Aquaponics Monitoring & Automation
Continuous monitoring of every signal that keeps fish and plants alive — pH, dissolved oxygen, EC, ammonia, water temp — with threshold alerts that fire before the nitrogen cycle crashes the system.
Plant-only hydroponics? See the hydroponics page.
The Problem
Water chemistry drifts cascade fast
Aquaponics couples fish and plants through a shared nitrogen cycle. A pH crash, dissolved-oxygen drop, or ammonia spike can kill both populations in hours.
Manual pH + DO + ammonia testing is hours per week
Reagent test kits, paper logs, and trips to the system replace what should be continuous in-line probes — and produce gaps overnight when the system is unsupervised.
No remote visibility into fish room temperature or aerator state
A failed aerator is a silent emergency — fish suffocate within hours. Without a remote dashboard you only find out when you walk into the room.
No audit trail for organic / aquaculture inspectors
Commercial aquaponics operations need continuous records of water quality, feeding schedule, and harvest conditions for organic certification + aquaculture compliance.
How LoopString Solves It
Continuous probe monitoring on the edge
Pi-side reads pH, EC, dissolved oxygen, water temp, ambient T+RH, and ammonia/nitrate at user-set intervals. Threshold logic runs locally — alerts fire even if the cloud is unreachable.
Cross-coupled dashboard for fish + plant zones
See fish tank temperature, dissolved O₂, ammonia, and pH next to grow-bed nutrient EC and water temp on one screen. Sparkline trends make a drifting nitrogen cycle obvious.
Threshold + anomaly alerts on life-critical signals
Configure narrow alert windows for dissolved oxygen and pH — the two signals most likely to kill the system. Alert escalation chains wake the right person at 2am.
Continuous water-quality records for certification
Every reading is logged with a timestamp and exportable as a PDF report — useful for organic certification, USDA aquaculture compliance, and traceability for live-fish sales.
Built for these aquaponics operators
Tilapia + leafy-green systems
Classic warmwater aquaponics — tilapia, lettuce, basil, herbs — needing pH 6.5–7.0, DO > 5 mg/L, and temp 24–28 °C.
Trout + cold-water aquaponics
Coldwater rainbow trout systems with stricter DO + temperature windows; mistakes are unforgiving.
Backyard + classroom aquaponics
Single-tank educational systems — start free, monitor remotely, learn the nitrogen cycle from real data.
Commercial integrated aqua-agro
Multi-tank, multi-bed commercial operations with grow-bed flush cycles, fish feeder timing, and harvest logs.
IBC tote / media-bed builds
DIY backyard-scale builds need the same monitoring discipline as commercial — just at smaller probe count.
University + research systems
Per-tank environmental logs with calibration tracking — required for publishable aquaponics research.
Hardware You'll Use
DS18B20
Waterproof temperature probe for fish + grow-bed water
1-WirepH probe + ADC
Continuous water pH monitoring with calibration support
AnalogDissolved-O₂ probe
Critical fish-life signal — narrow alert window
AnalogEC/TDS probe
Nutrient cycling indicator across grow beds
Analog
Ready to watch every tank and grow bed?
Start free — no credit card required.