pH, Ammonia, etc. sensors for salt water fish tank project.

J^3

Good evening everyone,

··· My better half and I are embarking on a salt water fish tank project.· She has been doing some reading and it looks like we will be having to monitor several different parameters consistently.· If any of you have any experience with a project like this I would greatly appreciate any advice you can give.· I would like to build my own monitoring station, using a BS2,·to measure the different parameters such as temperature, ph, salinity, etc.· I was thinking about using an AD592 for temp, but after that have no idea where to get the additional sensors I will need.· Thanks in advance for any input.

P.S.· Cost is an issue, so cheap is better.

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There are 10 types of people that understand binary, those who do, and those who don't.

SRLM

Salt water has a higher conductivity of electricity than fresh water, so you could (a guess here) put two wires in a cm or so apart and make an RC circuit. There's a scientific tool that does something like that... Just a thought.

J^3

Found this for pH measurement. Thought I would post it for anyone else interested.

http://users.bigpond.net.au/eagle33/elect/ph-cct.htm

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There are 10 types of people that understand binary, those who do, and those who don't.

RDL2004

A good place to start would be here:

www.emesystems.com/BS2index.htm

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- Rick

JFReyes

I have also started a very similar project, but divided it in three parts:

A) BS2p40-controlled A/C outlet box for water/air pumps, lighting and other stuff;
programmable LED light fixture (haven't chosen the CPU(s) yet; suggestions welcome as it will have at least hundreds of LEDs);
C) (probably Javelin-based, though not sure) master controller, sensor monitor and actuator control.

I'm currently in part A at the point where the prototype H/W is complete and am developing the cooperative multitasking state machine software to make it work as close to real time as possible; this is the hard part.

My original inspiration came from a web page at www.monigot.com/acuarios/controlador/index.php where a complete design is detailed; however, the page is in Spanish. I think it would be very useful to you if you could somehow have it translated (or know Spanish already). Check it out and good luck.

Regards,

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Jos

MSDTech

One good trick when you have a website and would like it translated is to copy the address and submit it to a google search. The results of the search will normally have a translate this page option. The website:
http://www.monigot.com/acuarios/controlador/index.php

Brings back the following:
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.monigot.com/acuarios/controlador/index.php&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=1&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://www.monigot.com/acuarios/controlador/index.php%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

Although not perfect, it usually gets you close.

JFReyes

Thank you for suggesting Google Translate; I knew about it but forgot to mention it (since I don't usually need it for Spanish/English translations), and it should help other forum members. Unfortunately it doesn't translate the text within the graphics. For that, go to www.wordreference.com and use it to translate the words.

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Jos

J^3

Thanks for the replies everyone.
I am totally new to the salt water fish tank scene, so this will probably be a slow process, but a great learning experience. Along with your suggestions I found another website that appeared helpfull. Maybe you all can use the info too. Thanks a bunch.

http://www.66pacific.com/ph/ph_1.htm

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There are 10 types of people that understand binary, those who do, and those who don't.