UnexpectedGuest

The Profilux is mine \o/
So, instead of choosing a Profilux 4 for my two aquariums, I finally bought two Profilux Mini WiFi: it's cheaper and I won't have cables running all over my living room.


For the moment, I have installed only one and here are my first impressions:

• The network configuration of the Profilux Mini is quite painful. Yes, I, the man who juggles with IP and subnets, suffered. The Android application forgot to be user friendly and only those who paid for their box will go through with it. Veni, vidi, vici, passus sum.
• Of course, the pH probe has to be calibrated, and reference liquids are not provided. I still haven't figured out how to display the measurement history but I'm still looking, I hope I'm less stupid than the average person.
• The measurement status display portal is accessible via http on the local server of the Profilux Mini and on the myGHL portal.
  
  But in both cases ... no REST API of course. So I'll have to parse the web page like a pig, and the naughty one weighs 13MB . Who said optimization?
• Let's say that the pH probe (after manual calibration) is much more accurate than the 10€ one on Amazon. So my water finally has a pH of 8.13 instead of the 8.8 previously measured. Not very serious, it's in the minimum but still acceptable values for a Tanganyika biotope.
  
  So now I'm going to play with my friends curl, grep and awk to find my hidden pH and temperature values in my web page.
  And only when it's working I'll be able to insert all this inside my beautiful Banana Pi dashboard.
  As we say in French j'ai du pain sur la planche, which could be translated into I have a lot of work to do.
  Stay healthy, stay happy :)

I hadn't planned to write a post about my Cichlids today, but after hours spent trying to get Tortoise Git to work with my Synology Git server (with relative success), I'm getting my mind off it.
So a little word about the inhabitants of my Tanganyika tank (2m/6.6ft length, 1000l/220gal), after all, this quest for the ultimate pH and always clean water is for them. Yes, my tank is supposed to be a geographical one, but you will see below that I took some liberties with this rule. Shhh.
So, what's swimming in that big tank?

Neolamprologus Leleupi (about 10)
The ones I thought were bright yellow before visualizing them next to the Caeruleus, so they are rather orange after all. Lively, peaceful, pleasant hosts even if no visible reproduction for the moment.

Neolamprologus Multifasciatus (8)
The little one who loves snail shells! (even if I only provide him with snail shells from Bourgogne. And even if I am French, I will never eat such a thing). They may be scrappy, but these fish are finally too small compared to the other species in my tank, it's my fault I thought that my ground surface would be sufficient so that they could reserve a space for themselves. This is more or less true, but they remain confined around three shells in a corner. This is my alibi to buy another aquarium for them in which they will be comfortable :) Some fry still managed to survive, but I could never catch them, my tank is too deep (or I have too short arms).

Julidochromis Regani (about 20)
Discreet, they often reproduce and I have already counted at least three litters of which five or six fry have managed to exceed the critical size.

Cyphotilapia Gibberosa (4)
They are theoretically a male and three females, though it's too early to say because they are too young to reproduce, even if they are already a nice size. And later, nobody will bother them :)

There are also intruders in my tank, in the sense that they do not come from Tanganyika :

Labidochromis Caeruleus (about 30)
It is also an African Cichlid, but it comes from Lake Malawi, so it is very close to its cousins from Lake Tanganyika. These Yellow Labs breed like rabbits in my home, the eight adults have given birth to more than twenty fry that have survived beyond the centimeter. They are very active, even ... boring with the others. A real Mbuna after all, I can't say I wasn't aware of it.

Ancistrus Dolichopterus (about 15)
They're ugly, but I like them. And they took advantage of a pH of around 7 when they arrived to make a dozen fry that grew well. Yes, that's a lot of people ...

As an unexpected consequence of all these Cichlids in front of my dining table, I've never eaten so much shrimp. I buy some every week, and it's always the same ritual: one for the cat, one for the fish, and the rest for me. Do you like shrimp? Raise Cichlids.

Next time I'll talk about my water pumps. Yes, you really have to be an aquarium lover to enjoy reading posts like this :)

For a Cichlids aquarium, one should change at least half of the water every month, because those fish do not tolerate nitrites at all. Have you ever lugged 500 liters of dirty water in a bucket and then 500 liters of clean water, without getting sciatica and without wetting the entire floor of the house? To change the water manually, you must really love your fish ... or have a small aquarium. However, Cichlids hate nitrite-laden water as much as they love large aquariums.
The solution? Automate the water change with a drip system. Not only is it autonomous (no more buckets, pipes and floods), but the change is continuous and smooth, which does not cause an abrupt change in the water composition. The only condition is to have a drinking water inlet and a waste water outlet close to the aquarium.

Phase 1, the easiest, bring clean water to the aquarium.
To avoid putting chlorinated water in the aquarium, one should let it rest for a few hours so that the chlorine evaporates, and moreover it allows the water to to reach room temperature. For this, I use ... a toilet flush placed above the surface of the aquarium so that gravity works for me. Yes, it's not very sexy, it's of course to hide in a nearby room, but it works very well and it's a reliable and cheap device. From the flush comes a hose that brings the water into the aquarium (a hose used for air pumps is perfect, cheap, flexible, transparent). Then we control the water flow with an air valve, yes the same one used for air pumps. A drop of water being about 0.05ml, and knowing the volume of water to change in a month, I won't insult you by explaining the rule of three, we then adjust the air valve (that became a water valve, life is change) to set the desired number of drops per minute. For example, in my case with a flow rate of 200 drops per minute I change about 430 liters per month. Without water on the floor or back pain.

Phase 2, we now have to evacuate the excess water otherwise we will have a little problem...
Here the idea is to put next to the aquarium an expansion vase that will evacuate the overflow, and that's where it's magic, without piercing the glass of the aquarium :)
A drawing being better than a big speech, here's the principle:

For this expansion tank I used pieces of PVC pipes, the ones sold for water drains. Do not forget to be able to adjust the vertical position of the expansion tank to adjust the water level in the aquarium. Under the expansion tank a pipe brings the dirty water to your waste water outlet (or to your plants, did you say aquaponics?).

Now you can enjoy two magical effects: the water is changed automatically, and from time to time (preferably when you have guests at the table), everyone hears the sound of a flushing water tank filling up when no one is at the toilet, effect 100% guaranteed.

My system has no more secrets for you, it's up to you now.
(and yes, my diagram is not very sexy, but it's been drawn with love™)