LoRa based Smart System for Remote Monitoring and Controlling of Aquaculture

Water Parameters

1* 3
Iniyan Arasu N 𝑀 , Subha Rani S 2, Raswin Geoffery G 𝐾

1
Department of ECE, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore-641004;
2
Professor, Department of ECE, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore-641004;
3
Tamilnadu Dr. Jayalalithaa Fisheries University, Nagapattinam-611002;
*Department of ECE, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore-641004,

Abstract
Aquaculture farming has been one of the major sources of income in India. A
considerable amount of population is involved in fish farming for both in-house usage
and exportation. Potential for fish farm keeps growing as a result of increasing
population of India. The primary factor that influences a successful aquaculture is its
water quality. Parameters like dissolved oxygen, pH, temperature, concentration of
ammonia and dissolved nitrates level are very vital and determines the quality of the
aquaculture pond water. These variable parameters should be maintained at optimum
level for high water quality which reduces the mortality rate and increasing the growth
of the fishes thereby automatically increasing the harvesting quantity and quality.
Wireless sensors are positioned permanently in the fish pond to monitor these critical
parameters continuously and the acquired data from the wireless sensor module are
sent to the cloud with the help of Dragon LoRaST IoT gateway module. From the cloud
the farmer can retrieve the data in his mobile phone being at any part of the globe
which makes it a remotely monitoring and controlling aquaculture system.
The sensors are powered by solar cell rechargeable batteries and the communication of
sensor module and LoRaST IoT Gateway module is done by using LoRa technology
whose transmission range is around 10 to 15 km. This work is aimed to help fish
farmers increase the productivity and maintain high quality disease free aquaculture
products. This situation in effect increases economic benefit for the nation and
aquaculture, consumer confidence and safety while reducing labor cost and energy
consumption which in hand increases the overall income of the farmers.

Keywords:Wireless Sensor Networks, IoT, LoRa, Sensors, Water parameters, Remote

monitoring and controlling system, Aquaculture, Automated Fish Farming.

1. Introduction

In India, fishing is one of the major revenue generating industry in its coastal
areas. The production of aquaculture in India has escalated to over 13 times in the last 5
decades [1]. Next to China, the country is the second largest in annual fish production [2].
It has been estimated that globally in order to meet the current level of per capita
consumption in 2030 a surplus of 27 million tones has to be produced with respect to the
growing population [3]. Due to over fishing the natural fisheries have been depleted and
this has been compromised by commercial aquaculture. There are three sectors that
contribute to aquaculture namely freshwater aquaculture, brackish water aquaculture and
marine aquaculture depending on the area. In all these three sectors, fish productivity is
determined by water quality. Normally fishes depend exclusively on water to live, eat,
grow and perform other bodily functions. Therefore, it is no surprise that the success of a
fish farming establishment lies largely on its water quality. Poor quality of water can lead
to the production of diseased fishes and also has a high fish mortality rate. In order to
ensure good quality fish production and to minimize fish mortality the parameters that
govern the water quality has to be periodically monitored. The variables that contribute to
water quality are temperature, pH, turbidity, alkalinity, concentration of ammonia, nitrites,
nitrates and salts [4]. The various quantities and their tolerable limits are given in Table 1
[5].

Table.1: Water quality variables with tolerable range

S.No Water quality variables Tolerable range

1 Temperature 21ºC – 33 ºC

2 pH 7.5 -8.5

3 Dissolved oxygen 4-10 mg/L

4 Ammonia 0-0.1 ppm

5 Salt 0-2 ppt

6 Nitrates (NO2) 0-0.3 ppm

7 Carbonates (CO32-) 20-40 ppm

8 Bicarbonates (HCO3-) 150-500 ppm

9 Hydrogen sulphide (H2S) 0-0.4 ppm

Of these, the most vital parameters are dissolved oxygen, pH and temperature.
Currently fish farmers depend on manual monitoring of therafore stated vitals. This
method proves to be erroneous and consumes a lot of time. In addition, the commercial
aquaculture is facing numerous challenges to maintain water quality due to erratic climatic
conditions. To overcome these glitches, IoT came into play which employs sensors that
continuously acquires data from the fish farm and a communication device that transmits
the data to the farmers.

