DanTheReefer’s Reef-Pi build with Leviathan

[InactiveAcct]

Finally got my Reef-Pi to a good point and thought I would share to hopefully benefit others.

My Reef-Pi currently includes:
-Temp monitor/ control / mobile alerts
-Ph monitor / mobile alerts
-Equipment control via HS300 smart outlets and one hard wired


First off, huge thanks to Ranjib and the other developers, and also Brandon for the Leviathan development. If you are really a tech junky you may enjoy soldering all of the different breadboard circuits. In my case I have a couple of littles ones and limited tinkering time. After my breadboard ph circuit would never work, I ordered leviathan and had it working within a few minutes. I also think one of the hats like leviathan will save you money when you look at all the extra parts you won’t have to buy / could potentially damage and buy several times during install.

Here’s a pic of the whole setup (ph probe not shown):

I did have some trouble where my HS300 and reef-pi seemed to want to show 2 Mac addresses to my wifi router, making the local IP addresses jump around sometimes. Not a big deal for equipment like the return pump, but a big issue when it causes failure to connect to the heater. To do this I created an $10 relay box to control just the heater. That’s shown below. Please don’t attempt if you do not know how to be safe with electrical work.

Here’s some screen shots of the reefpi measurements. Unfortunately I discovered that I need much better control of my ph.

And here’s the reef. Has been running about 18 months. Had a hard time at first, probably mostly caused by going bare bottom with dry rock. Have had a lot of growth lately. Here’s a full tank shot:

 

[Ranjib]

Looks awesome. Thank you for taking the time to share the build details with us

 

[ZaheerR]

New to the thread, looking at starting up a reef pi controller. Just wanted to enquire which raspberry pi module to get? Should I lean towards a specific model?
Thanks in advance

 

[attiland]

Pi zero will do but I am running it on PI4

 

[ZaheerR]

Pi zero will do but I am running it on PI4

Thanks so much. Will look into that. Appreciate it

 

[ZaheerR]

Pi zero will do but I am running it on PI4

Does it have to be a specific size? Eg 4gb or 8gb? As well as would the pi4 B work ?
Thanks in advance

 

[InactiveAcct]

Does it have to be a specific size? Eg 4gb or 8gb? As well as would the pi4 B work ?
Thanks in advance

You will be good with either. ReefPi software doesn’t use much ram at all and can run on the 0.5 GB Pi Zero. The only reason you might require the 8 GB version is if you are going to use it for something else with heavy graphics/ processing demands.

Just a side note, some of the circuitry in the documentation is to provide power to the Pi Zero model. The Pi 4 can be powered via the micro USB - not sure if powering via usb can cause performance issues if you’re using a lot of the high demand devices like dosing pumps.

 

[attiland]

You will be good with either. ReefPi software doesn’t use much ram at all and can run on the 0.5 GB Pi Zero. The only reason you might require the 8 GB version is if you are going to use it for something else with heavy graphics/ processing demands.

Just a side note, some of the circuitry in the documentation is to provide power to the Pi Zero model. The Pi 4 can be powered via the micro USB - not sure if powering via usb can cause performance issues if you’re using a lot of the high demand devices like dosing pumps.

Ram is something you won’t able to change later so future proof it by going just a bit higher than the mjj in minimum is a good idea.
I run it on 8
PI4 is powered via USB c. That is actually the future however it is implemented in a strange way so that port is limited in functionality.
powering via USB c is not limiting at all. Over 3A can be put trough it. Enough for all reef pi electronics require and enough to put an SSD hdd too so you are not dealing with SD card after.

 

[Ranjib]

go with pi 4 and at least 4Gb if you want desktop. If not, then pi zero W is fine. rame does not matter, anything above 512Mb (all pi have that much)

 

[ZaheerR]

go with pi 4 and at least 4Gb if you want desktop. If not, then pi zero W is fine. rame does not matter, anything above 512Mb (all pi have that much)

Thanks Ranjib. I went with the pi 4 with 4gb of ram. Looking to get the power plugs wired up and controlled via reef pi. Is there a link to that build anywhere ? Heap of info that I can't seem to go through.
Regards

 

[Schreiber]

Thanks Ranjib. I went with the pi 4 with 4gb of ram. Looking to get the power plugs wired up and controlled via reef pi. Is there a link to that build anywhere ? Heap of info that I can't seem to go through.
Regards

reef-pi Guide 2: Power Controller

This guide will walk through the build process of controlling AC equipment using an automated power strip (power controller). The power controller allows scheduled and on-demand control. Power cont...

learn.adafruit.com

 

[InactiveAcct]

Figure it’s time for an update. Has been running about 18 months, very stable for the most part. Had a brief issue with temp control with one of the software updates (think 5.0) but at least it notified me that things were heading south. Probably won’t be an early adopter for future updates though. That was 6 or so months ago, no issues since, lots of coral growth