One thing that is almost essential for these planted tanks is CO2. Over the years people in the hobby have found many ways to make co2, and now the best way to do it is to purchase a CO2 tank which can cost anywhere from $50-$200, and a CO2 regulator and solenoid... What these pieces of equipment do is regulate the amount of CO2 going into the tank. You can set them on a timer and it will go on at a certain time, off at a certain time, etc, and will control the amount of co2 injected into the tank. The solenoid goes onto an adapter which goes onto the tank. You then have a line that goes from the solenoid to the tank and it outputs the Co2 gas, and regulates it.
The reason the co2 amount MUST be regulated is because if you just keep the co2 running 24/7, yes, your plants will look amazing, but all the fish will die of co2 poisoning. A good regulator and solenoid can cost upwards of a couple hundred dollars. Essentially for a good co2 system it will cost almost $400-$500. I know there is a better, cheaper, and more efficient way to regulate the Co2 going into the tank. I am wondering, does the raspberry pi (or other models) have any capability to regulate gas or pressure? I'm sure there is some way to attach a valve that can be opened or closed from the circutboard which in return will open up the line letting gas out. Could it be controlled by a chip on the pi board? Again, I've never owned one but I have an idea of what you can do with them. Still unsure. Would you be able to write a program that counts a 24 hour clock and you can have it do a command like "valveOpen: 0600" and then "valveClose 1400"? Again I need some help and guidance here.
What would the best model be for me to try this on? Would this even work? Thanks so so sOOOOO much
-John
