Gregcoyote
Aquarium Advice Addict
Sorry to hear Dary. Getting old sucks. But sounds like she's doing better. Our reefs have to play second fiddle every now and then. I ignored mine for about three years during its 25 year life. It hung in there and I was able to resurrect it when I felt better. I did minimal things to keep it alive, so it wasn't a disaster as the cleanup and tear down was far more work than I could have sustained then.
Remote video monitoring is something we have done in my company for decades. If I find time I will write a short tutorial and review over on my thread.
In short. If you want to actually see into the tank with good resolution, I suggest the following in importance.
Good resolution (1080p) requires a high bitrate internet connection. Your not interested in this case with the download speed, but the upload speed, as that is what your camera will use to connect with your phone or remote computer. To get good frame rates, the more the better. You need at least 1mbps to send even slow frame rate 1080p video. You can have a $10,000 camera system on a slow internet connection and have garbage. I'm on fiber so I have 800mbps upload speed available and my video looks deluxe at 10mbps. So check on your internet provider as that is the bottle neck for higher quality remote viewing.
Then you need a good internet ready camera, with pan tilt if you want to set the camera closer to the tank and still see all of it. 1080p if you have the right internet connection. 720p if your somewhat limited.
The built in IR leds used at night are worthless as they reflect and are useless. But you can buy inexpensive IR leds you can place in the over head that are invisible to the naked eye, but light the tank up fine. B&W only. Low light color camera sensors are $$$$.
Lots of cameras available and many free apps to monitor them.
Foscam makes a lot of lower cost HD cameras. They go up in cost and quality from there. The easy "no router programming" cameras are popular but sometimes a bit overpriced if you understand the network basics. They will connect you to their website that then connects you to your camera. The alternative requires some basic network skills and maybe even a "static IP address." More on that later.
Hope that was helpful, hope your mom is okay. 93? My heavens that's a accomplishment.
Remote video monitoring is something we have done in my company for decades. If I find time I will write a short tutorial and review over on my thread.
In short. If you want to actually see into the tank with good resolution, I suggest the following in importance.
Good resolution (1080p) requires a high bitrate internet connection. Your not interested in this case with the download speed, but the upload speed, as that is what your camera will use to connect with your phone or remote computer. To get good frame rates, the more the better. You need at least 1mbps to send even slow frame rate 1080p video. You can have a $10,000 camera system on a slow internet connection and have garbage. I'm on fiber so I have 800mbps upload speed available and my video looks deluxe at 10mbps. So check on your internet provider as that is the bottle neck for higher quality remote viewing.
Then you need a good internet ready camera, with pan tilt if you want to set the camera closer to the tank and still see all of it. 1080p if you have the right internet connection. 720p if your somewhat limited.
The built in IR leds used at night are worthless as they reflect and are useless. But you can buy inexpensive IR leds you can place in the over head that are invisible to the naked eye, but light the tank up fine. B&W only. Low light color camera sensors are $$$$.
Lots of cameras available and many free apps to monitor them.
Foscam makes a lot of lower cost HD cameras. They go up in cost and quality from there. The easy "no router programming" cameras are popular but sometimes a bit overpriced if you understand the network basics. They will connect you to their website that then connects you to your camera. The alternative requires some basic network skills and maybe even a "static IP address." More on that later.
Hope that was helpful, hope your mom is okay. 93? My heavens that's a accomplishment.
Last edited:
