You start a Pico Reef - Manual light or automated to the ambient light of the room?

[Polymate3D]

Hello

I am currently working on my tiny pico reef concepts, which will focus around very low cost, and make the process of a tiny aquarium as easy as possible.

My question is, if you have a tiny pico reef somewhere, would you want to manually turn the light on and off yourself, or would you prefer a sensor to detect the ambient light in the room and switch on / off accordingly?

Running via a timer is also a option but more expensive due to needing a real time clock.

For me, the idea of it switching itself on and off is ideal as I would likely forget about it from time to time.

To clarify the ambient light means it could tell when its night with the lights out or not. Off course the downside would be say a bedroom at night, you turn your light on and so does the pico for the time you have your room light on.

I value all of your opinions on this as I am torn between the 2 ideas. See the early stages of this idea below:

- Paul

Smallest version being used to test the different functions needed.

1st PCB with wires to a external micro controller so I can track things in real time / edit things easier.

 

[SnazzyUrchin792]

I personally like the idea of a light on a timer, but if you don't want that, I would do a manual switch. And I have to ask, what do you even keep in a tank that small? a single coral frag and two hermit crabs for CUC?

 

[Polymate3D]

I personally like the idea of a light on a timer, but if you don't want that, I would do a manual switch. And I have to ask, what do you even keep in a tank that small? a single coral frag and two hermit crabs for CUC?

Thanks for the vote and your input!

Yeah the tiny 0.7L is really for a handful of frags. Maybe a hermit crab and a sexy shrimp. Asterina starfish. Just something small a peaceful. The key reason for the smallest one is to get my temperature control as stable as possible.

There are also 2.5L and 5L versions that will be more aimed at a nano goby and some more space for corals. I love tiny aquariums, but people usually drop them because of them being allot of maintenance.

So this setup uses a thermistor along with heating elements for a underneath heating solution and a small low power peltier + heatsink + fan arrangement to maintain temperature all the year around.

The aim is to make these with a sealed top to massively reduce evaporation, and then in the hot months, cool it rather than fan and evaporative cooling, causing massive salinity spikes.

Specifically the smallest one seen in the picture, my plan is possibly space for 4 frags at various heights. LED light varies from 40 PAR to 160 PAR depending on the height, so focus is on softies. Maybe a LPS thats suitable. Little cleanup crew. Currently thinking bumblebee snail, sexy shrimp and a hermit crab.

Back to the light side of this, I think maybe I will just have a override header which I can use for a switch or for a USB timer so people can pick the timer via that method. That way the USB timers are also app controlled via phone.

Thanks again! - Paul

 

[MoshJosh]

Personally I prefer a timer. That said, having a separate cord (to a wall outlet) that has an in-line switch seems like a reasonable compromise. That way buyers could use the timer of their choosing ($15 Kasa Wifi timers are my go too) or just use a switch. . .