Hello,
Has anyone created a "smart" setup for their fishtanks, which is power loss tolerant?
TL;DR:
1. How to get notified on power loss and when power is back? (to send a fish sitter to limit damage on extensive power outage)
2. What's the best UPS solution to keep a canister filter going (Fluval 406)?
3. Brand for smart feeders, that are controlled through the app to schedule feeding and to be able to shut off feeding if there's no power.
4. Are there feeders for nano tanks? I have 5gal x2 with betta, raspboras, neons and guppies (feeder tank). I'm afraid a random feeder would dispense too much food for a nano tank. "Smart" one is preffered.
Stocking:
- 15inch pleco
- 10 inch blue texas
- 10ish "small" (2ich) jewel cichlids
- 15ish convict (up to 3 inches for now) cichlids
- Spaghettio (rope fish)
Disclaimer: I'm aware this is overstocking. Not looking for critisism. Setup will be upgraded when we buy a house in 1-2 years. I simply don't have any empty wall to have a bigger tank. Rehoming isn't an option.
Long ranbly version / Details:
Lights:
For instance, my lights are controlled by smart wall plugs, so I don't need to count the lights I've turned on to make sure I don't forget something. Everything turns on/off, depending on the amount of light/sleep it needs per day. Plugs controlled through an app that allows to have different schedules.
Filtration situation:
I left for the weekend. There was a power outage for more than 1h. The aquariums are fine (in fact, if the PC's weren't shutdown, meaning there was no power for more than 1h, we'd not notice there was a power issue), filter did kick in properly when the power returned.No major disaster happenned. It's the same Fluval 406 from the previous thread. The canister sits high right now, so on power loss, the lid doesn't fly away since it doesn't get hit by a massive huge water pressure.
I'm not fine leaving fish without filtration for the weekend in case of a major power failure. They'll probably survive a couple of days without filtration.
A foot long pleco with a 10 inch Blue texas survived almost a week without filtration in a 40 galon (Hold onto your rocks! No need to trow them! THERE WAS A SITTER checking the fishtank multiple times per day. The sitter wasn't able to detect the issue [cloudy water, smell, etc], even if the sitter has a 70 galon tank... Derp. The sitter was trained on how to detect filtration issues, but each time I have to leave my fish tank alone, there's a problem).
Currently, I can't even have a sitter due to the distance from the sitter's place to the condo. I won't hire random strangers from kraig's list to drop by, I don't have this much trust in humanity and if a person who has a fishtanks has issues detecting filter problems in my setup, a random person used to petsit furry babies will be simply useless.
I need to hook the canister up to an UPS. I can derpingly calculate which UPS is compatible with my canister and hook it up, however, I'm not the first one who'll do this, thus re-inventing the wheel is not the most productive thing ever.
Please advice, so I don't waste money/time and don't gamble with my fishie's life.
Also, having a generator is not possible, I live in 1 bedroom condo.
Feeding:
I'm fine leaving my fishtanks for the weekend. It's only 1 day without food, since can feed friday before leaving and sunday first thing upon arrival. Fish can tolerate starvation for a day or two (up to a week for cichlids, but I'm worried for my nano's [5 gal x2: Betta, raspboras, neons. Guppies in the feeder tank.]) and in fact it's a common advice to make a "starvation" day to "keep fish healthy" (which I personally don't like as a common practice, but it's okay...)
Also, I'm aware automatic feeders exist as an option for longuer absences, however, with a power outage, I'd not want to daily feed my fish. If water paramethers deteriorate, they won't eat the food. I need feeders that are "smart", to trigger a feeding from my cell and/or have the feeders trigger on schedule. Schedule is preferable.
Also, a phone app is preferable, so I can shut it off if I know power outage occured.
If I can't have smart feeders, maybe I can have 2 feeders per fish tank.
One connected to the wall. One connected to the UPS with the canister. The one from the UPS would have a schedule to trigger twice per week and the other 5 times per week.
The feeders that I see on amazon are all "daily" feeders, where u only choose the time u want your fish to be fed.
Are there feeders where u can choose the day aswell?
The idea is that if the power is out, the feeder hooked to the wall won't work, so fish won't be overfed, thus, they won't poop or the food won't rot making everything even worse if fish don't eat the food due water quality deterioration.
