Fresh water aquarium instrumentation

[instrumentDan]

Good day everyone,

Ok, I have finally talked my boss into letting me set up an office aquarium. I have been trying to get my wife to let me set up another 100 gallon cicchlid tank again but we just don't have the space, nor the money (according to her - although I think I might be slowly winning her over too).

Here is how I sold it: I work for an industrial analytical instrumentation company. We measure everything from oxygen and HCN to dissolved oxygen pH and turbidity. I explained to my boss the massive amounts of measurements that were required to make a tank work and how great it would look to connect our demo equipment onto it to make those measurements. He loved the idea!

here is where I need help... So far I can think of the following measurements that can be used to make a tank function:

• pH
• Dissolved Oxygen
• Conductivity (hardness or Calcium carbonate)
• temperature (duh)
• CO2 (for the CO2 generator)
• Free chlorine
• turbidity (TSS)

that is about as far as I can get - any other suggestions?

thanks everyone

 

[epond83]

Not sure what else you have test equiment for but there are the nitrogen compounds (NH4, NO2, NO3) and also phosphates i suppose.

 

[skratikans]

Measuring the nitrogen cycle

 

[Cichlid-Man]

Nitrates, Nitrites, pH, Ammonia, Phosphates....Not sure what all you can test for. You can even go as far as testing metals and such in the water if you wanted to.

Only thing is, with a good fishtank you won't be seeing any ammonia or Nitrates except during cycle.

 

[instrumentDan]

Phosphates would be good I guess - going to have to look into to see if I can do that. We are primarily a gas analytical company (SO2, H2S, CO, CO2, O2, hydrocarbons, LEL, CEM systems, NOx, stuff llike that.
Metals would be a good one.

I understand that hopefully I will not see much of any of the Nitrates/Nitrites, etc, but even a few PPM would look cool. Perhaps I can seal off the top and measure O2 depletion? I am planning on making making a second tank for filtration (again, purely for looks since I need a good place to stick the probes which are after all industrial). I am also anticipating injecting CO2 at that point

 

[epond83]

So sounds like you are kinda looking at a sump set up. I know the saltwater guys go that way, makes it easy to set up brackets and stuff to hold the probes and give the display tank a cleaner look.

 

[Lotus]

TDS (total dissolved solids) is always a popular one. Saltwater hobbyists often test ORP, but I have to admit I don't really understand that one.

Iron and silicates perhaps. Copper shouldn't be in a tank (at any more than trace levels), but I guess you could do that.

If you were thinking of setting up an anaerobic denitrator of some kind (not too common in the hobby), you could maybe look into a hydrogen sulfide measure.

If you do lighting testing stuff, PAR might be cool.

Having some kind of setup with a bubble wall and CO2 injection on timers/switches could be useful for showing the dissolved oxygen/CO2 changes (and showing off your instruments).

 

[instrumentDan]

ORP? I am going to have to look into that - never heard of someone measuring that... Also have not heard about an anaerobic denitrator, it sounds very interesting... especially because we do sell H2S detectors... We don't do any lighting stuff unfortunately, but the DO/CO2 levels could be trended using a chart recorder.

I am planning to go with a sump style system, purely to get the most visual out of the display - I am doing a bit of investigation on sand/gravel filters which would be fun to try out.

Thanks for all your help everyone!!!