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SAFE-2020 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 1177 (2023) 012004 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/1177/1/012004

Internet of Things-based Water pH Level Monitoring for

Arowana Cultivation

A F Daru, F W Christanto *, and V Vydia

Department of Information Technology, Universitas Semarang, Indonesia.
*Corresponding author: febrian.wahyu.christanto@usm.ac.id

Abstract. The Arowana fish cultivation is a special cultivation that grows decorative fish instead
of consumption. Unlike consumption fish, Arowana fish require a strict water pH level to live
healthily. Hence, the cultivator must carefully maintain the water to prevent high acidity levels
in the aquarium. A high acid level in the water may cause severe disease or death to Arowana.
However, detecting acidity levels in the water required a particular tool, such as litmus paper.
Litmus paper provided accurate acid detection by color indication. A strip of litmus paper is
required for every aquarium to detect the acidity level. Buying many litmus papers may increase
the unnecessary cost of cultivation. This research proposed acidity level monitoring by
implementing Internet of Things technology to allow automation and remote monitoring.
According to the evaluation result, the proposed model is capable of detecting the state of the
acidity level with an accuracy of up to 100%. Besides that, the detection range of the proposed
model is almost identical to a pH meter with a percentage error of less than 1% in many acidity
levels.

1. Introduction
Fish cultivation is commonly used for breeding a specific type of fish in a lake or growing culture. By
cultivating fish, people can enjoy many benefits such as financial sources [1], preventing species
extinction, and hobbies in their spare time. However, building fish cultivation is motivated to fulfill the
market's needs. For example, Arowana is a decorative fish with bright colors and a unique mouth
structure compared to normal fish [2]. This fish is known as the king of aquariums due to its similarity
with a dragon. The popularity of this fish forces fishers to use illegal fishing practices to obtain them.
Hence, live marine assets become endangered by destructive fishing.
The use of trawlers could lead to species extinction by destroying fish habitats and ecosystems
[3] [4]. The usage of cyanide and banned chemicals are also known as destructive fishing that affects
marine lives [5] [6]. Many countermeasures have been proposed to reduce destructive practices, but it
is not enough to regrow the lost assets. Thus, Arowana fish cultivation is introduced to breed Arowana
without destroying the habitat. To build the cultivation, one must understand the requirements of
Arowana's livelihood. Arowana cultivation must follow strict specifications such as water at room
temperature (28-31℃), neural pH (6.5-8.5), oxygen in water more than 5 ppm, alkalinity around 60-100
ppm [2]. If the cultivation follows the specification, the Arowana will grow properly. The figure below
shows the optimal body length versus age in proper conditions:

Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution
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Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd 1
SAFE-2020 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 1177 (2023) 012004 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/1177/1/012004

Figure 1. Arowana's Growth Curve [2].

According to Figure 1, Arowana fish grows quickly until 12 months. After that, the growing
process slowed down steadily. However, this optimal growth process only occurs when the breeder
provides optimal cultivation habitat.
To prepare optimal conditions for Arowana cultivation, the breeder set up an oxygen pump to
increase the dissolved oxygen. To avoid high alkalinity or acidity, the breeder prepared pH paper strips
to monitor water quality. However, using pH paper strips to monitor water quality also posed problems
like an additional cost to buy the paper for every aquarium, a single usage of paper increases the amount
of trash, and the breeder must be onsite to test the water quality. Although onsite monitoring is necessary
to ensure optimal Arowana habitat, an extra trip for sudden pH monitoring becomes a hassle for the
breeder.
Unlike dissolved oxygen which does not require strict monitoring, pH monitoring must be
adequately monitored to ensure the water is within the threshold. This situation could hinder Arowana's
growth when the water is too alkaline or acidic [7]. However, the breeder did not know when this
situation occurred. Many models have been proposed to design an automatic water quality model to
reduce the breeder's workload. An open-source monitoring model made for zebrafish that utilized an
electronic-based system to read water parameters accurately. This model with ZeMo can measure
parameters for many aquarium sites [8]. The research of this model continues by adding a
microcontroller as the main processor. According to the research, the model successfully retrieves the
sensors' data through a PHP server [9].
Since most proposed models did not utilize the Internet of Things technology, the automation
process is still lacking. The next research suggested smart monitoring with IoT technology to provide
an automated process to retrieve and transfer the data to the breeders. The proposed model of the
research successfully measures the parameters along with the automation process through wireless [10].
Another study also suggested an IoT-based aquaculture monitoring and control by adding several
sensors for an accurate reading. Besides that, the proposed model is also equipped with a database to
store long-term information for the breeder. The proposed model of the research can retrieve and store
information in the database accessible through a network [11].
The most recent water quality monitoring model is equipped with IoT technology to provide
automation and low-cost monitoring solutions to monitor water quality. Unlike previous models, the
current model is controllable wirelessly through a wireless network. The published data of the model is
displayed as a web page [12].
However, some of the proposed models in the previous research posed several weaknesses that
must be improved. Besides that, most did not provide measurement accuracy when using sensors.