Various wireless technologies have been implemented for the transmission of data
depending on the pond size. For short range transmission the first wireless technology
employed was Bluetooth, IEEE 802.15.1. which operates at 2.4 to 2.48 GHz ISM band
[6]. This technology had a great deal of limitations and a very small range of only a few
meters. This technology was succeeded by ZigBee protocol that has advantages like high
reliability, high transmission speed, low cost and low power. This technology was
employed in remote fish aquaculture where the system consisted of a remote platform for
data acquisition and a network surveillance to communicate with mobile devices. The
parameters monitored in this system were dissolved oxygen and temperature [7].
Water quality remote monitoring system using CDMA service combined with IP
sec-based virtual private network (VPN) function was developed by Li et al. China, for
constructing a wireless sensing network in countrywide scale. Integrated with a
forecasting model on the basis of artificial neural networks (ANN), the system was able to
provide real-time information and the dynamical trend of the water quality at different
monitoring sites. The collected data can be accessed and analyzed any time via Internet to
determine the status and make necessary changes to the fish farm [8].

Some water pollutants can cause widespread damage to aqua life within a very
short time period and therefore wireless sensor network reliability is more critical in such
fish farming. The network coverage models and assumptions over land do not readily
apply in tropical aquaculture environment where high temperatures are experienced during
the day. To be precise, owing to high humidity caused by evaporation, the network
coverage at 20 cm antennae height is better than at 10 cm height due to the presence of a
super refraction layer also known as ducting layer. For a 70 m link, a difference of more
than 7dBm has been observed for a signal strength measured over a period of time. In
such environments, a two ray model will provide efficient signal propagation. However, in
the presence of vegetation highly accurate communication systems are required which the
above listed technologies fail to meet. With the development in wireless technologies
other protocols came into practices which are more powerful in terms of coverage distance
and data transferring ability like Wi-Fi, Long Range transmission protocol (LoRa) etc.
LoRa can be used to cover large areas typically inaccessible to mobile networks [9].

2. Methodology

The main objective of this work is to monitor the critical parameters of water that have
direct impact on the productivity of aquatic organisms cultured in the farm. This proposed
system not only continuously monitors the water quality but also sends warning about the
water quality along with the preventive measures to be taken. The architecture of this
work comprises of a power supply module, wireless sensor module, gateway module and
output module as shown in Fig.1
 Figure.1: Proposed System Architecture

2.1. Power Supply Module:

Owing to increasing environmental pollution, an eco-friendly power generation system is

employed. The major components are solar panel, rectifier circuit with power controller,
DC-DC converter and a battery to store and supply the required power to the components.
Solar panel converts sun’s light energy to electrical energy, with minor fluctuations as a
result of variation in incident radiation level. This variation leads to fluctuation in current
production which in turn should be filtered to match the battery’s requirement. Power
controller maintains a constant voltage to charge the battery in order to increase the
battery life. The sensors are powered by battery during power failure, adverse weather and
night time. Micro-controller operates at 5V so a DC-DC converter is employed to reduce
the battery voltage to 5V. This converter maintains the voltage at a constant rate.The
Power Supply module is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Power Supply Module

2.2. Sensor module:

The sensor module consists of pH sensor, dissolved oxygen sensor and temperature sensor
which are connected to Aurdino Pro Mini microcontroller board based on the ATmega28
which comes with 14 digital input/output pins of which 6 of them can be used as PWM
outputs and 6 analogue inputs and so on. This sensor module with the microcontroller
module is powered by solar cell rechargeable batteries. The schematic of a sensor module
is shown in Fig. 3
 Figure.3: Schematic of Prototype Developed for Davis Aqua Farm

Generally, water quality is measured in harsh, extreme and hazardous environments. This
necessitates the use of wireless sensors that collects data continuously and is accessible by
an operator located in a distance. Herein, a network of wireless sensors are created
connecting various ponds and the data is transmitted through Dragon LoRaST IoT
module. This sensor network was installed at Davis Aqua farm located at Keeranoor,
Thoothukudi District, Tamil Nadu, India with an area consisting of 3.5 acres of fish ponds
and covered by vegetation.

2.2.1 pH Sensor

Figure 4:pH Sensor

pH sensor (SKU:SEN0161) is a sensor which detects pH value of water . This sensor is

shown in Figure 4. The term “pH” set off from Latin and is an acronym for “potential
hydrogenii” or “the power of hydrogen”. pH is the hydrogen-ion concentration in
water-based solutions, which indicates the acidity and alkalinity in the solution. The pH
scale is a logarithmic scale whose range is from 0-14 with a neutral point being 7. Values
above 7 indicate a basic or alkaline solution and values below 7 would indicate an acidic
solution. The normal range of pH is 6 to 8.5.