Also, I'm unsure how long an UPS will last in this scenario.
I saw the advice to turn it on for 5 minutes every 30 minutes to keep bacteria alive.
I'm unsure how to do this only on power outage and not constantly.
I could do it with a second canister on a "permanent" basis, but would those constant on/off burn out the filter somehow?
Also, there are multiple youtube videos suggesting a Ecotech Marine Vortech and water pumps to keep (saltwater) things alive. However, this setup would not work for me as my main source of bacteria is my canister:
- I have 1 + 1/2 compartments with the "bacteria house pellets" 1 compartment for the carbon and amonia rocks + 1/2 compartment with filter floss and 1 compartment with sponges.
- On water change, I fully drain the tank and sometimes do a "rince".
- A rince is when I drain it, fill it up and drain it again, until the amount of poop chunks is acceptable.
This is done to get rid of all the poop... my pleco has decided to grow to 15 inch after being moved from 40 gal to 70 gal. My blue texas grew aswell, I've inherited several fish(rehomed), but I kept a rope fish and have around 30 "assorted cichlids" (10ish jewels, 3 random "black&yellow striped" and around 20ish convicts... population is controlled by the Spaghettio I kept).
- I never have nitrite spikes after a "rince", tank remains cycled.
From this, it's safe to assume that all bacteria lives in the canister or I'd have major problems with my "rinces".
If my canister stops for a long time, bacteria will die and my tank will become a nitrite reactor, killing the fish.
Does a similar to the "Ecotech Marine Vortech" system exist that's focused on canisters? Something that I can just buy and don't have to figure out all the voltage / compatibility of UPS with the Canister, etc?
Maybe someone came up with an "all in one solution"? Where everything, filters, feeders, lights, are controlled through the same app? (Would be awesome, but not essential)
Is there an UPS that has the option to send notification / see powerloss in the app, so I can send a fish sitter to check on things / water change if poopoo hits the fan?
Having advice from someone who has a similar setup already in place would be greatly appreciated.
Thinking about all this all by myself is hurting my gray matter.
Phanx :3
Has anyone created a "smart" setup for their fishtanks, which is power loss tolerant?
TL;DR:
1. How to get notified on power loss and when power is back? (to send a fish sitter to limit damage on extensive power outage)
2. What's the best UPS solution to keep a canister filter going (Fluval 406)?
3. Brand for smart feeders, that are controlled through the app to schedule feeding and to be able to shut off feeding if there's no power.
4. Are there feeders for nano tanks? I have 5gal x2 with betta, raspboras, neons and guppies (feeder tank). I'm afraid a random feeder would dispense too much food for a nano tank. "Smart" one is preffered.
Stocking:
- 15inch pleco
- 10 inch blue texas
- 10ish "small" (2ich) jewel cichlids
- 15ish convict (up to 3 inches for now) cichlids
- Spaghettio (rope fish)
Disclaimer: I'm aware this is overstocking. Not looking for critisism. Setup will be upgraded when we buy a house in 1-2 years. I simply don't have any empty wall to have a bigger tank. Rehoming isn't an option.
Long ranbly version / Details:
Lights:
For instance, my lights are controlled by smart wall plugs, so I don't need to count the lights I've turned on to make sure I don't forget something. Everything turns on/off, depending on the amount of light/sleep it needs per day. Plugs controlled through an app that allows to have different schedules.
Filtration situation:
I left for the weekend. There was a power outage for more than 1h. The aquariums are fine (in fact, if the PC's weren't shutdown, meaning there was no power for more than 1h, we'd not notice there was a power issue), filter did kick in properly when the power returned.No major disaster happenned. It's the same Fluval 406 from the previous thread. The canister sits high right now, so on power loss, the lid doesn't fly away since it doesn't get hit by a massive huge water pressure.
I'm not fine leaving fish without filtration for the weekend in case of a major power failure. They'll probably survive a couple of days without filtration.
A foot long pleco with a 10 inch Blue texas survived almost a week without filtration in a 40 galon (Hold onto your rocks! No need to trow them! THERE WAS A SITTER checking the fishtank multiple times per day. The sitter wasn't able to detect the issue [cloudy water, smell, etc], even if the sitter has a 70 galon tank... Derp. The sitter was trained on how to detect filtration issues, but each time I have to leave my fish tank alone, there's a problem).