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SAFE-2020 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 1177 (2023) 012004 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/1177/1/012004

Uncalibrated or misconfigured sensors may retrieve inaccurate information from the aquarium. Incorrect
information may lead to additional problems like an extra cost for remeasurement and improper dosage
to neutralize the water acidity or alkalinity levels. The wrong dosage to balance the water may lead to
high acidity/alkalinity that can kill Arowana fish and the prepared habitat of the cultivation [13] [14].
The breeder must start over the cultivation process and may require an additional cost to start from
scratch. To prevent this situation, this research aims to design an accurate acidity monitoring model
based on the Internet of Things.

2. Research Method
Before initiating any experiment, this research identified the requirement for Arowana cultivation. This
research focused on Asian Arowana (Scleropages Formosus) that can be easily found in South East
Asia. The following requirement must be fulfilled to cultivate Arowana fish to ensure optimal fish
growth.

Table 1. Cultivation specifications [15].

No. Category Value
1 Temperature 29℃ - 31℃
2 pH Level 6.5 – 7.0
3 Dissolved Oxygen > 5mg/L
4 Alkaline Content 60 – 100 mg/L
5 Hardness 100 mg/L
6 Water Transparency 30 – 50 cm
7 Ammonia-N level < 1 mg/L

2.1. Model's Circuit Design

In this research, the acidity level (pH level) is the main focus of the problem. Since many factors can
change the water's acidity level, this parameter should be monitored carefully. Arowana's urine, fish
food, and other natural aspects can significantly change acidity. To monitor and report the acidity level
in the water, this research designed an IoT-based model consisting of several parts, as shown in Figure
2.

Figure 2. The proposed model design with Arduino.

The proposed model in this model consists of several parts such as 1) Arduino Uno board, 2) LCD
12x6 with IIC module, 3) Bluetooth module, 4) pH sensor module, and 5) Sensor probe. Each component
has a role where Arduino is central processing for the system. LCD with the IIC module will display
any result after data processing. Bluetooth module provides peer-to-peer connectivity between devices,
pH sensor, and its module capture acidity level from cultivation water.

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SAFE-2020 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 1177 (2023) 012004 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/1177/1/012004

2.2. Model's Monitoring Algorithm

To provide automation for monitoring and reporting mechanisms, this model is equipped with an
algorithm to retrieve, process, and display data from the sensor. The following figure shows the
algorithm of the model (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Data processing algorithm for acid monitoring.

The algorithm process of the model starts by initializing every component connected to the
mainboard. When the initialization process started, the mainboard tried connecting to a wireless network
for publishing data. Although connecting to a wireless network is optional, but recommended for remote
monitoring. After the initialization, the mainboard tries to retrieve and process the data into human-
readable information. Since the pH sensor only retrieves analogue measurements as data, then the data
must be processed properly into pH level. The formula used in the algorithm to process the data is shown
below:

5
𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒 = ( ) ∗ 𝐴𝑛𝑎𝑙𝑜𝑔𝑉𝑎𝑙
1024 (1)

(2.5 ∗ 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒)
𝑝𝐻 = 7 + ( )
0.18 (2)

The formula (1) above is used to obtain the voltage from the analog value retrieved from the
sensor. Since the voltage value does not determine the acidity level, the value is then calculated with the
second formula to obtain the pH level. If the number is below 7, then the water is acid. Meanwhile, if
the number is above 7.8, the water is alkaline. These determinations decide whether the water is acidic,
neutral, or alkaline.

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SAFE-2020 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 1177 (2023) 012004 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/1177/1/012004

2.3. Communication's Mechanism

After determining the water acidity, the model will display the result on the LCD. Any result besides
neutral will trigger the LED to light up. The model will publish this information to the Blynk server, so
the user can remotely access the information. The network topology used for direct machine-to-human
and machine-to-server communications is shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4. Model's communication mechanisms.\

This research equipped the model with online access through the Blynk server and Peer-to-Peer
Bluetooth network to provide communication to the model. With these mechanisms, the breeder can
keep everything checked.

