System Introduction

[Davor Marjanović]

Hey,

I have been experimenting with aquaponics for two years. My first system was ebb and flood with 200 Liters bathtub for fish tank. Fish that i used where mainly catfish and some other from local river, and plants where all kind of vegetables.

But this was set up outside on the open so I had to shut it down during winter, this year i wanted to set up something smaller indoor so I set up a small NFT system on 20 liter aquarium. As i have some experience in programming and electronics I am looking to automate it as much as I can. You can check out my progress so far on this Instructable.

The idea was to to make a small box controller which I can put on a bigger system later on, box can be hidden, and monitoring and controlling settings can be done through browser on local area network (web app). I released the code as Open Source so it free to use by everybody, and hopefully can be made even better with some input from Aquaponics community.

Next in line for enhancing the system is automatic fish feeder and fish tank water level sensor, after that water chemistry sensors (pH, DO, EC).

Let me know how do you like the controller idea and if you have any suggestions.

Don't forget to check out the instructable page here... it has everything explained in details, also if you like the project you can vote for me in Intel IoT Invitational contest.

Looking forward to hearing your comments .. bad or good :)

[Pieter Swanevelder]

Very nice Davor

- good instructable. Not so keen in using  bread board (PCB/Vero-board preferred) - then I think you've got a maintainable system - I'm sure people will be intrested in a kit.

Will check sensors & code more thourougly this weekend.

Regards,

[Davor Marjanović]

Pieter Swanevelder said:

Very nice Davor

- good instructable. Not so keen in using  bread board (PCB/Vero-board preferred) - then I think you've got a maintainable system - I'm sure people will be intrested in a kit.

Will check sensors & code more thourougly this weekend.

Regards,

Thanks, the system is not finished yet, that is why I used bread board, its easier for me to connect/reconnect new things.

When I complete it then I'll probably redesign the box and use some proper board (PCV/Vero or some custom made) to connect everything + box connectors so it will be easier to connect/disconnect sensors.

[R.K. Castillo]

I think a sensor that checks ph, nitrates, ammonia, etc would be amazing along with the water level check and what not.  Love the idea

[Michael Tintner]

This is an incredibly innovative system you developed. I can see how at scale this could help grow a lot of food. The quantitative data you could get from setting up several systems like this, with variables in each system could be incredibly useful in figuring out how to build large scale systems.

[Davor Marjanović]

Thanks, yea that was my idea also... it could be very easy to collect data from this kind of system and if there where multiple system from which we could compare the data we could easily find out which conditions work best for growing specific types of food and share that info. This project is still in early phase but I'm working on making it more affordable and versatile.

Michael Tintner said:

This is an incredibly innovative system you developed. I can see how at scale this could help grow a lot of food. The quantitative data you could get from setting up several systems like this, with variables in each system could be incredibly useful in figuring out how to build large scale systems.

[Michael Tintner]

I am launching aquaponicsdata.com which aims to be a database for aquaponics information. http://community.theaquaponicsource.com/forum/topics/new-aquaponics...

Perhaps we can work together in some way.

Davor Marjanović said:

Thanks, yea that was my idea also... it could be very easy to collect data from this kind of system and if there where multiple system from which we could compare the data we could easily find out which conditions work best for growing specific types of food and share that info. This project is still in early phase but I'm working on making it more affordable and versatile.

Michael Tintner said:

This is an incredibly innovative system you developed. I can see how at scale this could help grow a lot of food. The quantitative data you could get from setting up several systems like this, with variables in each system could be incredibly useful in figuring out how to build large scale systems.

[Davor Marjanović]

I am a database expert so I can help you a lot with the db design, and with a webservice api I could easily feed data to your db. I would like to hear more about it, you can send me more info on pm.