[Reefland]

Well I don't know about idiot proof Jon but it will be user friendly and easy to use.

Bulb replacement has already been mentioned and will definitely be included. As it stands now, test results are completed (except charting but that will soon come) and I am working on the main configuration for the tank itself. At this point, the manufacturer of the tank, volume (gallons or liters), dimensions, RR or not, and whether it is a reef, FO or FOWLR is completed (most of this information is for display purposes) and the lighting information which includes all of the main types of lighting, the number of bulbs for each type, the manufacturer of the lighting and the types of bulbs (actinic, white, daylight, etc), and the wattage or length depending on the type you have. I still have to add filtration configuration screens and "gadget" configuration screens. Obviously you will be automatically directed to all of this when you first enter the log for the first time.

Once I complete all of the main cofigurations, I will then go to maintenance options which will include things like bulb change reminders, water change reminders, replace carbon, equipment cleanings and anything else that we can think of. After that, we have to work on the livestock section which will be the most demanding since we will want it feature rich.

Slowly but surely, it's getting there. Stay tuned for some more screen shots too!

Scott Z.

[love_da_ocean]

Sounds Great

[Reefland]

It is going to be great.

I am still interested in new ideas, feature requests and other thoughts folks may have. I am sure at one time or another you have thought "it would be nice if I could document this or keep track of that with my tank..."

Scott Z.

[scubadude]

Scott,
This is the most elaborate thing I have seen you do....What a great asset to the board. You are totally on a roll....Ok I have to admit I have been avoiding this thread for a few weeks because my time has been limited but today I was testing my tank and thinking, man I gotta stop using notepad on my PC or stickems....You have no idea how many stickems I have that have specs of CA, Alk etc etc...but I may have forgot to put the date or sumthing stupid like that.

I think most points have been hit on and I will use it and love it no matter how it functions im sure but I will throw in my 2 cents for ya.

Totally user freindly and configurable to noobs and advanced aquarist...if its too complex for a noob in the hobby or a noob in computers then they will be intimidated and not use it, but on the flipside if it can be configured to be pretty complex to monitor fluctuations with graphs and charts (I really like this idea) and specific chemical interactions I.E. Magnesium and CA and Alk etc then the advanced will be more interested as well. I also love the idea where user controls wether its public or private....nobody wants others to see their mistakes

I would love to see a little bit more expansion availability on Livestock additions where you have where it was purchased...Maybe have another 2-3 more levels so if say I got a frag from Zenya and it was given to Zenya from Ninong, and given to Ninong from Mntdewman...etc etc This way we can record linneage and possibly interact (provided the above users make it public) with linneages do comparisons of pics, lighting, etc etc.....We could learn SOOOOO Much through this!

AWESOME Idea!

Lemme know if you need a labrat...hehe

[Reefland]

Originally Posted by scubadude

Scott,
This is the most elaborate thing I have seen you do

I don't know if this is a compliment or not.

but today I was testing my tank and thinking, man I gotta stop using notepad on my PC or stickems....You have no idea how many stickems I have that have specs of CA, Alk etc etc...but I may have forgot to put the date or sumthing stupid like that.

This is the whole point if you ask me. I started to keep an Excel worksheet when we first started up our 75gallon tank but it bacame a hassle maintaining it. Trying to sort through the data and look at trends, it was more trouble that it was worth. I am a pretty savvy Visual Basics programmer and I consider making this worksheet more functional but then I decided if I was going to put the work into something, I wanted it to be available to everyone at Reefland.

Totally user freindly and configurable to noobs and advanced aquarist...if its too complex for a noob in the hobby or a noob in computers then they will be intimidated and not use it, but on the flipside if it can be configured to be pretty complex to monitor fluctuations with graphs and charts (I really like this idea) and specific chemical interactions I.E. Magnesium and CA and Alk etc then the advanced will be more interested as well. I also love the idea where user controls wether its public or private....nobody wants others to see their mistakes

Your totally right. My plan is to make it as simple as posting on the board with options that meet the need of people new to the hobby and veterans. The difficult part here is for me to determine how much "basic" information to provide in the log to help newcomers. Let's take water parameters for example. It is hard to set a default low and high value for salinity as my reef is going to be higher than someone elses FO tank. I think the answer is to put references next to these types of things but that will come after alpha versions of the log.

I would love to see a little bit more expansion availability on Livestock additions where you have where it was purchased...Maybe have another 2-3 more levels so if say I got a frag from Zenya and it was given to Zenya from Ninong, and given to Ninong from Mntdewman...etc etc This way we can record linneage and possibly interact (provided the above users make it public) with linneages do comparisons of pics, lighting, etc etc.....We could learn SOOOOO Much through this!

That is an awesome idea, I will have to put some thoughts into it. Hmmmm......

Lemme know if you need a labrat...hehe

Oh I will need some in a few weeks. Keep your eyes peeled as I will be looking for some testers with different tank configurations.

Thanks for the feedback Rocky!

[scubadude]

Originally Posted by Reefland

I don't know if this is a compliment or not.

Dude it was totally a compliment....Its just that most of the stuff you do are behind the scenes of upkeep of the board etc. and Its not like I get to see you in action @ amazon, I guess I just take it for granted that you do alot more that I dont see....But it was a compliment to the extreme Bro! Sorry if it seemed otherwise...after rereading it I should have used different wording....Its just that like others this log topic has gotten me excited! It is definately something that is long overdue and its so simple it makes me wonder why others havent come up with the idea. Great idea and even better follow through on this Scott. Can we call this the Reef Matrix?

Rocky

[Reefland]

Oh, I knew how to take it, I was just joking back with you.

