Daniel Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 (edited) I am thinking about keeping records for my aquariums. I think I would like to track water parameters, foods fed, tank events. Maybe even miscellaneous stuff like water changes. I am leaning towards an old fashioned notebook, sort of a daily diary. But the techie in me is saying, no…not paper, go electronic like Word or Excel. I want some easy otherwise I am concerned I will not keep up with it in the long run. Edited September 13, 2020 by Daniel 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shkote Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 I used to do this on Excel years ago. A spreadsheet made it look nice and organized and easier to come back to. Then 5 tanks snowballed into 25 and I gave it up. I say go for it. It was fun while it lasted. You can always print charts to scribble on through the week, then plug data in Excel at the end of the week to keep it organized. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted July 16, 2020 Author Share Posted July 16, 2020 14 minutes ago, Lynze said: I used to do this on Excel years ago. A spreadsheet made it look nice and organized and easier to come back to. Then 5 tanks snowballed into 25 and I gave it up. I say go for it. It was fun while it lasted. You can always print charts to scribble on through the week, then plug data in Excel at the end of the week to keep it organized. I am leaning towards Excel because it is so versatile, but I am still thinking about the 'nudge' to write down what I am doing if there is a physical notebook in front of the aquarium. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveSamsell Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 I used pen & paper for logging information since day 1 in my aquariums. I like the hand-written approach, but that's just me. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan S. Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 I use aquarium note on my phone, for a free app, its pretty nice and easy to use. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted July 16, 2020 Author Share Posted July 16, 2020 8 minutes ago, Ryan S. said: I use aquarium note on my phone, for a free app, its pretty nice and easy to use. Ryan S. I will check it out. Thank you! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dublicious Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 I used a google spreadsheet for a few months... I'm bad at sticking with practices like documentation though. 😬 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon G Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 I also use the aquarium note app. I find it simple to use and the reminders very helpful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irene Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 I use Excel. It's easy to search when I can't remember what treatment I used in the past for various kinds of ailments. 🙂 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Exit31 Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 Here’s my fish journal. I like the pen & paper aspect of it, and found a cool place for the awesome stickers! Diary-like journal in the front, parameters in the back. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Ed's Aquatics Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 This is a great way to keep your aquariums looking and running the best. I quickly found out that I was doing too much/many water changes on my planted tanks and wasting ferts. I also changed the cichlids tanks to 50% water changes (usually do 33%) as nitrates were accumulating faster than I thought. Never thought math would be helpful with aquariums. But I think the tanks and fish look better since I started tracking and adjusting accordingly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Smith Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 (edited) I have used notebooks, software, and spreadsheets. I have not stuck with any of them. But I found TRELLO is free, and a great way to track multiple tanks. Here's a couple screenshots (I name my tanks after famous worlds). I can't recommend Trello enough! Bill Edited July 16, 2020 by Bill Smith 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted July 16, 2020 Author Share Posted July 16, 2020 9 minutes ago, Bill Smith said: I have used notebooks, software, and spreadsheets. I have not stuck with any of them. But I found TRELLO is free, and a great way to track multiple tanks. Here's a couple screenshots (I name my tanks after famous worlds). I can't recommend Trello enough! Bill On the advice of a friend I downloaded Trello a couple of weeks ago to keep track of our mutual machine tooling projects but I have never entered anything into it. Just reading your entries in Trello is educational in itself. Looks like the earliest entries are in February? How many tanks are you tracking with Trello? One of the cool features is that if you and I needed/wanted to share information we could do that just by one of us inviting the other into the project, right? Thanks for the tip! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Smith Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 (edited) 7 minutes ago, Daniel said: On the advice of a friend I downloaded Trello a couple of weeks ago to keep track of our mutual machine tooling projects but I have never entered anything into it. Just reading your entries in Trello is educational in itself. Looks like the earliest entries are in February? How many tanks are you tracking with Trello? One of the cool features is that if you and I needed/wanted to share information we could do that just by one of us inviting the other into the project, right? Thanks for the tip! Thanks, I just updated my photos to be easier to read (have to host them off-site to do this). I use Trello for 12 tanks and a pond. I "archive" months as the page fills up, so they do go older than February, and I can "unarchive" them when I need to revisit. This keeps it clean. Yes, you can invite external users to your board for collaborating on a project. 🙂 Edited July 16, 2020 by Bill Smith 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDukeAnumber1 Posted July 17, 2020 Share Posted July 17, 2020 I can also vouch for aquarium note. It's easy to use and has a google dive backup option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wmarian Posted July 19, 2020 Share Posted July 19, 2020 For my tanks, I use a clipboard to gather the info (one per tank) and load the info into excel until tank established. The clipboard comes.back out if testing or fish/plants indicate an issue. I tried notebooks, loved them, but they keep disappearing right when I need them and so I would miss data. Setting up the clipboard/pen with just the right columns meant I didn't move it around to get lost. Trillo looks great! I am going to check that out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tre Posted July 19, 2020 Share Posted July 19, 2020 I'm using aquarimate....You can pay for more monthly from it but it is pretty good. I wonder how it compares to Aquarium note. Exit31, I have the same journal and was thinking of putting the stickers on it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishoutawater Posted July 20, 2020 Share Posted July 20, 2020 I use aquarium note its easy to use so I actually do. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted July 20, 2020 Author Share Posted July 20, 2020 I’ve been struggling to actually write anything. I manage to write a line or two down each day, but I would like to do more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadow_Arbor Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 (edited) On 7/16/2020 at 12:36 PM, Daniel said: I am thinking about keeping records for my aquariums. I think I would like to track water parameters, foods fed, tank events. Maybe even miscellaneous stuff like water changes. I am leaning towards an old fashioned notebook, sort of a daily diary. But the techie in me is saying, no…not paper, go electronic like Word or Excel. I want some easy otherwise I am concerned I will not keep up with it in the long run. I do this for pretty much all my tanks. I write down every week the water parameters, size of water change, amount of fertilizer added and any new observations in fish behavior. Edit: I write this down in a notebook. Edited July 21, 2020 by Shadow_Arbor Forgot to add something Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KBOzzie59 Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 I'm using google sheets. I'd be up the creek if I had to read what I wrote (no I'm not a doctor). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Smith Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 (edited) 8 minutes ago, Kevin said: I'm using google sheets. I'd be up the creek if I had to read what I wrote (no I'm not a doctor). Probably one my favorite methods here, because it's so much easier to search in the past. Lack of searchability is definitely one of the limitations of a physical journal! Edited July 21, 2020 by Bill Smith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassKase Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 I also use Aquarium Note. I've found it great for keeping track of parameters with an easy image output of the log for sharing on forums and Facebook when asking for help and such. It also produces graphs and such for comparison, and if you really want to dig into the weeds and get yourself in trouble, you can add prices to track how much you've invested in a particular tank... That could be scary. Lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted July 21, 2020 Author Share Posted July 21, 2020 (edited) No, no, no on tracking prices for stuff! I have agreed with my wife to only spend $150 a month on aquarium stuff and at this point I think I have spent every months budget out to November. Edited July 27, 2020 by Daniel 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ForestJenn Posted July 23, 2020 Share Posted July 23, 2020 (edited) So I work for an environmental database software company. A couple of our modules allows users to customize collection templates and load data to a database via a mobile device. This is letting get some real world experiencing using modules that I didn't use in my consulting days and making my inner data geek happy. 🙂 Edited July 23, 2020 by ForestJenn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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