Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all, a little introduction:

I started on the Idea to build an AP to replace my veggie garden as I’m sick of watering it in this dry WA. I thought it would be a good ground to study electronics (that I’ve been trying to get into for years) by implementing some sort of Arduino control to the AP, but like mentioned, you only know what to look for when you have a problem to solve.

I few months ago I bought one Arduino Uno board and kit with a few sensors to get started blinking some LEDs, it has since been left aside, a few days ago I finally assembled my IBC AP system and got it running to start cycle (link with details on my AP on my signature), it’s now time to get back to Arduino while I wait to introduce fish on my AP. In anticipation I appreciate the dedication and input of everyone somehow involved in this project.

I am being inspired and referencing Chiumanfu's amazing project although I don't want so many sensors atm and this project is way of my league atm, so to keep things simple, I will start from scratch but stealing his code as much as possible (it will make more sense to me), as mentioned on his thread, it's doable on a Uno if you have less sensors, so what I am planning on having is:

As I have only 1 FT and 1GB I think I will only need:
1x DS18B20 water proof temperature sensors in FT
1x Vibration sensor for 1 bell siphon (to be expanded up to 3 as I add more GB)
1 x DHT-22 temperature and humidity sensors (air temp and humidity)
1x HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Ranger to measure tank water depth.
1 x Tiny RTC DS1307 Real Time Clock module.
1 x Hall Effect Flow Meter (measuring flow to ensure pump is working)

Wish list for future:
Power fail switch-over circuit (will probably replicate Chiumanfu's) and BU battery to Pump and/or airpump
PH and DO probe
Everyone's dream on NH3, NO2, NO3 probe

Actuators to be added on future:
Auto aerator switch on pump failure or DO under acceptable amount
Back up pump?
Fish feeder

Initial questions:
-For those masters in AP, any other sensor/actuators I should consider?

-For those masters in Arduino, should I consider buy a Arduino Mega board or Yun to start with and avoid future frustration with speed/capabilities/# of pins etc ?

-Chiumanfu used Grovestreams as his IoT platform, I had a look into it and seem quite complex to me atm, gsb used thingspeak.com on his project, this seems to be more straight forward platform but perhaps less configurable? In your opinion which path should I take as I would hate to learn and code all info for one platform and have to switch halfway to another due to limitations, price, etc... One thing I like on Thingspeak is that they charge by messages (not bytes like Grovestreams), and with a limit of 8200/day seems reasonable, but max frequency to send data is 15 sec (I guess I will have the system to read every 10 or 30 mins anyway.. what your thoughts ?

- Wifi connectivity, Chiumanfu talks a lot about issues with WIFI and arduino, has it had any advances in the last year or so? Anyone working using WIFI to connect?

-PH probes, on Chiumanfu thread is widely talked about Atlas probes, has anyone used another one? For example this one which is half the price of Atlas' and promise good quality? Any thoughts on worth trying other brands or not even bothering due to malfunctions, etc?

- Any updates on PH3, PO2, PO3 probes? I found this probe posted somewhere in this forum, has anyone checked it up?

Thanks a lot

I'm interested to follow this build. I've read a few here and advanced automation is in my future, but I'm not there yet.

I started mine out using Chiumanfu's code and decided I don't need to be nearly as advanced as his system is. I opted to leave out the pH and DO meters at least for now, as well as leaving out the ultrasonic ranger and not going to be able to configure mine on the fly like you can with his with the keypad and memory features. That greatly simplifies what I'm going to do and I was able to delete out a lot of his code. I was almost ready to deploy mine in my greenhouse but I was trying to set up the grovestreams monitoring and I've had a really hard time getting it to work. I might look in to other platforms to store the data on. As I was messing around trying to get grovestreams to work for some reason my LCD display quit working so I set it aside and haven't looked at it in two or three weeks now. Need to get back to it and get it running.

One thing I noticed with the DHT22 temp/humidity sensors is that they appear to be extremely inaccurate. I am thinking I might remove mine completely and just opt for additional DS18B20 sensors for temperature instead. The temp function of the DHT22 seems OK, but the humidity readings were terrible. I had three of them sitting side by side by side. One sensor said the humidity was like 72%, the next said it was like 65% and the next said it was 4%. Not accurate enough for what I wanted to use them for so might as well go with the DS18B20's because I think they will last longer for temp readings being waterproof (I am planning to use them for air temps as well not just water temps... I don't see a reason they shouldn't work fine for air temps. I would think eventually the DHT22's will fail from moisture being high in the greenhouse.)