Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Does anyone know of any digital ammonia and nitrate testing devices out there? If they aren't too pricey i could hook one up and have it dump water and pump fresh water in via a controller

I've only seen chemical tests for them timmy.

Of course, I take pride in not dumping water, too. Maybe if I had a digital nitrate tester, I could get it to increase or decrease the flow to my RSG filter.

Welcome!!

Yes, the main purpose is to try make the system super efficent. With an automated controller I could regulate the flow of water into the beds at the optimal time when ammonia is high enough to feed the bacteria yet low enough to not bother the fish, and i could cycle the water back into fish tank as soon as the nitrates were spent.
I could also save me fish kills while i'm on holidays, purging the tank and flushing clean water in if ammonia reaches a dangerous level.

If you establish your bacteria well, do not overstock the tank, and do not overfeed, there will not be ammonia spikes. I would work on getting the biology settled rather than over-engineering mechanical solutions. A regular or steady flow of water to the beds with good flood and drain will do quite well. Mother Nature will handle things well, given the chance.

Be sure to study some of the Members' Systems and get some ideas on how the different systems run.

Ok, I'm building the controller for to handle the rest of my garden as well, was just throwing idea's out there. by the looks of it they are way way too expensive anyway

I think everyone one of us has DO, pH, Nitrate, Salinity and turbidity sensors at the top of our lists.

This mob have range of stuff, but it wont be cheap. eg An electrical conductivity controller (BL 983313-0 EC & TDS minicontroller 0-1999uS 12VDC) is US$128ish. That operates a contact out when EC exceeds a preset amount. They have ph/elec conduct/temp combined with PID controllers/contacts out/RS232 interfaces for US$500ish.
I think that electrical conductivity (EC) is proportional to nitrate levels. Is this true knowledgeable people?
Joel show me a flash new nitrate level probe with LEDs showing levels which I think he said works off conductivity. I was straight away thinking of taking it apart and seeing how hard it would be to break out the signal to the LEDs and divert it to a controller (spot the engineer).
What sort of controller are you using timmy?

B2B, does the nitrate tester have an LED bar type readout, Ie green, yellow, red LEDS. If it does then you would need a simple A-D converted in before the LEDS (there would be diodes and transtors in paralell).

The probe tester has mulitple (10-12) blue LEDs 0-a units, a-b, b-c etc., so only one comes on at a time.

Aquasonic also have a range of stuff ranging from low tech thermometers with max/min to multi-probe monitors and controllers.

I'm using an AVR atmega32
They have built in a/d converters and 32 i/o ports. more then enough to control my backyard. I work out at the mines so i'm away for 8 or more days at a time, so i'd feel better knowing i had something looking after my system.
I've even found a nifty module that's basicly a mobile phone circuit board ,you put a simm in it and everything. you communicate with it via rs232, i'm thinking of rigging it so it will respond to sms and tell me what's been going on while i'm away, hell even get it to take commands via sms.

I am also in the mining caper. PLCs SCADA n stuff. Summer in Port Hedland for me

Ec's only going to be an inferred nitrate value as it will obviously register all dissolved salts.

i'm sure you could get n3 no2 and nh3 specific ion probes (look like ph probes) but trust me that any ONE of them would send you broke

LOL, you know that when all the prices require you to ask for a quote then its gonna be high! Finally found a Phosphate specific ion probe for the bargain price of $785 USD, then buy the controller for it

Yeah, i work just north of kalgoorlie, maintaining gps tracking systems and radio comms.

Look like the EC versions aren't arrcurate