USING EXCEL TO SIMPLIFY MY REEF KEEPING RECORDS

[Rick Mathew]

So I found myself over time having a lot of reef keeping records located in various places and in different apps and it became a pain to keep track of them and keep them up to date. In my opinion is important to keep accurate record of test results, changes made to the system, livestock purchases and when they were introduced to the display tank. Also keeping track of quarantine tanks and any treatments is important for effective quarantine procedures….Enter EXCEL.

I started 3 years ago building an Excel workbook to keep track of as much information as I could cram into it. Each year I made changes and upgrades to the workbook to make it easier to use and more effective. I had to learn some Visual Basic Programming as well as how to effectively use Macros but it for sure made my recordkeeping much easier…. It is a work in progress. The convenient part is Excel allows me to all kind of information from one spreadsheet to another. Allowing me to enter and or calculate date one time and then link it to any other spread sheet. It also allow me to link to websites, calculators, articles and most anything I need with regard to my tank…All in one convenient location

To describe it would take a lot of typing so I made some videos to give you an idea of how it works. The first video is just a short overview (Quick Tour). I will be posting additional videos looking in more detail at each of the sheets…Let me know if there is anything in particular you might like to see and I will see what I can do…Hope you find it interesting and helpful.


VIDEO

 

[sbash]

The video does not work, perhaps it is not 'public'?

 

[Rick Mathew]

The video does not work, perhaps it is not 'public'?

It is public... will check out why it may not work... thanks for the heads up

 

[Rick Mathew]

The video does not work, perhaps it is not 'public'?

Not sure why it will not play for you...I just went to R2R without signing in and it played ok...?? ...try this link and see if it plays

 

[Fin]

Just see this....

 

[Rick Mathew]

I must be doing something incorrectly while posting it....Could you try copying the URL (right click video and select copy URL) and then paste it into your browser and see if it plays....I checked it on YouTube and it is there and marked public...so I am not sure why it will not work from the R2R site...thanks for your help

Rick

 

[Fin]

Works now. Holy cow! That is really awesome!

 

[Salahunreal]

It's working for me I can open the YouTube link. Good job

 

[Rick Mathew]

Works now. Weird.

Did it work from the original post or from the link I posted?...this sure is Weird!

 

[Fin]

Did it work from the original post or from the link I posted?...this sure is Weird!

It works from the original post. Wasn't like that originally. Did you upload the video and immediately post the URL? Maybe it hadn't finished completely processing.

That is really neat and looks like it would require good bit of discipline to keep that maintained. I wish I was that disciplined. Very nice tool.

 

[Rick Mathew]

It works from the original post. Wasn't like that originally. Did you upload the video and immediately post the URL? Maybe it hadn't finished completely processing.

That is really neat and looks like it would require good bit of discipline to keep that maintained. I wish I was that disciplined. Very nice tool.

Actually I uploaded the video much earlier...so I am not sure what happened...Technology...only works when you don't need it...

It is not as much work to maintain it as it might look...Once I got it set up it is a simple matter of entering the data as I get it...the spread sheet does the rest of the work and I only have to go to one place to find what I am looking for...keeps it simple for me....I like simple...thanks for your help


Rick

 

[Rick Mathew]

Works now. Holy cow! That is really awesome!

Thank you...It keeps my life much simpler...One place to go for almost everything...my next upgrade is going to link all of my equipment and instruction manuals so I don't have to search for them when I need them

 

[sbash]

Can you repost it without that fantastic music? Very distracting...

Incredible spreadsheet! I keep a few sheets for a couple of the points you hit on, but nothing so thorough; Kudos!!!

 

[Rick Mathew]

Can you repost it without that fantastic music? Very distracting...

Incredible spreadsheet! I keep a few sheets for a couple of the points you hit on, but nothing so thorough; Kudos!!!

Not a fan of Charlie Dilbert a...see what I can do....will keep this in mind for my next segment,,,Thanks


Rick

 

[sbash]

Not a fan of Charlie Dilbert a...see what I can do....will keep this in mind for my next segment,,,Thanks


Rick

The exact opposite, I enjoyed it far too much to pay attention to the video, lol...

 

[Rick Mathew]

The exact opposite, I enjoyed it far too much to pay attention to the video, lol...

;Headphone...lol...

 

[litenyaup]

Holy cow that was in depth.....I have some monthly print outs and some numbers scribbled down lol.

 

[Rick Mathew]

Holy cow that was in depth.....I have some monthly print outs and some numbers scribbled down lol.

For sure there is a lot to keep track of . When you think about all of the stuff we do and need to keep our Reefs healthy and growing....it is a lot. What I find is very often I need some information...where to get a part or some testing reagent...or as simple as tracking the parameters of our tank and searching to find what I need becomes a real pain and consumes a lot of time....keeping it all in one place makes it mush easier...at least for me. I will be posting the next video on the test sheet in a week or so, then the others some time later...you should be able to see how it simplifies the process...thanks for watching


Rick