How do you "control" your reef tank?
 

I'm looking for some ideas on how to "control" my soon to be tank.

I want to automate as much as possible, e.g feeding, lighting, ATO, testing etc
Ideally I would also like to get email notification alerts (e.g ATO engaged @ 2:14pm for 20seconds)

What systems are out there that let me do this?
Anyone have these systems running with a link of pictures?

If the system keeps trending data that would be great too.

Many people use Aquarium controllers...but there is a real running debate on who makes the best system. Searching on here should get you quite a few results of the debates over controllers.

Here is a link to a site with controller reviews (details). I'm not sure how up-to-date the data is...but it should help you out with feature/functionality.

http://www.aquariumcontrollers.com/

Re: How do you "control" your reef tank?
 

I'm using a profilux 2 plus and I love it

prayers.. lots of prayers.. thats how i control my tank:)

You don't, your tank "controls" you :lol: :lol:

I'm slowly setting some my automation. Mostly DIY, mostly because I have a lot of resistors, capacitors and other electronics components lying around, though I must admit I am too lazy to do any microcontroller programming so most of the ones I am doing are pretty basic.

relying on something automated is how problems occur. observe everything and make it a routine to keep up on everything.

thats my opinion. the more technical something gets the more you will be hitting the bottle

I agree to a certain extent. As long as your still checking on things to make sure that they are working properly and that everything remains constant your good. It's makes dosing and top-ups a lot easier and consistent which is nice.

That's the thing many people think by automating everything that it just becomes set it and forget it sort of thing. The whole idea is your role as far as the work goes has become supervisory rather than being the worker. It relieves you of the tedious and time consuming work but you still have to be on top of it otherwise it will definitely malfunction at some point.

My controller is used as a safety backup as well ie the temp of my tank gets too high, lights shut down