# Arduino Mega Aquarium Controller Shield



## cv3back (Oct 4, 2012)

Hey Everyone,

With so many people putting such great work into amazing Arduino projects, I thought it was about time we had a consolidated shield to make this more plug and play. So, after a lot of work, and with help from a lot of great people, I put together the Aqua Shield.

*FEATURES:*


PWM Pump control
IR Blaster for controlling Current Satellite LED
Room for any Atlas Scientific Embedded Circuit (pH, DO, Flow meter, etc)
RTC
I2C Field
Headers to easily plug in a digital input device (like temperature sensors!)

I made it slightly longer than an Arduino mega, and placed the BNC Connector, and the embedded circuit field in this area for 3 reasons:

1: The embedded circuit is sensative to electro magnetic interference, this isolates it as much as possible to provide the most accurate readings.
2: The BNC connector is very tall, and placing it on the new extended area of board makes it possible to stack additional shields.
3: So much extra space for activities!

Here's a picture of the current layout:


Its still a prototype, but I wanted to get an idea of how many people would be interested in possibly putting an order in and getting this made. The price will depend on how many people are interested. The more people that want one, the cheaper it gets.

So, what do you guys think?

Feel free to let me know if you guys would like to see any additional features, and I will see if i can include it in the final build.


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## Tanan (Mar 11, 2009)

Subscribed.


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## k zeller (Oct 9, 2014)

Subcribed. Very interested!!!


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## TropTrea (Jan 10, 2014)

This is interesting. I have seen many set ups used in salt water reef aquariums especially with super custom lighting configurations. But one thing that seemed to hit a lot of individuals was noise interface between various sensors this seemed to be especially true with pH sensors, some temperature sensors, tds sensors. 

On a personal bases I prefer keeping much more basic. But in multiple aquariums situations I can see a big time advantage running a more automated set up. In my case I'm going eventually to roughly 30 tanks. The biggest issue I have had in the past was monitoring temperature when I had roughly 100 tanks years ago. You never know when a heater will get stuck on or fail to heat. With an automated system if a tank went out of range it could immediately send you a warning. It would save the time of checking multiple thermometers every day. 

As far a lighting is concerned these systems can help if you want to go fancy with the lighting. You can get some fantastic sun rise and sun set effects especially when your using running multi colored LED lighting. I have heard of lightening storm effects as well as passing cloud effects created as well. Then there are those that like the moon phases added to there lighting. Not all necessary but they can create some interesting effects if your into it.


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## k zeller (Oct 9, 2014)

As I am completely illiterate when I comes to designing things with cords and plus I have a few questions? Can these be built to at least ramp multiple lights, say 3, via an ethernet cable or other, from a central location? For instance, 3 tanks, 3 different rooms, one controller located at one tank/location with cable ran to each. Maybe only one with more detail but at least the others on the same ramp schedule?


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