SmartReef – aquarium touchscreen controller – PetsFestival 2013

Smart Reef has presented hitself to the PetsFestival Exhibition in Piacenza, Italy, in 2013 after having a media hype of several months with targeted advertising aimed at the presentation during the exhibition. And judging from what we have talked with the people,  Smart Reef has done very well.

We talked about it in fact already in May with a brief preview. But finally today it was officially presented and, before we start, we can only say that we liked, we liked it so much. As you know I am a fan of all control products for aquariums, I have had and tested many, Aquatronica, Limulus, Biotopus, Evision, Seneye Reef and many others would try. I like electronics and are a strong advocate of the integration of both worlds.

So during PetsFestival I spoke with Smart Reef project designers that have explained the peculiarities of their system. Unfortunately we could only see the graphical interface of the system and we could only guess its enormous potential but this was enough for now. Besides, the system will officially start in the last days of November and on the Smart Reef website is possible to book for having one of the first ten systems, followed personally by the authors.

The system revolves around a nothing less than spectacular GUI, hosted by a 9,7 inches tablet, that although it may seem an iPad,  in the pictures it is not… with which you really can do it all and more.

Here we can see the main page of the interface that shows the measured values ​​with a mix of values ​​taken from the internet and where we can have all the system at a glance, with indication of everything that’s going on in the aquarium, power, pumps, chiller, heating, chemical values​​, etc etc. Obviously everything are functional and running if their interfaces have been purchased and installed.

Above we see a screen on the Calcium Reactor which contains all main parameters that can be set and monitored directly by Smart Reef.

The system can include a power unit with 8 sockets, that definitely fits to most of the systems. The synergy of such a system is expressed surely if all the power cord of our aquarium equipments are connected to the system so I think that 8 outlets are quite sufficient, but sixteen would be better.

The Smart Reef then interacts with us with the incredible bonus of a huge screen, which allows us to have an eye on everything in a very clear manner, without having to deal with the abbreviations of the many small screens and we don’t need to change so many pages usually necessary to look for the one that interests us. The only problem may be to integrate a screen so “important” in a modern aquarium… where we could put? But this is a minor problem, because we keep it on our table and interact with the aquarium without having to get out of our beloved couch. In the end, better to have more options and you can choose from, rather than not to do so.

One feature that struck us most is the management of movement pumps, Smart Reef in fact told us that the system is able to handle both the Vortech that the Tunze in native mode for their controllers. We do not know how this could happen, but it’s definitely something really interesting.

Over here we see the setting menu of movement pumps, with the choice of different types of pumps, Vortech, Tunze, Koralia, or the choice of simple ON / OFF setting for uncontrolled pumps that will then operate as if Smart Reef was a simple timer.

We still see the setting of the Zeolite reactor. Complete, because it integrates in a simple interface not only the electrical and chemical data detected by the system , but because it allows you to enter a range of information very useful for our management, so we can consider Smart Reef as a complete diary of our system. Really spectacular.

Finally, a note on the price. Smart Reef has assured us that it will be, at least in the early days of marketing , a bit ‘ lower than their direct competitors. To begin on their site they ask 599 Euros for the system, that includes SmartTouch, BlueBox, SmartLab with 5 probes: 4 of temperature, to monitor the temperature in different areas of the aquarium, and a humidity/temperature probe. A great price to begin.

The SmartTouch is in fact the tablet, including Wi-Fi module and GSM, BlueBox is the control unit which is the heart of the system and the SmartLab is the form that physically connect the probes, up to 6 probes for each SmartLab. The power unit with 8 Shucko is available for an additional 180 Euros .

What about… we can not wait to get our hands on such a system because we like it and it seems very interesting. So we wish a big good luck to Smart Reef!

For more information visit the manufacturer’s website: Smart Reef