Smart Aquarium is Coming

[shih87]

When I see all the fancy tech stuff and all those dosing pumps my head explodes lol I mean I love equipment that simplifies this hobby and reduce amount of daily tasks but to many new reefers the sheer amount of choices especially the number of additives are confusing. In my personal opinion, dosers make our lives easier and save time. But when more than 4 dosing pumps are used I start to wonder if the it's worth it or if the additional additives truly make a difference in color and growth rate. Sometimes when things are simplified and easy people find themselves extra tasks to do.

I agree most of reefers do not need lots of dosing heads, four is actually a good number. However, I use up to 14 head (so far), one reason is for experimental of something (which I may publish later), and with dosing pump (e.g. GHL, Apex), these logs of volume help me systematically tracking something for my experimental project. Does it help coral performance when compare to some people stay in 4 dosing heads plus some manual dosing? probably not, if you know what to do.

 

[shih87]

Great write up, Joseph! Thanks for putting this together!

Thank TeamR2R give me the chance to say something. ;-)

 

[shih87]

I think a weight sensor would be a great add. Could use under dosing bottles, feeders (like you mentioned) etc. good discussion.

Yes, indeed. It work surprisedly well when MQTT ready, which I can get information and alert timely. Sometime getting old easy to forget something. Technology help. Haha....

 

[shih87]

nice write up. Here a writeup I am working on about making a raspberry pi a controller. It no where near your write up. - http://www.njreefers.org/forums/articles/

Good to know. Will take some time read through it. Cool!!!

 

[shih87]

I don't know, I'd argue that the smart tank is already here, but that automation 'unchecked' in this hobby can be dangerous. Too many hobby-grade devices and a pretty consistent lack of redundancy. I'm all for automation as long as said redundancy is built in and it's used for monitoring and alerting. I will never use the output of a sensor or probe to dose anything. Recipe for disaster in my experience. OK, I travel a lot for business, but have a couple of local reefers 'on call' in case intervention is required. Haven't had to call on them yet.

Smart aquarium could be many level. Like most "smart" revolution, it may need to go through control>automation>management>intelligent. I don't think we are on intelligent, but as I mentioned, Apex Fusion have a chance to bring us to even further, but I am not sure they are putting big data and some intelligent behind or not.

Regarding sensor, my human nature don't trust it either, but many sensors today already outperform than human. Of course many dummy protection and tamper detection need to in place. Artificial Sensor vs human, it is a big topic and we can talk the whole week here which is not my desire topic on R2R. Haha

 

[shih87]

Can I ask you where you got your funnel under your Apex feeder

It was made by 3D printer, a DIY project among friends ;-)

 

[shih87]

Wonderful tank and write up. I hope you will write more articles and be as detailed as possible on the steps of your design.

Will above url help? Let me know.

 

[laverda]

It was made by 3D printer, a DIY project among friends ;-)

I could use a funnel similar to yours. Would you share the STL file? Putting the feeder on top of the light is the perfect place for it!

 

[Genomecop]

Amazing video.

 

[NoWaiAma]

Great write up ! Terrified of ATO (overflow/contact with outlets etc) and automation in general. But feel it will be a must have (controller/dosing etc) when I upgrade from 28 to 120+.

Very well written. Thank you

 

[CoralCache]

The lifegaurd works very well and while it looks like the apex feeder it is not as loud. You can hear it but not like the apex. I run 3 of them. :-)

Great write up!!

I am just about there, all I have to add is a auto feeder.

 

[LoneStarReef]

Yep! I’m in Croatia now (we were in Italy) and my tank is completely runnng by itself. Besides feeding frozen once a day and cleaning the skimmer when needed, the tank is on its own.

 

[scott11106]

nice article and data, I just built my 300g with a dedicated fish room and it is fully automated and even through the initial startup phases the only thing i have to do is change the filter socks, empty the skimmer and refill the 55g saltwater reservoir every 2 weeks. I am a huge fan of an automated system and no worries for the salt water fiddler as there is still always something to tweak or clean or something....

cant wait for someone to come out with a way to automatically mix salt consistently as then i could add a skimmer drain line and roller mat and it would be fully automated.

