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Volcano and Fish Webcam Technical Information
The Environment
The aquarium has a capacity of 180 litres and has been set up for as a tropical community fish tank. The tank is populated with live plants supplimented by some artifical ones in the background. Filtration is by a Eheim Classic external pump and heating is with a 150 watt heater.
The current water temperature is
The Good Stuff
Fish Webcams
There are two Fish webcams; one a Panasonic BL-C30 pan/tilt IP web camera, the other is an Axis 221 day/night IP web camera with preset lens. Both webcams are connected to the house broadband router via wireless links and use a dynamic DNS server to maintain connection to the outside world.
The main tank light is also controlled by a digital timeswitch, this allows me to control the algae build up that would occur if the lights were left on permanently. The main tank light are controllable during the following times (GMT):
- 0000-0200
- 0600-0800
- 1100-1400
- 1700-2000
ioBridge hardware
The ioBridge system allows me to simply connect the thermcouple monitoring the water temperature and the switching to control the lighting and the burping frog so that the website is interactive. As the project develops and I get fresh ideas new features will be added.
The io-204 module is the heart of the ioBridge system; this module provides the interface between the fish tank and the outside world. A thermocouple module provides the temperature monitoring for the aquarium and room, several relay modules control the lighting and the burping action.
The latest addition to the hardware is an Arduino microprocessor board that gives me a lot of expansion capabilities, including the Fish speed trap recently installed. The arduino connects to the system via a serial communications link
for further information please contact
FishCam Website History
21/011/09 - The fish tank thermistor was over-reading so I've used the room temperature sensor in the tank.
01/06/09 - Red lined Rasbora and Rosy Barbs added to the tank.
31/05/09 - I've updated Carl the frog and installed a small sequencing LED into him so that during the dark hours there is some visual entertainment for the viewers.
30/05/09 - The website now has 1000 followers on Twitter and almost 15,000 pageviews. Thank you for the support.
26/05/09 - Fish speed trap added to the aquarium but it is still under development. The frog now has a drunken pirate skeleton to keep it company.
07/05/09 - Room temperature monitor added. Frog removed for a medical, its jaw was hurting.
05/05/09 - minor problem with the ioBridge io-204 module, for some unknown reason it locked up. A simply reboot fixed it.
04/05/09 - The fish now have their own Domains. Check out the fun at
01/05/09 - The fish now have their own Twitter chat where they can chat to you. See regular updates on the burping frog and other tank activities
26/04/09 - The dynamic dns server failed causing both cameras to stop working. I've switched one camera onto another dns server to give some redundancy to the site, if one fails at least one of the cameras will be functioning.
25/04/09 - Scrolling LED message board added. I need to do something this weekend about the reflections spoiling the view. Next phase will be to allow viewers to add their own messages
21/04/09 - a minor milestone achieved, the site has reached it's 10,000th page view. Thank you for the support.
19/04/09 - Neon Tetras, Golden Apple Snails and Plecostomus added, courtesy of an over stocked fish tank.
17/04/09 - An Eheim filter system has been installed. During the holiday a build-up of algae formed on the glass, to minimise this problem I have reduced the time the main lights are on. The ioBridge hardware is now being commissioned.
04/04/09 - The fish now have a Twitter account and comments system, you can follow their adventures on Twitter
02/04/09 - The fish tank has been cleaned out and tidied up. The website has been redone by Tom Girling to use php coding
01/04/09 - Image Capture button installed 
29/03/09 - Testing webpages for mobile phone access
Panasonic BL-C30 - p/t control no streaming
Axis 221 - MJPEG and MPEG4 with QT access
26/03/09 - I wondered why the fish were inactive this morning when I came down; the tank heater failed during the night. This has been rectified and hopely the fish will perk up. The tank temperature dropped to 18degC :( . The thermocouple probe from ioBridge would of been a godsend if I had got it installed.
24/03/09 - Main tank light fitted with electronic timer (0700-2300 GMT). Accent lighting changed from the timer to permanently on, this gives viewers something to see during the Dark hours. Air stone added for permanent aeration.
23/03/09 - Order placed for an ioBridge system to give more interaction to the webcam viewers. Due late March.
22/03/09 - Second webcam added (Axis 221), the burping frog fitted and the webpage updated.
15/03/09 - Launch Date. Tank prepared, volcano installed and water started to cycle, basic Panasonic BL-C30 pan/tilt webcam fitted. My thanks go to Tom Girling for refining and debugging the webcam code and giving me the Fishcam webpage.
Copyright 2009 K Lewis & Photosbykev. All rights reserved
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