My Arduino Aquarium Controller

I have been working a bit on my reef controller and I have gotten far enough to show it off. So far everything works just fine except the RTC, it will spit bad data back from time to time. I ordered a replacement chip just in case. Othere than that, here we go:

Here is the boards and wiring. Still need a pretty box to put it all in.

This is the power control unit. It uses 8 SSRs on an American DJ unit.

Here is a mandatory tank shot:

Right now the Arduino controls:
Temp (heater, fan, kills lights if too hot)
Water level (uses float switch)
Power heads (kills pumps for 5 min for feeding)
Displays pH
**Light timer (once the RTC errors are resolved.)

Next component on order is a keypad.

Read about all the details and code at:
http://reefprojects.com

That is geneous!! you have any plans to monitor any more params? maybe pH? ammonia? salinity?

Thought about using a cars 12v windscreen washer pump along with a solar panel and battery to run a filter for my small freshwater tank, can you think of any issues with such a pump ( or suggest another 12V solution? ).

It does monitor pH. Ammonia and salinity are difficult to monitor as far as my research goes, so probably not.

As far as your 12v pump, I would be worried about it leaching heavy metals or other chemicals into the tank. Also, corrosion will be an issue.

Great Project! I was planning to build a PH Probe amp like you did, I posted on the interfacing section of this site a while back but I have not gotten all the parts to complete the project. Do you think its possible to use a dual op amp instead of two op amps to make the ph probe read 1-5?

Nice tank,

I have been looking at your code for some ideas for my controller, At the moment i have a profilux looking after most of the stuff but im builing my own led lighting and the arduino seemed perfect for what i wanted to do.

So far i have the rtc,lcd and temp almost working

Just thought i would add pic of my puddle

I think a dual op amp would work exactly the same. How were you going to power it? I was looking for something better than just two 9v batteries.

Hey Jener8tionx - I hadn't figured out what I was gonna do for a power supply yet. I'm glad you brought it up, I most likly would start the same way you did with the 9v's but I'm gonna need to check out that sparkfun tutorial again because I need to power a few different designs now.

Charlie

An ardiuno project that is close to my heart :slight_smile: I use an ioBridge system at the moment to get connectivity to the internet but plan to use an arduino to expand the system, you've given me a few ideas. My site is at http://www.photosbykev.com/fishcam/

I finally finished the enclosure for my controller.

Very nice dude! :wink:

I really liked this project!

I actually want to have a aquarium just to replicate this... I think my brother has a small aquarium somewhere... hmm :stuck_out_tongue:

Awesome! I've been wanting to build a fancy controller for my aquarium too (75 gal. saltwater). It looks like I have my starting point. Now to find the $ to do it...

Thanks for posting this! I was thinking about doing something similar. I was looking at building an LED bank for the lights. I wanted to do an scr pwm controller connected directly to the mains to power the LED's. I thought it would be very power efficient but would need to be carefully done so a failure didn't fry the fish/cause a fire.

Awesome project! I love the idea of monitoring the vitals of the tank. Great job!

Thanks for posting this! I was thinking about doing something similar. I was looking at building an LED bank for the lights. I wanted to do an scr pwm controller connected directly to the mains to power the LED's. I thought it would be very power efficient but would need to be carefully done so a failure didn't fry the fish/cause a fire.

I recently posted this instructable for automating your aquarium lighting. I've had it running now for a few months, and it's been great. I built it with just the ATMEGA168, but it would be easy enough to adapt to the Arduino.

That's pretty cool. I've been thinking about LED lighting, but with the saltwater it has to be a bluish color. Figured I'd use RGB leds so I can control that. Of course than the cost goes way up.

Anybody else with a saltwater thought about how to do this?

RGB LED's are really not that expensive. $0.99 each is really not that bad. http://www.mpja.com/prodinfo.asp?number=17137+OP

I don't mind about the cost. I'm wondering about the color. Wondering if anyone has the RGB combo to use.

I'll probably order some today and let you know what I come up with.

This is terrific. I keep Vivariums at home (Partial water and partial planted area terrariums, usually for maintaining a population of tree frogs, salamanders or amphibians) and I would love to build an arduino-based system for maintaining moisture and temperature. Right now I have an ultrasonic mister and lights on a timer, but it's crude, and it would be great to have some fans kick on over a certain temp or foggers start below a certain humidity.

If you're really interested in learning about lighting I'd highly recommend this site:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com

Interesting. I found an article about LED lighting where they break down what colors show up. It looks like 45% blue, 20% red, and 35% green.

I'll be doing some more reading on this site... lots of good info.

Thanks for the link, it's helped a lot.