 

[Val Shebeko]

Folloeing

 

[ca1ore]

Apex Fusion have a chance to bring us to even further, but I am not sure they are putting big data and some intelligent behind or not.

Not really sure what you mean by this. Even the largest and most complex aquariums fall well short of 'big' data .... 'small' data really:D. Big data might be Apex monitoring weather feeds in your area, correlating them to the potential for power outages and reminding you to 'exercise' the generator. As to 'intelligence', if you mean A.I, then nowhere close to that; if you mean more basic sense and respond, then Fusion is already there. I'm just not sure that apex is robust enough to be 'respond' reliable.

 

[James Emory]

Yes, it is. Many disagree automation, but last time I have an urgent case locked (I am not sure why. Haha) in hospital suddently without any leave home preparation.... My automation and remote management help a lot when I stock in hospital for 5 days. Haha

“Then I will choose to quit reefing first.”

​

Background

Not too long ago I asked a senior reef hobbyist how he deals with long vacations and his answer shocked me.

His words inspired me to create a “smart aquarium.” What I need is a hobby to enjoy and to unwind from work. Yet, does so without pressuring other family members (Yes, I always tell my wife I bought something at an unbelievably discounted price), and still allows me to be free long (3~4 weeks) vacations.

These days, ULM (Ultra Low Maintenance) tanks have become a popular topic. Many reefers and vendors try to define what constitutes ULM. This includes the amount of effort to put in, what kind of coral (e.g. NPS) to avoid, etc. ULM and smart aquariums definitely have some overlap due to similar technological limitations; however, smart aquariums lean more towards automation and managing tank routines, not simply avoiding effort.

The result of my smart aquarium can be found HERE in article format or HERE in video.

Technology vs fish room

More and more often these days, reef hobbyists share their neat tank systems which are equipped with compact light systems and a well-organized sump integrated with a reef controller and dosing system. Having a medium to large (300 gallons in my opinion) reef tank no longer requires a fish room running loud and heavy duty equipment to be successful. Since Apex and GHL controllers have become available to the saltwater market at a relatively affordable price range, the goal of smart aquariums is half way done. In fact, these systems may even be better than many so called “smart homes” from my view. Many probes (e.g. temperature, PH, ORP, etc.) and sensors (e.g. water level, leaking, voltage, etc.) help tank owners pre-define and program tank behaviors in a manageable way. Their warning and alert functionality, and cloud service push the smart aquarium boundary in a big way.

Challenges: coral survival rate

But still, coral is a finicky animal and family safety is priceless. We often hear how temperature and alkalinity can cause tank failures. Temperature is easy to measure and adjust with a cooler and a heater, especially with temperature probes connected to the reef controller. Alkalinity has been a totally different story for decades. Luckily, since 2017, Alkalinity monitors became available from companies like Dr. Bridge and GHL. When combined with a remote controllable dosing system, we again push the boundary of smart aquariums.

Challenges: home safety

Tanks bring water and electricity together in one environment and that entails risk. Preventing bad things from happening is one thing and owning high quality devices help, knowing about it when it happens is another. Spending 50% more for top quality equipment and doubling the effort for tank robustness are gradually become acceptable concepts. Preventing pump failure does not simply mean replacing the pump when you are not around; there could be bigger problems than the couple hundred dollars you save for buying a cheap pump.

You love your tank, every day you meticulously maintain, feed, test and correct, and fix small things before it becomes chaos. But you also want a break and tanks obviously can’t take breaks. Feeding and providing nutrition are low hanging fruits if you have programmable dosing pumps and feeders. Latest generation dosing pumps such as GHL and Apex, all provide cloud services which allow you to control them via mobile phone even from thousands of miles away. Some may say maintenance is not needed for short periods of time, but with extended vacation, some obstacles start to show up. Algae growth on glass, top-off, element consumption ratio change, etc. There are robot algae scrapers available today that may help with algae cleaning, but it did not bother most of us much anyway when nobody is at home. For OTA, some reefers are very successful connecting a RO/DI source to the tank OTA system directly, while others choose a bigger RD/DI container isolated from RO/DI system to avoid equipment failure. Either way has pros and cons, but both are easy enough. I chose to minimize maintenance and to monitor tank condition in real time via IPCams, in case I need to shut off the entire tank’s power, abandoning the tank but keeping the house safe. True experience, after hearing about an earthquake that hit a local town in Taiwan during my vacation, I was able to check these IPCams to comfort myself.

