Aquarium Software Review

note: click on pictures to load full-size animated sequence
Since aquarium hobby popularity rises each and every day due to various reasons (web talk, easier knowledge access, equipment availability, lower costs, increasing curiosity etc.) and as new technologies mature in their own way, it is "natural" to witness the inevitable fusion of these two worlds. Today I'll cover various software tools currently available for an average or advanced aquarium hobbyists.

FishKeeper
Something as a courtesy, I'll start my review with FishKeeper, simple example that reminds many of us how software looked one or two decades ago (no flashy graphics and bloated options, just a core industrial functionality). This tool even today has almost everything you'll need to keep track of events in you aquarium. Alas, navigating through these menus is very tiresome and this alone could be the very reason to avoid it. Other then this, it is ok, especially if you consider it's manufacturing date.



AquaLog
AquaLog is somewhat newer tool then a previous example and from the first look that becomes obvious. It is, in a way, just a little better organized Notepad with columns, nothing exciting about it, but it does look simple and descriptive. It has simple reminder of upcomming events (like filter cleaning or water changes), which alerts you at program startup. Considering it's price (free!), can I complain?



Aquarix
Now, Aquarix is a completely different beast then two previous entries. This software is around for many years, and since it survived the influence of time, it has evolved to an extremely versitile tool. It has many advanced options like tracking complete aquarium cost including electricity and water bills with automatic calculation (but, it has a flow I'll describe in a minute), many usefull tools (calculators) and graphical representation of all measured or calculated data. I want one copy, thank you very much!

From the screenshots (click to load animated .gifs) you can see that user has a vast variety of options, including units customisation, behaviour of some functions, up to customizing colours of different parameters. As if nothing is missing!

Since there is a beta trial available, there is no need for an in-depth review, go and try it by yourself. I'll note that calculating power consumption is a bit unrealistic (not so precise), for e.g., heater does not work all the time because it only maintains water temperature (so it is very hard to predict how much power this device acctually spends). But, to stop picking hairs, I'll stop here. Great thing is that several calculators are additionally included in a dedicated sub-menu like CO2 bubble counter, CO2-pH-KH table, water mixing with various temperatures etc. Nothing you cannot find with Google (read more below), but graphical representation with sliders is very convinient in contrast to common fill-in blank fields and formulas! I would like to see more of these tools in the future versions.

One of the greatest features of Aquarix tool is it's own database (demo comes with restricted version) that contains about 1200 most popular fish, plant and invertebrae species. Of course, you can add your own and make it more complete. Still, many pictures in the demo version are missing.

In one word, if you are in a need for a detailed logging tool with extremely detailed data inputs (including fish and equipment cost) then stop looking and try Aquarix. You will be surprised, since hardly there is a competition out there.


Other software:
There are several other programs I simply couldn't review because either there is no trial version or I could not register to download it. AquarioGuest and Aquarien-Planer are these examples.

Of course, I will mention free Chuck's Planted Aquarium Calculator that helps you mix your own plant fertilizers powders, but I won't review it since it is very well known tool to aquatic community. Also, there are several very interesting web calculator tools here The AquaTools including a 3D aid in your future aquarium design. Also, UK magazine Practical Fishkeeping has a massive range of availabale calculators. Please note, as with any of these calculators, take the results with a grain of salt.

At the end, for many hobbyists simple Notepad or Google/OpenOffice/Excel spreadsheet logging can be more than enough. Point here is, you should not spent too much time editing entries in software while your aquarium needs maintenace or just a relaxing look...