PDA

View Full Version : mointor\controller interface


Shelflyfe
12/19/2009, 08:33 PM
Hi... I think this might be my first post on Reef Central, even though I have followed many of the threads here and attempted many of the DIY projects over the past 8 years or so now... So for starters, thanks for all the good advise!

I am trying to design a fish breeding and rearing setup, and I would be looking to closely monitor various aspects of multiple environments at the same time. The breeding tanks would all be on a central filtration system, so I could just monitor the sump, but I would also have 2-3 additional rearing tanks, and optionally some coral propagation tanks. The items I would be interested in monitoring would be pH x4+, temp x4+, dissolved oxygen (especially for the rearing tanks) x3+, nitrate x4+... I would also like to consider monitoring calcium (I see American Marine Pinpoint is making a monitor for that now), and lux, in the case that I try to document my coral propagation results for various photo period, different bulbs (led's maybe?), and intensity of light from bulb deterioration.

My first choice, if something like this is available, would be a rack mount unit with a USB or Firewire interface that supported multiple probes, and has an api for me to retrieve the values of each probe. I could then just store it to my database, and publish it to a web site that I can monitor... and make manual adjustments, or purchase some home automation hardware and program it to turn the heater on if that tank is too cold, etc...

Another option would be a controller, however I have not seen any that support all of these probes, and especially not more than one of each. But I could buy many of these, which would store the information about each environment, and then I think some of them can do the web monitoring, and would somehow provide the raw data which I could then store to my database. But there are still other values that they can not store such as Calcium levels... But I saw one product, the Elos Biotopus II (SMS option seems rhetorical if the device supports Ethernet access to the monitors) but this was open-source, maybe I can dig into that and make it do my specialized task...

I couldn't find anything like what I was first describing on the market for us hobbyist, but I can't imagine a product like that not available in a commercial setting... These manufacturers must be testing their products and I can't imagine they have people hand reading the various attributes of the environment (think about all the things you test for yourself, and what about things like alkalinity or phosphates or Mg, that we don't have probes for) periodically through the day... There must be some kind of system that provides these values to their scientists, who then interpret the data to improve their product.

Thanks,
Andy