THIS is one of the BEST investment for your saltwater reef aquarium!

[revhtree]

One of the BEST investment I have purchased for my reef is my wifi camera set that I have strategically placed to monitor critical areas of my tank that I can access via a mobile device. My cameras give me a look at my sump, auto top off, frag tank, tank room and display. My cameras have literally saved me multiple times.

So I will boldly say this.

One of the BEST investment for your saltwater reef aquarium is a set of cameras to monitor your reef! CHANGE MY MIND!

1. Do you monitor your reef via cameras and do you consider it a "BEST" investment?

2. What cameras (if any) are using for others to consider?

 

[rtn]

I had a camera (using an old iPhone, a windshield mount, and a 99 cent app). It was lovely to be able to see the tank while I was away, but there's no way it's one of the BEST investments for my setup. A quality controller and useful automation is far, far more valuable to me. A camera feed can be part of the controller (at least on the Apex), but it's just one small piece of that far more valuable and critical puzzle.

 

[declanisadog]

I waste enough time on this site and others without a constant feed. No thanks...

 

[AwildcatsZ]

I recently purchased a camera to monitor my aquarium, and honestly, the only thing it gives me is peace of mind. I live in California where earthquakes are common. Luckily I do not live on a fault line, but the occasional shake happens. The camera is something I can use to ensure the tank is still standing and my apartment isn't flooded.

That being said, if I tuned into my camera and saw that something was wrong, i.e. flooding, everything died, etc, there is nothing I can do.

So yes, a camera is cool and helps me ease my mind, but I can't really do anything about those problems through the camera.

 

[Ruben's Reef]

I do have a camera to see my tank but is not the best investment for my reef. I consider the best investment a full controller like GHL, Apex etc. I have a Blink camera system that monitor my whole house but one dedicated to the tank.

 

[madweazl]

No camera now and I have no plans to use one in the future.

 

[Beepinheimer]

I definitely think that having a camera to catalogue growth is important.
But I think adding a reliable dosing pump, additional powerheads, and nicer test kits have been my best investments.
I'm bad with water changes, but stability is key (the dosing pump

and Hanna checkers have made this so much easier) That combined with the additional flow from the new pumps has really caused a huge spike in growth that can be noticed almost every day.

 

[menglish]

I have been playing with a Wzye cam. it is only $20-30 depending on which one you have.
It is certainly worth looking at. has an IR lens, live feed, store image/video in the cloud, detect motion and can even send txt alters with motion and sound is detected.
one version can Pan/Tilt

 

[RalphTech]

I use my tank camera to see how the fish are doing during the day. I have the feeder timer set and view the inhabitants when feeding to check if there's any aggression.

 

[jordan10]

I think it was a good investment but not the best I like it for when I am at work I can check on the tank to see how it all looks

 

[hotdrop]

Hanna Alk tester by far best money spent. It’s the only reliable consistent way to test alk. Honestly I’d take a microphone before a camera, unless you have it setup and filtered just right to take excellent photos and that seems to cost serious money.

 

[Montiman]

I would say it is an amazing investment because of the price. I also have an APEX but the apex cost $500-$1000. My foscam was $50 and sometimes gives me more peace of mind than the APEX. I have had everything STN or break out in Ich and the APEX wouldn't notify me. So yes a controller is better but for $50 the value of the camera is incredible.

When I am out of town on business I leave the tank with my wife. She knows nothing about reefing. If fish or coral were behaving strangely she wouldn't be able to let me know. I have had times where a large coral fell face first in the sand and I could call and ask her to stand it up but she wouldn't have known otherwise. No controller could tell me that.

 

[Emerson]

"Best" is a strong word. I think "Good"or even 'Very Good" would be more appropriate (sorry, am I splitting hairs? Maybe). My best investment to monitor my tank is definitely the Apex. That gives me critical information and notifications immediately, i.e. temp/salinity/ph variations, power outages, water leaks. That said, I do like the wifi camera I set up to look at the tank and sump so I can see if it's taking air, sump level, ATO level if I'm out of town. If you can't afford or stomach a monitor, a strategically placed camera is a pretty good alternative.

 

[Greybeard]

I got a thing about network connected cameras (and microphones) in my home.

No, thanks.

My aquarium is in my living room. No chance I'm going to put a network connected camera in my living room.

I work from home... seldom ever leave the house. If I want to look at my aquarium, I'll get up and go look at it. No electronic surveillance required.

 

[Icylder]

I have been playing with a Wzye cam. it is only $20-30 depending on which one you have.
It is certainly worth looking at. has an IR lens, live feed, store image/video in the cloud, detect motion and can even send txt alters with motion and sound is detected.
one version can Pan/Tilt

I just got one of these too! They are surprisingly nice for what you have to pay

 

[Brian Kennedy]

No, but I am putting a camera on the tank when the new security camera system is installed next week!

 

[Mark Novack]

Hands down, my best investment was two 300liter barrels. But I can see a camera being really nice!

 

[soter]

Yes! The best investment to me, I see in real time what happened with my tank and why my fishes are to fat and my nitrates too high.

wife overfeeding my fish tank ;Dead

 

[AquAttila]

Hmm ... not sure if I would say it is the BEST investment. I can think of a lot more things (i.e. Apex), but if you're going away on a longer trip, vacation, etc. yup, I think it is a well worth investment!

 

[tony'stank]

Good not necessarily best. I have taken 2 two week vacations. The first time I set up a larger ATO reservoir but it wasn’t big enough. When I looked at the tank while in Denali , AK I saw that there were a lot of bubbles in the tank and the ATO reservoir was near empty. I called my brothers-in-law (not a reefer) and had him buy 5 gallons of distilled water and he refilled the reservoir while I watched. The second vacation nothing was wrong, but I had piece of mind while cruising the Caribbean