only important thing that needs to be regulated in an Aquarium? The rest of the list, Ive been basically coming up with using common sense but I dont know how true they are. Can any aquarists here help me out with the brainstorming? A good question to prompt some good answers would be, for example, what do you do daily to your Aquarium? Literally anything you can think of, not just maintaining the water balance. and of course if youve got some other ideas, it would be immensely appreciated.

So here is my suggestion.. being everyone's tank is different do to which corals they keep and or fish they keep and which hitchhikers or diseases entered their tanks from buying corals and or live rock and because of that everyone has different needs and opinions. My suggestion is go on you tube and watch videos from the pros, CoralVue...Bulk Reef Supply.. and Reef Dudes. They have videos that may help you to understand all about reef aquariums, what works and why. with today's technology I would watch the newer videos, they also have guest on their shows that can help you understand the information you are looking for. Hope this helps oh and on answer to one of your questions is air quality in the home .yes it makes a difference i have a CO2 meter in my house so I know if I need to open my doors and or windows to get fresh air in the house. Or my PH parameters will go down in my tank. Also living in Florida my A/C is on 24/7 and to keep my reef tank from getting to hot which is from all the pumps running my tank I have to keep my house no higher then 77 or my tank heats up. Now someone that lives where its cold has to keep their heat on .we all have different needs

 

[Brady4000]

Sounds like this is what you need, others have mentioned it in their post.



Watch all 31 videos.

GL

 

[Zionas]

Let’s cut to the chase. You giving the hobby a shot or not?

 

[Acros]

I believe there are at least two parts.

1. Water parameters
2. Tank micro biome

Here is a company that does work on the second point in reef tanks. https://aquabiomics.com/articles/core-aquarium-microbiome

Studying the adaptability from being a fish only to a reef tank (combined with observations of micro biome) would be a cool masters thesis.

 

[zalick]

There is at least one person, maybe more, who claims to have a totally self-regulating tank and all he does is top off with freshwater. Claims to have not fed nor done anything else to his tank in year(s).

I'm not sure if he posts here or on Reef Central.

I have no idea if he is honest or not, but you might want to try and find him and his discussions.

*He might dose some, I can't remember.

 

[Casket_Case]

All I can say is I recommend looking at Paul B.'s thread on sterile tanks.

 

[58e970b2-3f88-4897-87ba-5]

You are going to find there is a lot of variation based on what people are keeping in their tank and the size of tank.

For pico tanks (around a gallon) parameters can be kept in check by just swapping out the water regularly (100% of it) and managing evaporation.

As the tank gets larger this becomes harder and more expensive. You will likely find as size increases most people are relying less on water changes and dose chemicals to adjust levels of things in their water.

There are also some things that are easy to measure and adjust. Things like calcium and alkalinity have many test kit options and many methods for correction. Things like boron levels are harder to measure and adjust, so it may be easier to just regularly change some water out and hope that keeps those levels in check (most reef salt should have everything your water needs at acceptable levels).

Different tank inhabitants will use and be affected by things in the water differently. An example is stony coral will use more calcium from the water than soft coral. So people keeping those will need to find ways to replace the calcium (and other things) used by their coral.
Another example is non photosynthetic coral will need a lot more food (since they can’t use light for energy) so people keeping them will be feeding significantly more and have to focus more on managing/removing things like nitrate and phosphate, which will accumulate faster due to increased feeding.

 

[tehmadreefer]

Remember everything on a forum are opinions and like everyone else in the world everyone has one.

 

[jta117]

Let’s cut to the chase. You giving the hobby a shot or not?

For the next 3-4 months, i would say 100% but after that, I dont know if the interest will go beyond the automation process.

 

[Zionas]

Well hopefully you’ll get hooked within the next 3-4 months. xD I’m no expert but I’ll let the others lead the way. It’s one of the most awesome hobbies out there.

 

[elysics]

I don't know if the tank will even be running properly yet in 4 months to the extent that you could say something about the effects of longterm things like lights, chemical imbalances, water quality, if right now it is still in the brainstorming phase

And what is your planned contribution going to be? A workflow? A device that measures and/or controls? A filter system? Most of the timeline of the first few months is based around letting the biology do it's own thing. There's not much room there for mechanical engineering besides reinventing the wheel on things like precise heater control, building a 0-10V controller or dosing pump. Theres a bunch of stuff with automated testing, but if your topic is already fixed as being a completely automated tank that would fall a bit short i would think. Depends though on how lenient your department is about the "new contribution" part for a bachelor, but just designing a system with standard equipment and letting it run for a few months is going to be rather close in content to some decades old books, especially if we are talking fish only.

 

[austibella]

So here is my suggestion.. being everyone's tank is different do to which corals they keep and or fish they keep and which hitchhikers or diseases entered their tanks from buying corals and or live rock and because of that everyone has different needs and opinions. My suggestion is go on you tube and watch videos from the pros, CoralVue...Bulk Reef Supply.. and Reef Dudes. They have videos that may help you to understand all about reef aquariums, what works and why. with today's technology I would watch the newer videos, they also have guest on their shows that can help you understand the information you are looking for. Hope this helps oh and on answer to one of your questions is air quality in the home .yes it makes a difference i have a CO2 meter in my house so I know if I need to open my doors and or windows to get fresh air in the house. Or my PH parameters will go down in my tank. Also living in Florida my A/C is on 24/7 and to keep my reef tank from getting to hot which is from all the pumps running my tank I have to keep my house no higher then 77 or my tank heats up. Now someone that lives where its cold has to keep their heat on .we all have different needs

I also want to say which I forgot to ad to my reply earlier for all of us that have been reefing 5 yrs or more we didn't have the technology we have today when answering JTA117 we all need to go back to when we all did reef ing OLD SCHOOL. That's where the true answers are for what information he needs technology is awsome but back then it was a true hobby, not one to compete technology has helped us to keep our fish and corals alive the easy wsy.but for his thesis videos like I said earlier will answer questions without confusing him with all the technology