Budget projects, home automations and things I’m curious enough to try. Get more from the equipment you own, use familiar parts and learn as you go.
Each project is labeled with its current status, from working setups to prototypes and ideas.
More useful information, more flexible control, and more life from the equipment already on the tank.
Completed GHL aggregation work brings equipment without supported APIs into Sentinel for Mac alongside Apex. Alarming and Home Assistant integration turn that shared view into useful awareness. Explore Sentinel for Mac ↗
See more of the equipment you already own.
Use Home Assistant to bring small controllers, sensors, outlets and existing aquarium systems together. Expand what the equipment can do through shared information and automations, with practical controls close to the equipment.
Build a little at a time.
Explore a small, independent controller for each Jebao SLW, SDW or SCP pump, with the option to coordinate them. This hardware project is separate from Sentinel Flow’s Home Assistant pump coordination.
Explore affordable pump hardware.
Designing a budget-friendly alkalinity monitor using pH-based measurement and titration. The project is still in the design stage; a prototype has not yet been built. Building and testing the hardware, checking repeatable measurements and writing clear build instructions are steps ahead.
Learn the measurement, not just the number.
The reef is part of a bigger system: power, temperature, air quality and the routines that make home work.
Better CO₂ awareness leads to action. This completed project uses AvidAqua Insight as a home environment data provider alongside CO₂ evacuation work. Making buildup visible helps guide ventilation and reduce excess CO₂ around the reef—turning environmental readings into practical action for the home and aquarium.
Measure before you buy a scrubber. Know your room CO₂ levels and check your aquarium’s pH before spending money on a solution. If excess CO₂ is not the problem, a scrubber may not be needed. Room readings provide context; checking how aquarium water responds to indoor versus outdoor aeration helps identify the source. More on diagnosing excess CO₂ ↗
See the buildup. Take action. Less CO₂ around the reef.
Home Assistant coordinates solar and utility power for the aquarium. I’m also refining power-flow and savings dashboards, with outage priorities and essential-load planning on the to-do list.
Make better use of available energy.
Home Assistant pauses home charging during the utility program’s peak periods and resumes afterward. Wake-up behavior, recovery and useful charging records are part of the ongoing refinements.
Let everyday routines handle the timing.
Connect room comfort, heating and cooling, aquarium temperature and CO₂-driven ventilation through Home Assistant. Climate revisions exist; the ventilation project still has hardware decisions and testing ahead.
See the house and reef together.
Explore inexpensive remote CO₂, temperature, humidity and VOC sensors, with a small desktop display. A related experiment looks at how room CO₂ and ventilation relate to aquarium pH.
Learn what the room is doing.
Some projects start with a practical frustration. Others start with “I wonder if…” Both belong here.
Explore local control and scheduling for Wemo, Shelly and Kasa outlets. Existing work needs to be brought together and checked across the actual devices before it becomes a dependable shared project.
Give familiar outlets more to do.
Print practical homes for small boards and displays: holders, faceplates, wall mounts and ventilated cases. Designs are useful starting points; real connector clearance, print quality and fit decide what works.
Finish the small practical details.
Explore useful tasks such as sorting email with a model running on my own computer. Preview the results, keep uncertain decisions visible and learn where a small local model helps.
Try useful ideas without a new subscription.
Share a practical problem, a useful observation or an idea worth exploring.