Aquarium controller

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nbw

Senior Member
I built this to manage the plethora of devices necessary to keep my saltwater aquarium in good condition. There is a heater, a fan for summer, numerous pumps, lots of lights, a protein skimmer, and a few other goodies.

It drives the 250W metal halide lamps, T5 fluros, 200W heater, 30W fan, 50W skimmer by opto-isolated triacs. It has a DS1307 controlling the time for everything, so lights and pumps get switched on at the right time. It staggers the on / off times so when the "day" on the reef is lightening, the pumps come on also. No soft starts unfortunately! AC for you :) It monitors temperature within set limits, and turns on the heater or fan accordingly. If the temp falls or rises outside of this control, it sounds an alarm. Everything is displayed on a 16x2 LCD, and a couple of buttons on the front provide overrides so I can switch things on manually if I want. E.g. you can press a button and all pumps stop, so you can feed the fish and corals in "peace and quiet". It's in an earthed, metal case.

Time and other changes are done thru a download socket at the front. It features a 2A transformer to also supply 12V regulated to a few other devices, like small PC fans, I use from time to time. This saves lots of plugpacks.

It's been running for 2.5 years now fine. It restores itself great when the power goes off (not often).

I'd like to build another one one day... with a 20x4 blue LCD, wireless control, salinity probes.... :)
 

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Jony_BC

Member
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Nice... I was also thinking on make something like that, but with temperature sensing turning on and off the heaters with the picaxe... Reading the PH and a lot of more fun things like try to get an inteface done with and old ericsson and making the picaxe send me a sms if theres some problem with the level of the water or pumps or if the light go out... ye ye i know all ideas... Maybe some day but now i working on going to try to live on Jersey so i realy don´t know what to do with my aquarium and my fishe´s... oh yeal is not a big one but still got some litle guys there... oh, i´m gona leave my family here i think i can also leave the fishe... lol...(I wonder...do they let me pass the border with and aquarium in the trunk and some fishes in an bag...lol)

Nice project...
 
N

nbw

Senior Member
Yes, the temp sensor turns the heater and fan on and off. I've given some thought to pH control - the probes are quite expensive, there might be another way to do it. I'm having a look at making a salinity monitor at the moment, using stainless steel TIG welding rods, and a 28X picaxe. Lots of calibration, calculations, and lookup tables!
 
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nbw

Senior Member
Cheers! It's actually carbon fibre looking adhesive vinyl. I had a small piece of it lying around in the shed so thought it might look ok on the front :)
 
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Jony_BC

Member
Hum i think i found some PH meter in ebay about 10 or some pounds they are like a pen smal ones my idea was to hackit... But i´m going slow i need to make first an external filter i´m having troble finding the glow i know that it doesnt cal it glow but i cant translat it right now lol can find the right word for "silicone" maybe its the same, bah i think you get it i only find some kind that is realy good to get the plastic of glass together but i´m not sure id its goods for thes fishes...
nice job also a water level sensor would be nice, I was dreaming some days ago of making some system that gets the water from the cans then heat it up put all the quimics together and all then cycle the water and when its time it changes the right amount of water by it self...

Cya
 
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papaof2

Senior Member
Water level sensor can be simple (float switch) or complex (ultrasonic distance sensor).

For a simple version, see this example:
http://www.picaxe.us/WaterLevel-08.html

Replacing the water could be done, just be sure you have a way to keep the fish away from the drain as you empty the tank - and that it is filled quickly enough that the fish don't die.

Temperature sensing is easily done with a DS18B20 chip:
http://www.picaxe.us/AV-fan.html
You just need to determine how best to control the heating of the water because this usually involves high (mains) voltages which are not a recommended area for the novice...

John
 
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ingeer

New Member
Water level

For water sensors I use a 40106 - Schmitt Trigger (IC). It has six separate switches, and legs stepped back-to-back, for Vero type mounting. One output feeds directly into the next input.

I bias the input leg to +5V with a 2 or 3 meg resistor, with the water at negative (-) potential.

The +5V holds the the trigger output low (and the next trigger output high). When the water 'shorts' the input it pulls the input low, and the output goes high. and in turn the second output goes low.

I have used these for my hydroponics, and I have one chip working for over four years, with 14 cycles per day - no corrosion on the probes due to the high resistance on the +5V input.

Just a bit of practical knowledge.
 
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