Kevin Elkhoury

What will it do?
It will filter the water from a connected fish tank as well as diluting the tank. It will also have several different sensors built in to keep track of various variables in the tank. In addition we would like to add an automatic fish tank feeder with all these dhubs being connected over I2C to a Pi to make it easily expandable with more hubs. This project will aim to make a set up for people to add tools to their fish tank with two starting tools but the oppertunity for more. The first thing we are making is a sump which is a filter for a fish tank by bringing the water through multiple filtration steps and a refugium to present it to nitrifying bacteria. This sump will be equipped with a sensor box which will provide live reading to the user of key water quality information so that they can add what is neseccary. The second of these features is an automatic fish feeder which will automatically feed fish every 24 hours. Both of these devices hook up via I2C to a Rasberry Pi which acts as the main hub for these devices as well as all future possible devices to control and provide the information to the user via a UI.

What's Done Beforehand
Well, Teddy Warner is working on making a fishtank this semester, and Guillaume Teyssié made a really neat aquaponics system several years ago. I think the difference is that our project is working specifically on a filter that can be attached to different tanks. I addition we want to make it so that it is easy to add more modules for expansion in the future.

What Will We Design?
We will design the different dividers of the sump. Originally we thought to make the tank ourselves, but we did some reading that suggested that a tank made out of acrylic would be subpar and we don’t have the experience with working with glass to feel comfortable to build something out of that. We will also be designing the different boards that will be reporting back to a motherboard and housings for them. We also feel that it would be best for us to design building mounting systems for both things inside the sump and connect the sump to the tank. In addition we will also design the Fishfeeder and the UI for the devcice. To summarize we will be designing the internals of the sump, the sensor box, the fish feeder, and the UI as well as the PCBS for the Feeder and Sensor hub.

What Components and Materials will be Used and How much Will they Cost?
Click Here For the BOM.

What questions need to be answered and how will the project be evaluated?
We need to still determine the exact design of the internals and how they will be laid out as well as how to display the information. It will be evaluated if it works and does not flood the house or catch fire or break or murder an upsetting number of fish.