reef-pi :: An opensource reef tank controller based on Raspberry Pi.

[Ranjib]

For anyone following along with analog ph sensor.
Very messy pin out.
Using jumper wires as i test but your going to want to do this with single core wire cut to size and soldered. There are too many wires to do any other way.

This is just connecting the spio pins to the mcp3008.

T-cobbler is just to show where they go.
Mcp3008 pin out


1 and 2 v3.3 pin 17
3 ground pin 14
4 gpio10
5 gpio9
6 gpio11
7 gpio8
8 ground pin 14

this is another reason why I like i2c based sensors and boards. Wiring is simplers (4 wire) and does not increases as number of sensors increases

 

[philshel]

You cant run octoprint on pi zero.
Does it uses the standard pi camera or off the shelf webcam ?

Ranjib, I run octoprint on a pi zero with no real issues. The only problem I've seen is when printing something in "vase mode", the zero does not handle it well. But for general printing and controlling/monitoring the printer, it's fine.

 

[Ranjib]

Ranjib, I run octoprint on a pi zero with no real issues. The only problem I've seen is when printing something in "vase mode", the zero does not handle it well. But for general printing and controlling/monitoring the printer, it's fine.

that is good to know. I'll keep this in mind.

 

[Ranjib]

One of the thing I have learned since deploying the temperature sensors , that my biocube 29 goes through almost 1 degree temperature fluctuation every day. It shows a daily cycle of high temperature around 7PM and lowest temperature around 6 AM. I am suspecting this is due to kitchen activity, and us (me, wife and the kid) all being present in the apartment. Whats more fascinating, i can see the high temperature peak to be sub-dued every time we dinner out :) . Fascinating,

 

[MaccaPopEye]

One of the thing I have learned since deploying the temperature sensors , that my biocube 29 goes through almost 1 degree temperature fluctuation every day. It shows a daily cycle of high temperature around 7PM and lowest temperature around 6 AM. I am suspecting this is due to kitchen activity, and us (me, wife and the kid) all being present in the apartment. Whats more fascinating, i can see the high temperature peak to be sub-dued every time we dinner out :) . Fascinating,

That is interesting to see that just having a few people being active in a room can impact the temp by that much.

Small swings like that obviously aren't that bad for our tanks. If it gets used to it then coral in the wild can be surprisingly resilient. The coral reef near where I live (Northern Territory, Australia) can be in water that is around 27-28C at high tide (the water 6-8m down where the coral is would probably be closer to 25). All they way up to 35C at low tide for a good 2-4 hours of blinding sun in the same day.

 

[Ranjib]

That is interesting to see that just having a few people being active in a room can impact the temp by that much.

Small swings like that obviously aren't that bad for our tanks. If it gets used to it then coral in the wild can be surprisingly resilient. The coral reef near where I live (Northern Territory, Australia) can be in water that is around 27-28C at high tide (the water 6-8m down where the coral is would probably be closer to 25). All they way up to 35C at low tide for a good 2-4 hours of blinding sun in the same day.

Agree. They are surprisingly resilient.
I attribute the heat largely due to my wife cooking dinner :-). We do all sorts of Indian, Persian and European cuisines involving the gas burners and oven etc

 

[njtiger aquariums]

Agree. They are surprisingly resilient.
I attribute the heat largely due to my wife cooking dinner :). We do all sorts of Indian, Persian and European cuisines involving the gas burners and oven etc

agree its neat seeing how things around the tank affect the tank. I know the weather outside affect my tank. When its really cold out I noticed that I need to top off more then when its warmer. I am linking this to the fact that the heater must need to work harder to keep the tank at temp (just like a house heater need to work harder during colder weather).

 

[Gareth elliott]

Fish room is also the terrarium room. Room itself is on its own thermostat, that has a day time temp of 76 night time 67 i see very little temperature fluctuation outside that change.
Have toyed around with the idea of simulating tidal temperature fluctuations.
Adding another 5 gallon tank, a fan over it and a dual head peristaltic pump that pumps water in and out based on tide schedule and adding an auto feeder to the 5 gallon with its own carbon reactor.
Water goes in, purified with over dosed gac for 12 hours and slightly chilled, x grams reef chili dumped in right before goes back in the tank. Coupled with now having lunar lights with ai. No idea if this would benefit anything, but at least would be a fun build lol.

