Recent Advancement of the Sensors for Monitoring the Water Quality Parameters in Smart Fisheries Farming

Abstract

Water quality is the most critical factor affecting fish health and performance in aquaculture production systems. Fish life is mostly dependent on the water fishes live in for all their needs. Therefore, it is essential to have a clear understanding of the water quality requirements of the fish. This research discusses the critical water parameters (temperature, pH, nitrate, phosphate, calcium, magnesium, and dissolved oxygen (DO)) for fisheries and reviews the existing sensors to detect those parameters. Moreover, this paper proposes a prospective solution for smart fisheries that will help to monitor water quality factors, make decisions based on the collected data, and adapt more quickly to changing conditions.

A Custom Sensor Network for Autonomous Water Quality Assessment in Fish Farms

“…This is achieved by powering the waterlevel nodes with a 6 V solar panel and the gateway by a 30 A regulator connected to a 12 V battery and a solar panel of 80 W. Thus the described modular architecture can be used as a backbone for other projects, not only increasing the number of nodes but also their nature, communication protocols, sensor suite, power source, algorithms or network architecture. Considering the correct performance of the online dashboard and its responsive behavior, a cheaper alternative design for the network could be the integration of the gateway into the node [4,13,14]. That is to say, situating the Raspberry Pi board directly inside the node and connecting the node to the board via serial, generating an all-in-one system with a faster response time (current minimum response time is around 20 s) as the radio communication is much slower than serial.…”

“…Nevertheless, material cost is not the main cost source when dealing with open technology, but the labor cost, which is contrary to close solutions but with the advantage of customizability. Only one of the selected references (Table 1) defined its total material cost (250 USD [4]); our material cost was greater (sensor suite cost 1000 USD, IP65 certified boxes~100 USD and other components~350 USD) driven by the certified sensor suites, selected boxes and the additional functionalities (e.g., gateway, additional sensors, screen for data visualization, connectivity, etc.). Non-certified sensors or custom make sensors could be an interesting alternative to proof on concept validation but risky for real-world applications.…”

“…Water quality measurements are important in multiple domains: aquaculture, industrial applications, domestic water supply, irrigation, pollution, or environmental monitoring. Thus, there are multiple research works in the area of sensors and sensor network development for such purpose [2,4,9,[13][14][15].…”

“…Good water quality is essential to maintain a viable aquaculture production [4]. Inadequate values of physiochemical parameters such as pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen (DO), and conductivity (CD), will directly affect fish health and growth [3], and in the worst-case scenario will trigger mortality.…”

“…Recently, with the advance of technology and the worldwide establishment of the Internet of Things (IoT), multiple solutions for real-time monitoring of water quality have arisen. It is possible to find, on the one hand, high-cost robust commercial solutions usually directed to industrial applications and, on the other hand, low-cost solutions based on open technology [2,4,8,9], that usually lack adaptability or robustness for real-world applications, failing to go beyond prototype phase [10].…”