As some of you know ive been planning to get this idea rolled into the community for a while and ive finally found the time to do so . . .
As many of you will know the average Aquarium keeper spends a fortune creating and maintaining there setup . . . that is a lot of financial investment to have wiped out by a quick ammonia spike or issue with the aquarium . . .
The team over at Seneye (www.seneye.com) have come up with a genius bit of kit to help monitor this, it even includes email & text notification and a nice app for mobile use . . .
HOWEVERRRRRR
Wouldnât it be great to integrate that into SmartThings and be able to automate devices/things in response to the SenEyeâs data . . . i believe they want the same thing as they have created a nice API for there system (https://api.seneye.com/)
The issue is . . . im an ideas/design guy and have little to no experience with coding, so although i can create nice mockups and demos as shown below im looking for people who share an interest in this and would be interested in working with me on the project, i will also be getting in touch with seneye to see if there developers and team are interested in getting involved also to speed this up or help where needed.
The idea of then been able to trigger events based on the data received from your SenEye unit would open up a massive chamber of useful solutions, for instance.
If âPHâ Reads above the value of "" then turn on "___ " (SmartPlug powering a loud AirPump you donât want on all the time for instance)
If âTemperatureâ Reads above value of â____â then turn down Thermostat (To speed up the cooling process and support a chiller to keep a steady temperature)
If âOut of waterâ alert is sensed, trigger water valve to " close" (Ideal for pumps fed water from a sump etc, to lower flood issue in worse case senario)
If Ammonia reads above"____" flash light âredâ & send push notification with the following message "__" (visual alerts to a possible aquarium crash)
If ammonia reads above â___â make âsonosâ dictate message " your aquariums Ammonia level is at a critical level, please see to aquarium" (spoken word warning of the above)
There are a lot of aquarium threads in which many of us have explained that relying on smart things to trigger adjustments in mission critical situations is a recipie for heartache and disaster. The platform isnât designed for that sort of reliability or robustness.
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tgauchat
(ActionTiles.com co-founder Terry @ActionTiles; GitHub: @cosmicpuppy)
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Granted . . . But if we donât develop on these things, it never will be neither.
We have to start somewhere, for starters been able to see the data in the smartthings app and add the option to be able trigger push notifications or visual aids (lights flashing or changing colour) or spoken aids via sonos etc, would be a great little addition for any aquarium keeperâŠ
Imagine waking up and your sonos reads you the Local Weather / Local News / Aquarium Stats etc without you having to even go near a test kit . . .
The adjustment of aquarium equipment was more of a long term goal, when its gained a stability a user would be happy with . . . the great things about smartthings as we all know is one idea can generate many and users can use which they like and ignore the rest.
@tgauchat - sorry i didnât see that post . . . thanks for linking
Ive had this thread planned for a while for this particular system (SENEYE) . . . may be worth all coming together and finding a great solution for all aquarium users
Then build a hardware solution that is entirely local and error checked. Use smartthings for reporting & a unified interface. Everything has its place.
@codytruscott I think youâve lost me . . . or . . . ive lost you.
Iâm no hardware developer or coding genius, just an ideas guys⊠just looking for someone else who may be interested in integrating the Seneye monitoring system with SmartThings . . . so i can see the stats within my SmartThings app and then if i wish to trigger visual (light) or audio (sonos) notifications etc etc
i donât see what your issue is with this idea or integrating this system specifically am i missing something ?
Oh â integrating the monitoring system is a great idea. Just saying that relying on a home automation system that uses a network and architecture designed for âeventual consistencyâ to make chemical adjustments would doom your fish. The mechanisms that make adjustments to your aquarium need to be hardwired to the sensors.
