OrcaTank is a self-contained aquarium controller in two parts: a main unit that clips over the rim and watches the tank, and an LED Driver 4 that dims four light channels. Lights, filter, heater and CO2 on smart schedules β with temperature, light and leak sensing watching over your fish. No cloud needed. No subscriptions. You open it in a browser.
Meet the units How it worksThe main unit does the thinking and the sensing. The LED Driver does the light. They find each other over WiFi β and each keeps running on its own if the other is away.
Sits above the water on the rim of the tank. Runs the schedules, the thermostat, the CO2 controller and the care plan; drives up to eight smart sockets; watches water and room temperature, light, humidity, CO2, water level, leaks β and smell.
Four independent PWM channels for your light β cold white, warm white, and the red and blue accents. Minute-smooth sunrise and sunset, drifting clouds, storms and moonlight. Paired to the main unit it mirrors the tank's light plan; alone it runs its own.
White, blue, green and red on separate dimmers, each with its own hour-by-hour map. Minute-smooth sunrise and sunset, drifting clouds, moonlight — a full sky, on a schedule.
Record what a healthy tank smells like. A BME690 watches for drift and warns you when something is going wrong — usually days before the water looks any different.
Regulate a solenoid to a dissolved-ppm target with a hard overdose ceiling, plus a warning when the valve runs without moving the reading — your cylinder is empty.
Match the tank to a famous wild biotope — Lake Malawi, the Amazon, Lake Tanganyika and dozens more. The unit works out that place’s real seasonal day-length, water temperature and light, keeps it inside a fish-safe band, and drives the light and heater to follow the seasons. Shift it to your own timezone so midday lands when you want it.
Filter, light, heater, CO₂, air pump — each on its own program: timers, duty cycles or a real thermostat. Overrides last until the next scheduled change.
Two waterproof probes in the tank, air temperature and humidity in the room, live outdoor weather on the dashboard — with 7 days of charted history.
Set low and high limits for water temperature and light. The moment your tank drifts out of its comfort zone, the dashboard turns amber and tells you why.
A floor probe catches a leak and a float switch catches a falling level — both cut the sockets you've flagged before the heater ever runs dry.
Feeding, fertilizing, water changes — on a schedule with gentle reminders, dose logging and a 14-day care score. Plus a living inventory of your fish and plants.
Everything runs on the device β your data stays on your tank and it keeps working with the internet down. Going online is optional and adds the extras: one-tap updates, e-mail alerts, and more to come.
Four dimmable channels — white, blue, green and red — each with its own map for every hour. The controller interpolates by the minute, so dawn arrives as a gradient rather than a switch. Clouds drift across on a slow random walk that only ever dims.
Record what your tank smells like when it's healthy. The shaded band is that baseline — a gas signature outside it for five sustained minutes raises the alarm. A dying shrimp behind the hardscape reads long before the water clouds.
A thermostat for your solenoid. Green is the target band; the red line is a hard ceiling that shuts the valve whatever the schedule says — because a stuck solenoid gasses the tank at 3 a.m. Injecting for 45 minutes without moving the reading calls out an empty cylinder.
Setpoint 25.0 °C, hysteresis ±0.3. The trace rides between the dashed limits and the heater follows it — the control loop made visible, never chattering. A probe that stops answering fails the heater to off, never on.
The playhead is the same clock driving everything above. The filter holds steady, the light follows the photoperiod, CO₂ leads the lights by an hour and the heater cycles on demand.
A manual override lasts exactly until the next scheduled change, then hands control back — no forgotten switches.
Not a mockup β captured live from a running tank, fish and all. The entire app in one scroll: temperatures and weather, a week of charts, socket timelines and controls, the care planner, feeding score and even the fish themselves. Tap it for full resolution.
OrcaTank broadcasts its own WiFi just for its eight smart sockets β they pair automatically, no router configuration needed.
Temperature probes into the water, leak probe on the floor, light sensor by the tank. Sensors are detected the moment you connect them.
Visit orcatank.local from any phone or laptop on your home WiFi. Name your tank, set the schedules, done β it runs itself from here.
Still in development β not shipping yet. When they arrive, any OrcaTank works with them: buy the add-on, download a software update to the main unit, and it shows up in the dashboard. No new controller, ever.
Four peristaltic channels dose fertilisers, trace elements and buffers on the same schedule as everything else β accurate to 0.2 ml, from 0.6 up to 20 ml per dose. Hands-off ferts, every day.
Three flat probes watch the places water actually escapes β under the filter, under the tank and on the floor. The moment one gets wet, OrcaTank raises the alarm and can cut the sockets.
Open hardware spirit, no accounts, no lock-in β just a calm dashboard and fish that thrive.
See what it does