Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi All,

BullwinkleII has suggested I make thread here regarding the automation I have set up for my fish tank at the moment, so here goes!

Last year I bought a Raspberry Pi (http://www.raspberrypi.org/) for some reason or another, I think to set up a HTPC, or to procrastinate from exams or something..

As I got into it I realized I could set it up to monitor and control various aspects of my fish tank, so, I went out and bought some temperature probes, and a few relay modules.

Fast forward to now, I now have a setup with a few temp probes, one in the fish tank, and one measuring ambient temperature, which are connected to the Pi, that I use to generate entries into a MySQL server (which is also running on the Pi). This allows me to perform various functions on the data, such as generating graphs, feeding the fish based on temperature, as well as searching and displaying various data.

I also have a few IP camera's set up in the fish tank, which I view through the website.
One of these is underwater, in some 90mm PVC.

I have a few feeders set up, which are constructed from PVC, an auger drill bit, a servo motor, and a mount made up by my dad (who likes to weld ).

I drive the servo's from the Pi, and also have their power running through a relay, just for a bit of added protection.. I'm not home at the moment, but can take photo's of the actual design in a week or so, if anyone is interested.

I have the IP cameras pointed in the general direction of the feeders, so I can make sure the feedings are happening. When the feeding happens, I also record the stream of the video, convert the video to mp4 (using the Pi) and then host it on the website as well .

I also have a 15W led mounted in the tank, that I can turn on and off from the website, via the Pi.


Here's a few pictures of the front end website (also hosted on the Pi) that displays all the info.

And a few more photo's.





Also, as a note, I drew way too much inspiration from a user who posted their website a long time ago, dutchmark was the name of the person. So, some credit to him for the web design!

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=19423

Mmmmm data

Nice work.

Very cool, I want one.

They're only around $40-$50!

But, it has been a whole lot of time working it all out

It's nice to see someone use the international date format as well.

It sorts so nicely.

My greatest achievement in life has been to get my mum to end every file name with it.

Data is cool, would also love to see some code

I agree with Boss, I'd like to see the code. Awesome project by the way.

Jealous

I'm curious about your FT.

Is it a liner floating in a pond?
A cage net?
Or just a fancy liner in a box like most of us do?

That date format so very good for sorting.
Sneaking it into the documentation system at work, where I can

To be honest guys, there is nothing very special in particular with the code.
The way I get information into the webserver is to run a python script every 10 minutes that prints the html to file.
So the webserver is never 100% up to date, but it is always refreshing the information

Regarding the feeding, just a simple python script again that turns a relay on, then a servo on, waits however long i have configured for the feed to go for, then turns the servo off, and then the relay off..
To calculate the feed time i'm using just a python switch statement to calculate the correct amount to feed (or near enough). Here is an excerpt.



If anyone wants any code in particular, let me know

Its a cage net, inside a big 35000L bore water settling tank, which already had around 100 150mm silvers in it.
I decided that I wanted to get some trout, so i've made a cage that goes inside of it, while I think about where I want them to go next .

Heres a video of the silvers from this morning's 10:30am feeding:


Here's a few more that i've uploaded a while ago:
https://www.youtube.com/user/nicbaz1/videos

Cool. So what is the material?

Is like a heavy duty bird netting, from Bunnings.
Which i can't for the life of me find on their website, sorry!
It's the type that you'd put around trees in an orchid.

And wrapped around a cage made of 20mm pvc.

That camera is pointing up? quite unusual, neat
I am also thinking of trout. I shot these videos last weeks at a local fish hatchery. These are on a USA threatened list: They are called Gila trout and are from southern New Mexico
[youtube]http://youtu.be/WDNggN5xRFI?list=UUd6hLy_zi5ltWrrEpgSTl5A[/youtube]
Okay not sure that worked

Nah it's inside a big tank, pointing at the cage that is inside that tank
Its reasonably horizontal.

To paint a better picture, the tank looks a little like this