 

[pdisner]

Fish room is also the terrarium room. Room itself is on its own thermostat, that has a day time temp of 76 night time 67 i see very little temperature fluctuation outside that change.
Have toyed around with the idea of simulating tidal temperature fluctuations.
Adding another 5 gallon tank, a fan over it and a dual head peristaltic pump that pumps water in and out based on tide schedule and adding an auto feeder to the 5 gallon with its own carbon reactor.
Water goes in, purified with over dosed gac for 12 hours and slightly chilled, x grams reef chili dumped in right before goes back in the tank. Coupled with now having lunar lights with ai. No idea if this would benefit anything, but at least would be a fun build lol.

That’s a pretty intense schedule. Who puts the reef chili in?

 

[Gareth elliott]

Was thinking using pure gelatin or gelatin pill cases like i use for root tabs, to form pseudo pellets and an auto feeder. Ehiem auto feeder has several mods on youtube to add more control to it.

 

[pdisner]

So I already have a RPi3 and an Arduino that I have been playing with on my own as a tank controller. This is the first application I’ve seen for this purpose. What other things do I need as far as hardware for the RPi3 to get functionality from the software? I would like to contribute to the post.

 

[Ranjib]

So I already have a RPi3 and an Arduino that I have been playing with on my own as a tank controller. This is the first application I’ve seen for this purpose. What other things do I need as far as hardware for the RPi3 to get functionality from the software? I would like to contribute to the post.

reef-pi is modular, which means you can use it to build just an ATO or just a Kessil controller etc. The part list will vary depending upon what all you want to do with it. This is almost an exhaustive list of material for an all in one controller (ato, temperature, power bar, led etc)
https://reef-pi.github.io/general-guides/bom/

follow the individual guides (under build guides) for specific instructions.

 

[pdisner]

reef-pi is modular, which means you can use it to build just an ATO or just a Kessil controller etc. The part list will vary depending upon what all you want to do with it. This is almost an exhaustive list of material for an all in one controller (ato, temperature, power bar, led etc)
https://reef-pi.github.io/general-guides/bom/

follow the individual guides (under build guides) for specific instructions.

Thanks Raj. I will take a look today as I will be working on this and I’ll be posting questions I have, cool?

 

[pdisner]

Who is the author of the application?

 

[Ranjib]

Fish room is also the terrarium room. Room itself is on its own thermostat, that has a day time temp of 76 night time 67 i see very little temperature fluctuation outside that change.
Have toyed around with the idea of simulating tidal temperature fluctuations.
Adding another 5 gallon tank, a fan over it and a dual head peristaltic pump that pumps water in and out based on tide schedule and adding an auto feeder to the 5 gallon with its own carbon reactor.
Water goes in, purified with over dosed gac for 12 hours and slightly chilled, x grams reef chili dumped in right before goes back in the tank. Coupled with now having lunar lights with ai. No idea if this would benefit anything, but at least would be a fun build lol.

I have wondered about this as well. Now that I have reef-pi , I can do all sorts of things. It would be nice to start a separate thread on this, i.e temperature variations and its effect. There are many experts here, and I am sure whatever they recommend, we can tune our system to mimic/enforce that.

 

[pdisner]

Has anyone developed more complex modules for dissolved oxygen, flow rate, ORP and things like that

 

[Ranjib]

Thanks Raj. I will take a look today as I will be working on this and I’ll be posting questions I have, cool?

Absolutely :-) . Thank you for giving reef-pi a try, I appreciate all the feedback

 

[Ranjib]

Has anyone developed more complex modules for dissolved oxygen, flow rate, ORP and things like that

I am working on ph monitoring now. The same code can be used for EC (salinity), ORP and probably DO as well. I personally wont test out those things, unless I see any value in them. As of now, I need only the ph support. ORP etc are not that useful in my understanding.

 

[Ranjib]

Who is the author of the application?

yours truly,

 

[Ranjib]

Was thinking using pure gelatin or gelatin pill cases like i use for root tabs, to form pseudo pellets and an auto feeder. Ehiem auto feeder has several mods on youtube to add more control to it.

i think the closest equivalent of this in reef tank will be dosing acropower. i am wondering what are the (if any) popular candidates for automated feeding? for corals, not for fishes