Currently, I can't even have a sitter due to the distance from the sitter's place to the condo. I won't hire random strangers from kraig's list to drop by, I don't have this much trust in humanity and if a person who has a fishtanks has issues detecting filter problems in my setup, a random person used to petsit furry babies will be simply useless.
I need to hook the canister up to an UPS. I can derpingly calculate which UPS is compatible with my canister and hook it up, however, I'm not the first one who'll do this, thus re-inventing the wheel is not the most productive thing ever.
Please advice, so I don't waste money/time and don't gamble with my fishie's life.
Also, having a generator is not possible, I live in 1 bedroom condo.
Feeding:
I'm fine leaving my fishtanks for the weekend. It's only 1 day without food, since can feed friday before leaving and sunday first thing upon arrival. Fish can tolerate starvation for a day or two (up to a week for cichlids, but I'm worried for my nano's [5 gal x2: Betta, raspboras, neons. Guppies in the feeder tank.]) and in fact it's a common advice to make a "starvation" day to "keep fish healthy" (which I personally don't like as a common practice, but it's okay...)
Also, I'm aware automatic feeders exist as an option for longuer absences, however, with a power outage, I'd not want to daily feed my fish. If water paramethers deteriorate, they won't eat the food. I need feeders that are "smart", to trigger a feeding from my cell and/or have the feeders trigger on schedule. Schedule is preferable.
Also, a phone app is preferable, so I can shut it off if I know power outage occured.
If I can't have smart feeders, maybe I can have 2 feeders per fish tank.
One connected to the wall. One connected to the UPS with the canister. The one from the UPS would have a schedule to trigger twice per week and the other 5 times per week.
The feeders that I see on amazon are all "daily" feeders, where u only choose the time u want your fish to be fed.
Are there feeders where u can choose the day aswell?
The idea is that if the power is out, the feeder hooked to the wall won't work, so fish won't be overfed, thus, they won't poop or the food won't rot making everything even worse if fish don't eat the food due water quality deterioration.
Also, I'm unsure how long an UPS will last in this scenario.
I saw the advice to turn it on for 5 minutes every 30 minutes to keep bacteria alive.
I'm unsure how to do this only on power outage and not constantly.
I could do it with a second canister on a "permanent" basis, but would those constant on/off burn out the filter somehow?
Also, there are multiple youtube videos suggesting a Ecotech Marine Vortech and water pumps to keep (saltwater) things alive. However, this setup would not work for me as my main source of bacteria is my canister:
- I have 1 + 1/2 compartments with the "bacteria house pellets" 1 compartment for the carbon and amonia rocks + 1/2 compartment with filter floss and 1 compartment with sponges.
- On water change, I fully drain the tank and sometimes do a "rince".
- A rince is when I drain it, fill it up and drain it again, until the amount of poop chunks is acceptable.
This is done to get rid of all the poop... my pleco has decided to grow to 15 inch after being moved from 40 gal to 70 gal. My blue texas grew aswell, I've inherited several fish(rehomed), but I kept a rope fish and have around 30 "assorted cichlids" (10ish jewels, 3 random "black&yellow striped" and around 20ish convicts... population is controlled by the Spaghettio I kept).
- I never have nitrite spikes after a "rince", tank remains cycled.
From this, it's safe to assume that all bacteria lives in the canister or I'd have major problems with my "rinces".
If my canister stops for a long time, bacteria will die and my tank will become a nitrite reactor, killing the fish.
Does a similar to the "Ecotech Marine Vortech" system exist that's focused on canisters? Something that I can just buy and don't have to figure out all the voltage / compatibility of UPS with the Canister, etc?
Maybe someone came up with an "all in one solution"? Where everything, filters, feeders, lights, are controlled through the same app? (Would be awesome, but not essential)
Is there an UPS that has the option to send notification / see powerloss in the app, so I can send a fish sitter to check on things / water change if poopoo hits the fan?
Having advice from someone who has a similar setup already in place would be greatly appreciated.
Thinking about all this all by myself is hurting my gray matter.
Phanx :3