2.2.2 Temperature Sensor

Figure 5: Temperature Sensor

The temperature sensor (DS18B20) used for measuring the temperature of water. This is
shown in Figure 5.When the accurate measurement is needed, we should always consider
the temperature. The increase in temperature of water increases the ionization rate .For
example, pH value as well as turbidity changes with the change in Temperature. pH is
temperature dependent, when the temperature goes up, the rate of ionization increases and
vice versa. Temperature plays a vital role when measuring water quality.
2.2.3 TDS (Total Dissolved Solid) Sensor or Conductivity Sensor

“Dissolved solids” refers to any minerals, salts, metals dissolved in water. Total dissolved solids
(TDS) comprise in organic salts(principally calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, bicarbonate,
chlorides, and sulphate) and some small amounts of organic matter that are dissolved in water.TDS
(Total Dissolved Solid) sensor kit which is compatible with IoT Device, plug and play, easy to use.
This is shown in Figure 6. we can build a TDS detector easily to measure the TDS value of liquid.
The TDS probe is waterproof; it can be immersed in water for long time measurement. This sensor
can be used in water quality application, such as domestic water, hydroponics. With this sensor, you
can easily DIY a TDS detector to reflect the cleanliness of water to protect your health.

Figure 6: TDS Sensor

2.2.4 Turbidity Sensor

Figure 7: Turbidity Sensor

Turbidity is a measure of the cloudiness of water. Turbidity has indicated the degree at
which the water loses its transparency. It is considered as a good measure of the quality of
water. Turbidity blocks out the light needed by submerged aquatic vegetation. It also can
raise surface water temperatures above normal because suspended particles near the
surface facilitate the absorption of heat from sunlight. Figure 7 Shows the turbidity sensor.

2.3. Controller/Gateway Module:

Aurdino Pro Mini is used as microcontroller in this work due to its low cost and ease of
installation. Its Shown in Figure 8. Since critical operations are carried out by this
microcontroller this is considered as the heart of this entire gateway. For low power
consumption and creating a general IoT platform Aurdino Pro Mini 3.3v with 8 MHz
operating frequency is used. Due to its low cost, easy availability and simple installation
steps it is highly recommended for developing countries.
 Figure 8: Aurdino Pro mini

This controller module includes Dragon LoRaST IoT module for transmission and
acquisition of data. In addition, controller module uploads data to a cloud by a flexible
cloud management system. With a 3G/4G dongle, the gateway module can transmit data
to the cloud or can directly send message alerts to end user. The SMS option is configured
to serve as an alternate during temporary Internet connectivity issues. In addition to a
versatile remote cloud support, the gateway uses MongoDB data base to store received
messages until the Internet is back again. Wireless sensors are positioned permanently in
the fish pond to monitor these critical parameters continuously and the acquired data from
the wireless sensor module are sent to the cloud with the help of Dragon LoRaST IoT
gateway module. LoRa Communication system is shown in Figure 9. The overall system
measurement flowchart is shown in Figure 10.The Sensor exceeds the limited values the
buzzor is ON and send message to mobile/Desktop through LoRa Connection.

Figure 9: The LoRa communication system (LoRa ESP32)

 Figure 10. Flowchart of overall system

3. LoRa Technology

Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) utilizes low power to transmit data at a
low bit rate for a wide area. IoT applications needs wide area connectivity with battery
powered sensors. Data are collected by the sensors and the values measured are
transmitted to the gateway. From this gateway the data are sent to the cloud storage, which
the farmer can retrieve and use the data. LoRa’s long range is the main advantage of the
system, which can over 10-15 km range. Vegetation is the major factor determining the
range. Different protocol architecture such as mesh, star and 6lowPAN can be utilized for
LoRa modulation. Long range communication link is enabled by LoRa physical layer
while communication protocol is defined by LoRaWAN. Data transfer from sensor node
to multiple base stations are possible in LoRa network.
 LoRaWAN is an open standard governed by the LoRa Alliance and the first version,
1.0, of the LoRaWAN specification was released in June 2015. Version 1.1 of the
LoRaWAN specification was published in 2017. LoRaWAN can transmit data in the rates
from 0.3 kbps up to 50 kbps, which is a considerable range to transmit sensor data in
many applications including IoT, Smart City and Machine-to-Machine (M2M). This low
data transmission rate ascertains the low power consumption of the edge node devices
thereby enables the use of batteries for powering. Nevertheless, it is inappropriate to
transmit real time image data or any data that needs high bandwidth [10].