Room to improve

Saying that, there is always room for improvement from a commercial solution. I chose an Apex controller equipped with an AFS feeder, WaV wave makers, DoS dosing pumps. However, alone they are not enough to reach my “smart aquarium” goal. Apex so far has no Alkalinity probe, so as I said earlier, I choose Dr. Bridge’s KHG to auto test Alkalinity (fig. 1) and link to Apex Fusion for daily access and alert trigger; AFS is a good little toy, but it won’t tell you when a feeder box is empty, so my friends made a weight sensor to read AFS weight daily and text me when it is empty (fig. 2); In general, dosing pump quickly replace calcium reactor position in many reefers’ heart, and Apex DoS is capable to calculate supplement left in container. But no way to count drop in real time, nor to know if tube clog and the supplement does not reach tank, but your floor. Here is a prototype drop counter (fig. 3), detect each drop at the last distance from tube to tank water. Of course, due to quality and robustness concern, my DIY items are limited to non-invasive, data reading only type of devices or tools.

Future and conclusion

I believe we can expect even more smart aquarium concepts, devices, and solutions to come to the market in the near future instead of DIY projects like mine. I won’t be surprised at all if a company like Neptune Apex, who now has access to millions of users’ data (I guess all tanks using Apex Fusion will have their tank data streamed to the Apex server), will announce a killer application to change our way of reefing. Companies like Zeovit, AquaForest will further provide best coral color improvement recipes. Traditional saltwater test kit providers such as Hanna and Salifert will quickly answer to the threat from newcomers like Neptune, GHL, and Dr. Bridge who try to redefine our daily test experience. Let’s expect these days in the future.


Joseph Chi a.k.a @shih87

In my opinion mostg hobbyists could not afford such a system.

 

[scott11106]

In my opinion most hobbyists could not afford such a system.

i could be a bit off, but this hobby is not for the light in the wallet...
an apex and some ATO,DOS and that would be a great start for automation. I agree it is not for everyone but the pricing is affordable if you take in account most fish or corals are 50-100.00

 

[scott11106]

Not really sure what you mean by this. Even the largest and most complex aquariums fall well short of 'big' data .... 'small' data really:D. Big data might be Apex monitoring weather feeds in your area, correlating them to the potential for power outages and reminding you to 'exercise' the generator. As to 'intelligence', if you mean A.I, then nowhere close to that; if you mean more basic sense and respond, then Fusion is already there. I'm just not sure that apex is robust enough to be 'respond' reliable.

AGREED...it is a monitor and respond but it works well if setup correctly
but how cool would it be if it was actually AI infused and could predict and prevent....i think we are not even trying to get there but i would love to see it. however soon i wont have to drive my car as they will be driving themselves...so i will have more time to work on my tank

 

[jsker]

The lifegaurd works very well and while it looks like the apex feeder it is not as loud. You can hear it but not like the apex. I run 3 of them. :)

Thank you for the tip:)

 

[LDH]

Very nice write up!

Right now, I can comfortably leave for a week at a time with no concerns other than feeding. If I want to be gone longer than that I would need an auto skimmer neck cleaner and collector, but those are already available.

I prefer to feed my fish frozen food and dried nori sheets. I do have an auto feeder that "gets by" if no one will be home for a few days but I wouldn't want to feed my system nothing but pellets for more than a week. I feel my fish health would deteriorate.

That’s what I’m waiting for! A frozen fish feeder would be a game changer. I’m not savvy enough to put a diy one together but would be first in line to buy one!