reefiris blog

It’s been great watching new testers find the site and add their tanks.  You’ve all helped find some bugs and your suggestions have been really helpful.

So what’s next?  I have been spending the last few weeks experimenting with some new ways that aquarists can share more structured information about their tanks, in order to make reefiris more useful as a research tool.  This is obviously not inline with the (current) primary feature of the site, which is tracking your tank parameters online.  So I’ve decided to shelve my experimental project for now in order to focus on polishing the current functionality.  Namely, I want the screen for manual data entry to be as easy to understand and use as possible.  This includes allowing users to edit data which they previously entered, in case of a typo for example.  I will also be implementing better error handling so in the case that a user discovers a bug, they shouldn’t see a confusing “Something went wrong” screen but instead be able to report what they were doing when the error occurred.

I will also be doing a visual pass on each page in order to make sure it looks good and works correctly in Internet Explorer.  I develop reefiris using OSX/Firefox, and it is now time to make sure the site looks good for everyone, not just me. :]

In personal news, I just accepted a postion as a Sr. Software Engineer for raptr, so unfortunately my 3 month vacation (I was laid off from Yahoo! in December) is coming to a close.  This is another reason I have decided to refocus my work, since I will have less free time to code on the site.

As always, your ideas and suggestions are always welcome on the reefiris uservoice page.  Thanks for testing!

When did I last change out my activated carbon?

That is a simple question which should have a simple answer, but for many reef keepers finding that answer means either relying on their memory or finding their tank notebook.  Since my goal with reefiris is to provide a tool to help people keep track of their tanks, providing a logbook which is simple to use fits in nicely.  To start adding notes to your tank, simple edit your tank and click on the “Notes” section.

Adding notes to your tank is easy

Simply type whatever you want and click ‘Save’. Your note will will appear both on this page, as well as your main tank page. To delete a note, simply hover over it with your mouse and click the delete icon which appears. Two features which I have planned but are not yet implemented are the ability to search your notes and creating a note for a specific date. (All notes are currently created for “now”)

So how is this a new kind of maintenance log for your tank?  Putting your logs online simply saves you from keeping a notebook near your tank, which by itself is not that important.  But another goal of mine with these notes (and everything else on reefiris) is to change the way aquarists think about and interact with data.  How many times have you seen a forum thread about an algae outbreak?  Can you guess what the first reply will ask for?  My guess is “How often do you do water changes?” or “What are your parameters?”.  It happens in every thread, and only serves to waste time; time which could be spent actually discussing the issue.  What if the answers to those questions was simply a click away?

Imagine that your tank notebook is available to be read by anyone at anytime.  I’m really looking forward to seeing how users take advantage of this.

I’m pleased to announce that I’ve added the ability to query Aquatronica controllers for data.  A user brought to my attention that I did not support querying the device via the uservoice support forum and was extremely helpful by allowing me to connect to his device in order to integrate it with the site.

Since the current implementation is based off of a single device, there may be configurations which I am not aware of and which may not work with the site.  If you add an Aquatronica controller to your tank and have issues retrieving data (especially related to redox or conductivity probes), please contact me.

thanks for your interest in testing out the site :]  if you’re curious about the “big picture”, check out the about page.

so now you are asking yourself: how can i help?

1. Setup your network-enabled controller: i currently query my own profilux unit for data, but would love to get more people doing the same
2. First Impressions: if certain pages are ambiguous or you simply don’t understand what you are supposed to do, please let me know
3. Feature feedback: if you can think of new or better ways to “keep track of your tank and share it with the world”
4. Bugs: obviously :]

the best way to contribute feedback is to use the uservoice service.  you can submit new ideas or bug reports and see what other people are also suggesting.

thanks again, and i hope you find the site useful!

I created this site around a singular vision: to automatically fetch data from my aquarium controller and store the data online.  But some parameters aren’t yet able to be measured electronically, or it is cost-prohibitive to do so.  Many parameters such as Nitrate/Phosphate, Calcium and Alkalinity are measured using test kits.  When I found myself writing down my numbers in a notebook, I knew what the next big feature of reefiris should be. :]

On the edit screen for your tank, check out the new “Parameters” section.  Simply choose what things you want to keep track of, and add as many or as few measurements as you’d like.  I plan to heavily polish this screen, but the current version should be usable enough to get your, and my, data out of notebooks and onto the web.  (Currently you are unable to delete a bad measurement if you make a mistake.  This is on my list to add)

A quick note, I’ve broken out the tank editing page to allow more details such as lighting, supplementation and circulation.  The idea here is to give aquarists their own “Tank of the Month”-esque page which they can keep updated without having to create their own web page or be selected by a commitee

Currently it simply supports free text, but in the future I hope to enable processing markup syntax such as Markdown, Textile, and BBCode.

I’m glad to announce that I’ve added the ability to fetch data from Profilux aquarium controllers.  Due to the modular design of the controller, implementing this was quite interesting.  The part I’m most excited about is my discovery mechanism; you never have to tell me what probes you are using.  My code will scan your controller and configure your account appropriately.  You can even do a manual re-scan if you add new devices via an extension port, or choose to deactivate ports which are installed but you are not monitoring.  For a live example, check out my data page.

Also, while I was at it, I added the option to convert temperature probe readings between Celsius and Fahrenheit.  The AquaController and Profilux controllers both return data in degrees Celsius, but due to the fact that I live in the US, I like my temperatures in Fahrenheit. :]

Now that Profilux support is added and my aquarium is sitting in my apartment (!), I should be back to updating the site regularly, since I’m sure I’l find more things I need in order to share my tank (and hopefully help you share yours) with the world.

reefiris has officially landed on the interweb.

after a few weeks of local development, the site is now ready for other users to check it out and start a good ol’-fashioned feedback cycle.  (you tell me what sucks, i fix it)  so feel free to poke around and try things out.  i’ve decided to go with uservoice as my main feedback gathering tool, so if you have any suggestions or complaints, click on the “feedback” button located on the right of every page.

my main priority at the moment is to get my ruby libraries for Profilux and AquaController communication working well and released into open source.  thanks to kenargo at reefcentral for letting me connect to his AC3 for testing and sharing some knowledge.  please note, I do not have a Profilux unit yet to test with, so currently they return random data for testing.  if you have a Profilux controller accessible online, i would be your best friend forever if you would let me test with it.

the site is still very rough and missing some key components that are required before it’s ready for a general audience.  off the top of my head, a major one is search.  so please bare with me while i continue to refine the look and feel of the site.

ps: follow reefiris on twitter for quick updates and news.