Hi! I have been looking for cost-effective/affordable sensors/probes to remotely monitor nitrite and nitrate. I have already offer from the commercial service providers which are 1000$ and beyond my budget and more necessarily not required for a small aquaponic system. I will be more interested to work on a remote nitrate monitoring system mostly as it is related to frequent water change. Please share your experiences whether with Arduino, Raspberry Pi, or any other IoT boards. Thank you.
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Unfortunately we have yet to find a reliable and cost conscious sensor that can do nitrite and nitrate. these are actually pretty important metrics and I think that it actually may be worth spending the money on these. With what I’ve seen I don’t think I would trust anything under $1,000. Maybe others have ideas?
I completely agree with you. If it is 1000$ should be ok with many if they have a sizeable farm. On top of that, I am even thinking about going for an optical sensor/probe for a better precision. Let’s see if others has any opinion.
Hey All, the importance of nitrite and nitrate levels, just as with ammonia is such that we use strip tests on a daily basis and log the results. This link is where we buy ours; https://www.amazon.com/Hach-2745425-Nitrate-Nitrite-Strips. I would not recommend remote sensors, too expensive.
I appreciate your reply. Test strips are not suitable for remote monitoring while on holidays at least. I would love to spend a thousand bucks to automate and make it more reliable. I believe we can find something or there is something already in operation. I just do not know. Let’s see.
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You actually get holidays? 
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Don’t waste your money on nitrite and nitrate sensors. Invest in good system design.
I believe DO, PH, water level, air and water pressure sensors are more important. A weekly test is sufficient for nitrite and nitrate.
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Fortunately, lol. I lost a few fishes in my last holidays due to nitrate spikes. This is why I need to find a solution to monitoring my nitrate level.
100% correct. To kill fish with nitrate (not nitrite) your #'s are very high. Reduce your fish population and fix your nitralification sub-systen, which either is not working or is sadly undersized.
Run a balanced system and you can test weekly - unnecessary, but if it makes you feel good …
I’d be interested in following this thread if someone comes across a low cost, reliable solution. Something that could work for developing countries.
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Thank you for your scientific/biological explanation. My system is running perfectly. I was actually looking/seeking technical solutions such as Arduino, raspberry pi based sensors/probes to monitor nitrite, nitrate. I already have a Temp, EC, DO, PH meter in operation. Just for peace of mind and to avoid all sorts of manual testing. Be safe and stay home if you are in the EU 
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That is what I was looking for. I found solutions to monitor nitrate with a probe that can last 240 days with regular calibration. However, it costs a fortune for backyard aquaponics for hobbyists. I hope someone would have an idea to do it.
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Nothing fancy. Self-developed android app for the moment. I am storing it with MongoDB and then plotting it in my own app. For the moment I do not have time to make it fancy.
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I have a basic pi set up with monitoring and alerts that I adapted from my days as a serious aquarist. I real-time monitor ph, tds, or, conductivity, and res. I find that in a balanced state, that these parameters are the easiest to monitor via existing probes and simple open source code in a cost-effective manner. If anything starts to hit pre-determined boundaries for normal operations (based on my historical data and gut feeling) or swings quick, I have basic alerts set for text/email/calls. ITs not perfect, but it’s a sub 200 dollar data providing early warning notification to get in and start testing and solving the issues. Id highly recommend a starting point here with even the easiest readily available multi-parameter meter from Appear (no connection) has a very insecure Bluetooth signal that goes to its native app, which can easily be routed to any type of speed sheet/database or any data logging vault and then a small amount of basic code and you have whatever alerts you got lost in my harangue of a reply; happy to assist as open to and would love better ideas and methods.
keep your elbows wet and your positivity apparent,
BQ
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i´d like to know more about that please!!
Could you tell me more specifications of the monitoring system you use please? I am trying to put it together
Hi! Is it something related to nitrate or nitrite? If yes, I would like to discuss further. This thread is related to these two important parameters.
What is a Holiday? I feel like I used to know…
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There are probes that comes with a water quality analyser (ThermoFisher Scientific) for measuring nitrite and nitrate (and a whole lot of other parameters like DO, TDS, pH, conductivity etc.). It can be hooked up to a desktop. Maybe you can make it sync up with your smartphone/device since you know your way around computer. Most interesting thing is in all the parameters I used to work with, no reagents are needed. Just filter the sample, dip the probe and you have your results. But, price maybe a problems
Just an Idea. Hope it works for you.
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