Visual Water Quality Software

[aquacalc]

I’m working on a visual approach to aquaculture water chemistry that makes some routine tasks of recirc management and WQ training as simple as using Google Maps.

(Water chem remains a common pain-point for many RAS aquaculturists.)

A short, interactive “scrolly-telling” intro is here; and a couple blog articles that apply it are here.

I’ll welcome any critical, kick-in-the-teeth feedback on how it might be adapted for the reef community and generally made more useful.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Just one comment after a 2 minute look, but I would not assume that ammonia is the concern in a reef tank at elevated pH (as opposed to other issues such as precipitation of calcium carbonate), and I think determining what is the issue at any pH would have to be answered before one could make a map of what is good or bad.

 

[aquacalc]

Thanks for that quick feedback.

"...I would not assume that ammonia is the concern in a reef tank..."
I would expect the same.

The ammonia danger zone is included in the version in the links because it's geared toward commercial shrimp RAS, in which biomass is high and feeding is intense. As a consequence, ammonia is a critical design and management concern.

"...determining what is the issue at any pH would have to be answered before one could make a map of what is good or bad."
"...such as precipitation of calcium carbonate..."
Yes, that's why the map also displays the aragonite and calcite saturation zones. A species'/system's "Goldilocks Zone" then can be defined (in part) by the Ω (or LSI) values.

 

[Dennis Cartier]

The first benefit of this type of approach that I can think of is helping to signal invalid measurements. Often new tank owners will post about problems that contain incorrect or inaccurate measurements, and a sanity check would help to highlight that their measurement results are suspect. The classic case being a very low pH, and a elevated alk measurement. Being able to point out that 1 of the 2 measurements is most likely suspect and provide a list of steps to determine which as well as handle corner cases (E.g. poor aeration, elevated CO2, etc.)

 

[aquacalc]

…new tank owners…help to highlight that their measurement results are suspect.
Sure. The user's situation would be easier to grasp by supplementing a text explanation with a map that displays the user’s reported WQ state in relation to where it should be.

…E.g. poor aeration, elevated CO2, etc.)
I use the map to enhance certain explanations in my blog.

e.g., some aquaculturists still think that they can manage alkalinity with aeration; others don’t understand why adding bicarb doesn’t always (measurably) increase pH.

In those cases, it’s much harder to provide explanations with only words or a dive into the equations (the latter quickly lose a lot of people), but it’s pretty easy to provide a satisfying explanation with the map.

Thanks for the input, Dennis.