Actually I have been looking for a name for the log, Aquarium Log is just too basic. Reef Matrix is catchy!

The reason I think we haven't seen it yet is because it is a pretty massive system that has already taken a lot of programming time and I am not even half way there. I would guess that at this point I have about 100 hours of time into it and probably around 30,000 lines of code! The second reason is thehardware resources I am guessing it will require (or hope that it will require due to bringing additional traffic to Reefland) which is why we just upgraded to this new awesome server last night!

Scott Z.

[Poseidon]

Scott this will flat out rock!!! I wouldn't be surprised to see alot of the ReefCent#$% crowd come this way, once this is up and rolling...

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by Poseidon

Scott this will flat out rock!!! I wouldn't be surprised to see alot of the ReefCent#$% crowd come this way, once this is up and rolling...

Hold on to your socks people becouse after this feature is implemented the Reefland you all knew will be no more. I forsee a mad rush of membership and I just hope that no one steals this idea becouse Scott had put enormous amount of time and resourses into this. Reefland is gonna be smoking and I personally can't wait for this to be available as I'm very tired writing everything down on a piece of paper and then looking around where I had put that darn paper two month later

Scott,

The site is smoking for me after the upgrade.Not that it was ever slow but it is really flying after this latest upgrade.Good job! You spend incredible amount of time on the links upgrade and the site itself, I hope everyone appreciates this.

[dougc]

The problem I have with any computer-based logging is that I can't do it right on the spot. It is much easier to jot the info into a notebook. Admittedly, it is harder to find the information later and you can't plot test result, but it just ends up not being worth the effort.

That being said, there might be some interesting data-mining that could be done with the aggregates of accumulated data from a lot of tanks, which would be feasible with an Internet-based system like is being contemplated here. Members could be ranked by nitrate levels, fish deaths, etc. On second thought, maybe that's not such a good idea.

[Barry N.]

I think it is a Great Idea! We have been keeping logs on our tanks for the past few years and have moved everything over to CD disk. It has been a big help to us when we change products and track the results.

[Poseidon]

Man I can't wait.... Being here (Reefland) and tinkering with my tank go hand in hand... With the ocasional Photo Shoot in between... LOL

[Reefland]

Originally Posted by dougc

The problem I have with any computer-based logging is that I can't do it right on the spot. It is much easier to jot the info into a notebook. Admittedly, it is harder to find the information later and you can't plot test result, but it just ends up not being worth the effort.

That being said, there might be some interesting data-mining that could be done with the aggregates of accumulated data from a lot of tanks, which would be feasible with an Internet-based system like is being contemplated here. Members could be ranked by nitrate levels, fish deaths, etc. On second thought, maybe that's not such a good idea.

dougc,

I understand that this will be a limiting factor, however I hope that the limitation of not being able to immediately place the data addition into an online log will be overcome by the availability and ease of analysis that can be done in our online log. For me, writing something down on a scratch pad and then entering it online will be the method.

For your second comment, I think some of this may have value. Like the ability to retrieve average ranges for the different parameters, tracking growth rates for specific fish and coral species; once the data is entered, there are lots of things that can come from it.

For an update, I am still working on the "tank configuration" side of the log. This is where a user will first be directed to enter all of the tank and equipment details from which everything else will be based from. As mentioned, the water quality data side is already completed (except for the image generating for charts) and then I'll move into livestock additions and logs. The side I am working on now has taken me longer than anticipated but I guess deadlines are made to be broken.

I am still hoping to acquire some alpha testers in mid - late Feb.

Scott Z.

[scubadude]

Originally Posted by Reefland

The side I am working on now has taken me longer than anticipated but I guess deadlines are made to be broken.

Take your time Scott we can wait as long as need be.

Originally Posted by Reefland

I am still hoping to acquire some alpha testers in mid - late Feb.

Scott Z.

Dude I told you Im so there ....Dont even need to ask me...I WANT to try it!

[Reefland]

I am in need of a little assistance from someone. If you have some spare time on a Friday evening, please PM me.

Scott Z.

[Poseidon]

Where are we Scott? I'm getting Anxious!!!

[reddhaus]

Originally Posted by dougc

The problem I have with any computer-based logging is that I can't do it right on the spot. It is much easier to jot the info into a notebook. Admittedly, it is harder to find the information later and you can't plot test result, but it just ends up not being worth the effort.

Maybe there could be some kind of printable, fill-in-the-blank type of worksheet we could use to log our information on the spot. We could then take this worksheet and enter everything into the computer at a later time.

Just a thought.


I really like this idea, Scott. Keep up the great work!

[Reefland]

Mike,

We are running behind but hey, what programming project doesn't. I have done some code cleaning to eliminate some memory leaks and have continued to refine the initial tank configuration and test result input screens. I got some great feedback from the initial testing and will look forward to doing it again real soon. Before the "grand opening", I still have to add the entire livestock section to the log but that should go a bit quicker now that most of the code is standardized.

Maybe there could be some kind of printable, fill-in-the-blank type of worksheet we could use to log our information on the spot. We could then take this worksheet and enter everything into the computer at a later time.

That is an awesome idea! I will add it to my to-do list.

Scott Z.

[Poseidon]

Okay you keep teasing me!!! Almost everytime I click NEW POST's this is on the list and it says it is REEFLAND!!! I know I know it is probably just someone voting in the poll, but I'm seriously ANXIOUS!!!

So what's the SCOOP???

[Reefland]

Vacation was the recent scoop.

The project is still in the development stage. This is a pretty large scale project and obviously, I under estimated my timing. We are now in March and I still have a long way to go; be a bit faster with an additional programmer helping out.

Anyway, hold in there with me, this project will come to life soon enough.

Scott Z.