Tracking application?

[christopher]

Hey there, I'm a recent addition to the Reef Sanctuary Forums. I've been building my reef aquarium for about 6 months now and one piece of advice that's become manifestly clear is "be patient." I've noticed that I wish I'd written down things that I could refer back to over time (water parameters, behaviors, additive schedules, etc)

I'm incidentally also a software developer, so from my perspective.. A portable application that would allow us to track, graph, and organize this information could be very helpful.. Especially for people who have to keep track of more than one aquarium.

In a nutshell I'm exploring the possibility of engineering an iPhone/iPad application that would make our lives a little easier by accomplishing the above. The reason I'm speaking with you fine people is so that I can get an idea of what kinds of things you would like the application to keep track of, features, etc. I think an open dialogue with the end user is important in making a system that people will find useful, so if you have a moment to jot down some ideas or criticisms, I would be grateful!

 

[Jess]

Hi christopher, welcome to RS!

Something like this you mean? iPhone application for pet fish owners

Although it doesn't do much as far as tracking goes so you could be onto something here!

 

[christopher]

Something like this you mean?

That is a sweet app! It looks is more of a remote control system for when you're away. There wouldn't be any hardware interfacing with this application; it would just be to help us keep track of things so that we can better diagnose problems or notice trends that we normally might not.

 

[Shamus]

Hi Christopher,

Welcome to RS!

Being an avid iPhone user, I would love a detailed app like this. I've only found one app that does some of these things, but it's limited. Allows you to monitor levels in different tests (a must have) but only provides an average of levels from all tests. It would be nice if this could be viewed graphically for individual parameters. There also isn't anywhere to put dosing notes in, which would be nice as well. I also wonder if it would be possible to put in a 'My tank' sort of notes in the app to allow users to maintain a record of what they have in the tank (fish and corals) and feeding schedule or events (or maybe even a Push Notification to let the user know that it's 'time to feed the fish or corals' based on a user defined feeding schedule).

 

[DaveK]

Personally, I have found the existing software application written for keeping track of aquariums far to complex and limited in scope to be worth using.

For things like this I recommend just using a spread sheet program and a word processing program. You can enter all the information you want into those, and you don't run into the limitations imposed by a software developer.

In addition, you don't even need to spend any money Open Office is free for the download time, and contains a very good spread sheet and word processor.

 

[christopher]

Shamus, These are great ideas! Really appreciate it

DaveK, That's a good point. I see a problem in imposing a "token list" of things that you would keep track of. I will make sure that we include a way to add/remove custom parameters— Otherwise it will never be adaptable enough for everybody.

 

[shelby522002]

The Iphone has apps for keeping track of water conditions, fish/coral/hitchhikers/plant types and information on them. I have them all, and they are wonderful...they have helped me dozens of times. They even have the apps for test kits.