@codytruscott arghhh yes i 110% agree with that bit . . .
no thatâs way ahead of my idea im just looking to show Seneye stats in SmartThings and possible have that then trigger notifications for alerts via Sonos or Hue lighting or even Push notifications etc . . . or for instance as i said if an " out of water " alert is read on Seneye (usual indicating a flood) then you could back it up with a SmarThings water detector that triggers a stop valve to close if its fed water from a sump to lower the risk of more damage to your home
just the starting blocks, im sure many users would find 101 more uses for integrating this monitoring system into ST
I like this idea. For now I am doing everything the old fashion way with my tank but will eventually switch to something like this. Like you, I am not a coder either. Decent at disassemble and breaking things for sure. Nice thing about your idea is that our fishes wonât belly up when ST looses Internet connection.
There are several very good automated aquarium control systems available. None of them are cheap, and none rely on mesh networks, for good reason.
Zigbee mesh and zwave are just not appropriate for realtime continuous monitoring and control. (Zigbee can also be used in a star network, which would be ok, but thatâs not what SmartThings uses.)
Mesh allows messages to bounce around the network a few times before being delivered. They can even arrive out of sequence.
This is why we donât use mesh for streaming video. Itâs just not a good match to the protocol.
Seneye is cheaper because itâs just passive monitoring. Doesnât control the actuators.
Since Seneye itself already sends email and text, you could already combine it with IFTTT to change hue lights, trigger Sonos announcements, etc.
If you want to go a step farther and start triggering tank changes, then I agree with others in the thread, ST isnât a good match for the use case.
At this point, for aquarium management, I wouldnât even feel comfortable relying on ST mode to change where the Seneye text notifications go to, for example.
(As far as aquarium examples in other threads, just a coincidenceâŠaquarium control and orchid raising are both common examples of complex in-home environmental control systems.)
As a colour temperature measurement that would correspond to a âdaylightâ colour light source. It is also a wavelength which penetrates water well and is thus popular with aquariums.
If, however, you have a lifestyle that requires use of an automatic feeder for your aquarium, then many of the other monitors and actuators start becoming useful. And thatâs where it gets tricky balancing budget and reliability.
I shared in maintenance of an 80 gallon saltwater tank back in college. The primary owner ultimately gave up trying to reconcile college lifestyles and proper maintenance and got a Neptune. No idea what he spent on it, but I expect it was a couple of thousand. It worked well, though.
One should reconsider having pets if they need automation.
I canât imagine spending hundreds of dollars on hardware, hundreds of hours on writing software and hundreds of hours troubleshooting the setup so that it would keep crapping out at the least appropriate moment.
Wait a minute, I already done that⊠Well, never again.
It is not about the result, but the journey. If we just said why make a smart bulb when we can just flip the light switch where would we be or more importantly who would we be. So a few fish have to give their lives for the benefit of mankind, but we will be a more advanced community for at least having tried.
I would agree that SmartThings would not be a good choice for critical items of an aquarium. Itâd be nice to have all the statuses and monitoring linked into a SmartThings tab or even displayed in a SmartTiles window. Quick glance and you could check out everything in the home, including your aquariums.
There are valid reasons for wanting to automate an aquarium. I personally went with an Aquatronica aquarium controller http://www.aquatronica.com/en/ a few years back. It offered me complete control of my planted aquarium setup. I specifically needed it to control my CO2 dosing. I can monitor and control PH, temp, water level, lighting systems, heating systems, and water flow on multiple tanks. This system is self contained, but I do have to connect it to a PC for remote access. If I had to do it again I would go with the Neptune Apex https://www.neptunesystems.com/ . Neptune seems to offer more now and is easier to get in the US. Either way they are not cheap, but they do offer the most reliable control and access that Iâve seen for an aquarium.
I know a lot of people who automate an aquarium because they have crazy work schedules and want to know everything is OK. It doesnât mean they donât check the tank personally every day, it just means they canât check it personally at the same time every day. Itâs a hobbyâtheyâre willing to over invest in equipment in order to make sure the fish are OK even if theyâre working late.
Hi Kyle, Iâd be interested in helping you here. I am doing some other work with Fishbit and I am also working on similar topics with aeroponics.
If you can get me a unit Iâd be willing to put some time into it. I know a lot of folks are hedging on ST reliability â there are plenty of horror stories. Iâm in the same boat as you, if nobody puts the time into maturing it, it wonât get better on its own.
