What is your biggest frustration with logging aquarium parameters?

[aquakeeper]

Hi everyone,
I am a hobbyist and an iOS developer. Over the years, I have tried a few apps and methods to keep track of my water tests, maintenance, and livestock, but I haven't found a workflow I really love yet. Most felt either too complicated or outdated.
Before I go too far down the rabbit hole building my own, I wanted to ask this community:
1. What do you currently use to log parameters, maintenance, or track equipment?
2. What is the most annoying or missing feature in your current workflow?
3. If an app could magically solve one tank management problem for you, what would it be?
I am not trying to drop links or sell anything—just want to make sure I build something actually useful and see if others share my frustrations. Any feedback or gripes you want to share would be super helpful! Thanks!
P.s: I dont known is this correct thread? Please let me know if I wrong

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I just use the good old notepad method. It's easy for me to keep up with.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I don’t currently log anything, unless I’m posting to my build thread.

If an app could solve it, the management task I’d like it to do would be feed frozen food when I’m away. Lol

 

[SeaWolf95]

Im a dev myself , but more of an indie game dev. I just made my own program on the pc to log the info.
Why use another devs software when I can just write my own, lol.
if i have something that is frustrating about it i'll just rewrite it. trying to update it so i can use it network based with sql but dont have the time so i guess that could be considered frustrating.

 

[EricR]

I just find fumbling with my phone to record parameters while testing to be cumbersome.
Hence, pre-printed table on clipboard and just manually writing in test results is way easier for me.
*nothing any app could do about that for me

I think one feature I'd like if I forced myself to use an app would be:
- Trend graph over time for individual parameters (which I think most apps will have)
- Can also easily see dosing amounts across different timeframes on same graph (for anything dosed related to that parameter)

 

[BryanM]

Hi everyone,
I am a hobbyist and an iOS developer. Over the years, I have tried a few apps and methods to keep track of my water tests, maintenance, and livestock, but I haven't found a workflow I really love yet. Most felt either too complicated or outdated.
Before I go too far down the rabbit hole building my own, I wanted to ask this community:
1. What do you currently use to log parameters, maintenance, or track equipment?
2. What is the most annoying or missing feature in your current workflow?
3. If an app could magically solve one tank management problem for you, what would it be?
I am not trying to drop links or sell anything—just want to make sure I build something actually useful and see if others share my frustrations. Any feedback or gripes you want to share would be super helpful! Thanks!
P.s: I dont known is this correct thread? Please let me know if I wrong

I knew I wouldn't like this task and opted for a Hanna Marine Master tester that logs the results for me.

 

[exnisstech]

There are a lot of apps that work just fine. I tried a few and settled on the one that I was the most comfortable with. I used Google sheets for years but find an app easier because I never worked with spread sheets before. I don't need AI making recommendations based on my results which is what some seem to be integrating into the apps these days.

PS I use aquarium log and it does everything I need it to do. I can't think of anything I would want or trust an app to magically solve as maintenance unless it can clean glass.

 

[ReneReef]

Pen and paper.
No frustrations. No missing features. No need for an app.

 

[aquakeeper]

I just find fumbling with my phone to record parameters while testing to be cumbersome.
Hence, pre-printed table on clipboard and just manually writing in test results is way easier for me.
*nothing any app could do about that for me

I think one feature I'd like if I forced myself to use an app would be:
- Trend graph over time for individual parameters (which I think most apps will have)
- Can also easily see dosing amounts across different timeframes on same graph (for anything dosed related to that parameter)

Thanks, I will consider your ideas

 

[aquakeeper]

There are a lot of apps that work just fine. I tried a few and settled on the one that I was the most comfortable with. I used Google sheets for years but find an app easier because I never worked with spread sheets before. I don't need AI making recommendations based on my results which is what some seem to be integrating into the apps these days.

PS I use aquarium log and it does everything I need it to do. I can't think of anything I would want or trust an app to magically solve as maintenance unless it can clean glass.

Haha, if you find any app clean glass, you should share me :p

 

[aussiejohnny]

Hi everyone,
I am a hobbyist and an iOS developer. Over the years, I have tried a few apps and methods to keep track of my water tests, maintenance, and livestock, but I haven't found a workflow I really love yet. Most felt either too complicated or outdated.
Before I go too far down the rabbit hole building my own, I wanted to ask this community:
1. What do you currently use to log parameters, maintenance, or track equipment?
2. What is the most annoying or missing feature in your current workflow?
3. If an app could magically solve one tank management problem for you, what would it be?
I am not trying to drop links or sell anything—just want to make sure I build something actually useful and see if others share my frustrations. Any feedback or gripes you want to share would be super helpful! Thanks!
P.s: I dont known is this correct thread? Please let me know if I wrong

notepad ...and its eye opening what dumb stuff we do when you look back at missed water changes over under dosing sometimes i think we undo all our efforts ...but a log of everyday stuff changed my tank

 

[TheReefAbides]

+1 to good old pen and paper. I made an excel sheet with the parameters I test for and an extra line for notes. I find it easier to write when at my desk rather than importing data to my phone. The only time I would like to import the data to digital format is if I want to graph the trend.

So I suppose if I could just take a picture of my log sheet and the app extract and graph the data. that would be nice.