Automated Water Quality Monitoring System for Aquaponic Pond using LoRa TTGO SX1276 and Cayenne Platform

Freshwater aquaculture inland areas with a densely stocked fish pond system requires higher pond maintenance. Two factors support the success of aquaculture in densely stocked freshwater fish ponds, namely the feeding system that must be appropriate and scheduled and the water quality in the pool must be in good condition. However, the problem that often arises is the quality of pool water that is not properly monitored and requires a large amount of money if it has to use human power. This certainly affects the productivity of fish yields. In this study, a smart automation system was designed and implemented to perform water quality control in aquaponics ponds. The method that was used is controlling the oxygen content of the pond water through an aerator pump and controlling the ammonia level of the pond water by utilizing ammonia reduction by pakcoy plants in aquaponic system ponds. This system is accessed through the Cayenne website and the microcontroller used is LoRa TTGO SX1276 and the mechanical feed ejection system uses a 12 Volt DC motor. The test results showed that the use of an aquaponic system with 40 netpots of pakcoy vegetables gave a significant reduction of ammonia in aquaponic plants of 4.94 ppm in one day. From the results of testing the entire system, it can be concluded that this automatic system can help optimize the process of freshwater aquaculture.

I. Introduction

Toba Regency is one of the regencies in North Sumatra Province in Indonesia with most of the population having a livelihood as farmers and ranchers including fish cultivation. From the production data and production value of aquaculture according to the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries of Toba Regency in 2018, it produced 1474 tons of catfish, Tilapia as much as 12,716 tons and 1119 tons of carp each month [1]. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in 2020, the global population will eat 30 million tons of fish and it makes people more interested to work in the fisheries and aquaculture sector [2] [3].