If my wife only knew...

[AirWreck11]

...how much money I wasted on my last venture into fishkeeping. Specifically, an ambitious attempt to start a home clownfish hatchery after having some success breeding tiger barbs but only having dipped my toes into the saltwater, live rock and coral aquaria world. Apparently, a couple years experience, reading fish magazines and attending MACNA conferences, even with a lot of enthusiasm and your ex-mother-in-law's financial backing is not enough to turn this hobby into a profitable business! This was before I met my wife. I am back into the hobby after a 15 year hiatus. I have started with a modest Fluval Spec 15 gallon tank, planted, with five veiltail cherry barbs and some ghost and blue dream shrimp. The wife did see a surge of aquarium-related purchases on Prime Day, but so far I think she's just keeping an eye on me. She likes the addition of the tank to our bedroom, but how much the aquatic ambience is worth, we'll find out!

My tank now has supplemental mid-day lighting, UV, aeration, and the next project is some 3D-printed brackets for float switches. I am planning to make this a smart fish tank, as I happen to work for a smart home manufacturer, in addition to being an electronics and coding enthusiast. I look forward to learning and sharing about electronics, lighting, and aquarium monitoring and control systems (non brand-specific, per the forum rules, etc.). And, of course, fishkeeping!

Eric

 

[connorlindeman]

...how much money I wasted on my last venture into fishkeeping. Specifically, an ambitious attempt to start a home clownfish hatchery after having some success breeding tiger barbs but only having dipped my toes into the saltwater, live rock and coral aquaria world. Apparently, a couple years experience, reading fish magazines and attending MACNA conferences, even with a lot of enthusiasm and your ex-mother-in-law's financial backing is not enough to turn this hobby into a profitable business! This was before I met my wife. I am back into the hobby after a 15 year hiatus. I have started with a modest Fluval Spec 15 gallon tank, planted, with five veiltail cherry barbs and some ghost and blue dream shrimp. The wife did see a surge of aquarium-related purchases on Prime Day, but so far I think she's just keeping an eye on me. She likes the addition of the tank to our bedroom, but how much the aquatic ambience is worth, we'll find out!

My tank now has supplemental mid-day lighting, UV, aeration, and the next project is some 3D-printed brackets for float switches. I am planning to make this a smart fish tank, as I happen to work for a smart home manufacturer, in addition to being an electronics and coding enthusiast. I look forward to learning and sharing about electronics, lighting, and aquarium monitoring and control systems (non brand-specific, per the forum rules, etc.). And, of course, fishkeeping!

Eric

Welcome!

 

[Back in the fold]

I love this. Fully half of what's in my fish room was snuck in there when the wife had her back turned. There is no money in breeding fish for sale no matter what anybody tells you. You do it for the love of doing it.
Glad to see you back in the hobby. Stick around.

 

[Wills]

Hi welcome to the forum your title made me proper belly laugh! Its very relatable! Though perhaps I am not on the same level as you haha!

Really interesting in the IOT stuff, I've worked in a similar field (smart thermostats) and really interested to see how it can impact the hobby. It is here in bits, app controlled lighting for timers, intensity and colours, app controlled tank sensors and some integrated apps for filters, mainly around maintenance. Would love an all in one kit one day, in fact if anyone brought out a smart external filter I would part with my money very quickly, smart as in live and very accurate monitoring of parameters and temperature and a maintenance schedule. Would be great on the Oase models

Looking forward to seeing your tank make sure you post some pictures

Wills

 

[emeraldking]

Well, hi & welcome to TFF...
Oh, there are so many members overhere who can relate to your story. Yes, if you wanna enjoy your hobby more, sometimes sneaky things are in order... And it will create more creativity towards your partner...

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

lol!
I can't chit chat about the techy stuff personally since I'm a luddite, but I can relate to being sneaky about fish-related spending, and jumping in too deep and finding it's tougher than it looks initially! The veil-tail cherry barb tank sounds gorgeous with the contrast of blue dream shrimp (my favourite), hope to see the tank soon!

Welcome to the forum and back to the hobby

 

[AirWreck11]

Algae is getting a foothold. I rushed a couple steps and have had the lighting on too long. I hope to combat that with the UV light, more frequent partial water changes, and a lighting schedule adjustment.

 

[kiko]

there's an open source project already made for this...
look up "open aquarium arduino" on google

 

[AirWreck11]

there's an open source project already made for this...
look up "open aquarium arduino" on google

I actually have Raspberry Pi and Arduino starter kits and I was originally going to build a smart home system out of them, but I ended up going with an over-the-counter solution for my home, and later, when I started working in the smart home industry, I did the same for my fish tank. Some of the Arduino sensors, like pH, are interesting and I will be looking into them, but I know not everyone wants to roll-their-own smart home, so Arduino smart aquarium is like a niche within a niche within a niche. I can completely get geeked out on that (any chance to code or fire up the soldering iron, I'm in!) but I'm more interested in more works-out-of-the-box solutions.

Do you use any of that?