2.4. Evaluation Process

The next step after designing the model is to evaluate the device's performance. This research used four
dip test scenarios with different acidity levels to evaluate the proposed model. These scenarios are to
make sure the detection range and the error percentage of the model. The table below describes the
evaluation scenarios:

Table 2. Evaluation scenario descriptions.

No Scenario Design Number of Tests
1 Random Water Test 10
2 Acid Water Test 10
3 Alkaline Water Test 10
4 Neutral Water Test 10

The scenarios are configured to determine the model's accuracy in each test. A smaller percentage
means good detection accuracy. Otherwise, the detection accuracy is low. The first Random Water Test
evaluates whether the algorithm is working correctly or not. The indication of this test is determined by
LED and Blynk notifications. The accuracy of the detection of this test is calculated with a confusion
matrix. The rest of the tests measure the percentage error of the detections in each testbed. To determine
the percentage error of the model, a calibrated pH meter is used as a model comparison.

3. Result and Discussion

3.1. Data Result

After the evaluation process was completed, this research obtained several evaluation data. The first
evaluation data result is shown in Table 3.

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SAFE-2020 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 1177 (2023) 012004 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/1177/1/012004

Table 3. Random test result.

LED Notification
Test pH Result
On Off Alkaline Acid
1 3.59 1 0 0 1
2 4.50 1 0 0 1
3 6.34 1 0 0 1
4 6.60 1 0 0 1
5 7.20 0 1 0 0
6 7.45 0 1 0 0
7 7.60 0 1 0 0
8 7.90 1 0 1 0
9 8.23 1 0 1 0
10 8.90 1 0 1 0

According to the random test result, the model responds appropriately to the water condition.
Whenever the model detects acid/alkaline water, it reacts by turning on the LED and sending a report
through Blynk. The table below shows the result of the confusion matrix:

Table 4. Confusion Matrix Result

Prediction
Model
P N
T 10 0
Observation
F 0 0

According to the confusion matrix, the model correctly determines the water acidity level 9 times.
However, the model incorrectly determines 7,9 as neutral water. After obtaining the matrix result, this
research can calculate the accuracy of the model with the following equations:

(𝑇𝑃 + 𝐹𝑁)
𝐴𝑐𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑦 (%) =
(𝑇𝑃 + 𝑇𝑁 + 𝐹𝑃 + 𝐹𝑁)
(10 + 0)
= (3)
(9 + 0 + 1 + 0)
10
= = 1 = 100%
10

According to the accuracy calculation, the proposed model has a detection accuracy of up to 100%
without any error, Which means that the algorithm works correctly. To evaluate the model deeper by
determining the detection range, this research compares the model with different acidity levels with a
pH meter. The figure below shows the difference between the proposed model and the pH meter. Figure
5 shows the difference between the proposed model and the pH meter in the rest of the scenarios. In the
acid water test, the gap between the model and the pH meter is 0.44%. For the neutral water test, the
gap difference is 0.83%. Lastly, the alkaline water test showed a 0.55% difference gap. All of the
evaluation results are below 1%, which is good.

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SAFE-2020 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 1177 (2023) 012004 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/1177/1/012004

Figure 5. Comparison result between model and pH meter.

These evaluations mean the proposed model has a better detection range than the pH model.
Hence, it can be concluded that the proposed model has good detection and can provide local or remote
acidity level monitoring for Arowana cultivation.

4. Conclusion
Fish cultivation is one of many ways to prevent a particular fish species from extinction. Not only to
preserve the number of species but also to fulfil the market demands, Arowana is one of many
endangered fish in South East Asia that are often hunted as decoration fish. Because of this demand,
many people start Arowana cultivation. However, creating an Arowana fish cultivation is not an easy
task to do. The breeder must properly understand this fish's habitat, especially regarding the water
conditions. Water acidity is one of many problems in cultivation that the breeder must be aware of to
help the breeder monitor the acidity level; this research proposed an Internet of Things-based acidity
monitoring. This model allows the breeder to monitor the acidity level locally or remotely. According
to the model evaluation, this model can detect acidity levels properly. Besides that, the detection range
of this model is lower than 1% compared to the pH meter.

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IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 1177 (2023) 012004 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/1177/1/012004

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