Thus, this work aims to develop a smart system to monitor and maintain the water
parameters of a fish farming pond at its optimum level which is situated in a remote place.
The system comprises of a wireless sensor module to monitor the critical parameters like
pH, dissolved oxygen and temperature continuously. The data from the wireless sensor
module are sent to the cloud with the help of wireless communication module and the
farmer can retrieve the data from the cloud in his mobile phone from any part of the
world. The sensors are powered by solar cell rechargeable batteries and the
communication of sensor module and Dragon LoRaST IoT gateway module is by using
LoRa technology. The works main objective is to provide a remote monitoring and
controlling system thereby saving money, time and power of the farmers.

3.1 IoT Technology for Smart Cities

It is known that the IoT application for smart cities requires adequate network
connectivity with a wide coverage area and efficient consumption of resources, especially
those related to energy, because most IoT devices use batteries to operate it. Low Power
Wide Area Networks (LPWAN) meet these requirements. LPWAN is a group of
technologies that enable long distance communication with low power consumption, long
battery life, acceptable transmission speed, good penetration properties and reduced
installation costs. There are various technologies like LTE-M, EC-GSM, and NB (Narrow
Band)-IoT are considered as the third generation partnership Project standard (3GPP),
while SIGFOX, LoRa, and weightless are classified as non-3GPP standards.
Among the various LPWAN technologies, LoRa is considered for this research
because it works effectively in unlicensed groups. Other technologies have different
research limitations. For example, NB-IoT must be installed on a cellular network. Sigfox
is a subscription-based technology without permission. To connect devices to the Sigfox
network, you must use API (Application Programming Interfaces) on the Sigfox cloud
platform. Another advantage of LoRa is that it is supported by many of the world's leading
technology companies and has two service models, i. H. Network service providers and
private networks, and the number of messages that can be sent in the LPWAN
infrastructure is unlimited (because Sigfox only allows 140 messages per day and device).
Other important properties of LoRa are: (1) LoRa shows strength against the loss
of many pathways or the Doppler effect; (2) LoRa also usesa proprietary chirp spread
spectrum (CSS) modulatio to archive distances of more than 700 km. CSS modulation
offers immunity to interference and a very low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), which allows
the receiver to demodulate the signal; (3) LoRa is suitable for applications that require
very long battery life and reduce installation costs. (4) LoRa allows coordination of
several physical transmission characteristics such as bandwidth (BW), center
frequency,coding rate (CR), spreading factor (SF) and transmission power; (5) LoRa uses
a remote start architecture (see Figure 11) where a gateway is used to send messages back
between endpoints. (6) LoRa uses the ADR (Adaptive Data Rate) algorithm to estimate
CR and SF parameters on certain channels.
 Figure 11. LoRa General Architecture: end points, gateways, cloud / fog and
applications

3.2. Transmission parameters for LoRa

LoRa implementation must be adjusted to the functional and operational requirements of

each Smart City subcategory, taking into account aspects such as real-time, security,
tracking, integration with GPS, 3D solutions and drones. This includes considering
technical aspects such as operating frequency, bandwidth or bandwidth, but also taking
into account elements inherent in the environment, such as the presence of buildings,
trees, or other obstacles that affect the line of sight. The literature review shows that LoRa
modulation is directly related to DR (data rate), SF and BW. The choice of these
parameters must be in accordance with the functional and technical requirements of the
IoT solution. DR is the relationship between SF and BW and can be stated as follows
1
𝐷𝑅 = 𝑆𝐹 * 2𝑆𝐹 𝑏𝑖𝑡𝑠/𝑠𝑒𝑐
𝐵𝑊

Transmission time or time is the amount of transmission time in the opening and
transmission time of messages at the physical layer, which depends on symbol time, which
is directly related to Spread factor and bandwidth.
𝑇𝑡𝑥 = 𝑇𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚𝑏𝑙𝑒 + 𝑇𝑃𝐻𝑌𝑚𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑎𝑔𝑒
𝑇𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚𝑏𝑙𝑒 = 𝑇𝑠 * (𝑁𝑃𝑟𝑒 + 4. 25

where Npre is the number of symbols used on the radio; The period of the symbol Ts is
stated as follows:
2𝑆𝐹
𝑇𝑠 = 𝐵𝑊
𝑇𝑃𝐻𝑌𝑚𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑎𝑔𝑒 = 𝑇𝑠 * 𝑁𝑃𝐻𝑌
NPHY is the number of characters sent in the physical layer and can be defined as:
28+8𝑃𝐿+16*𝐶𝑅𝐶−4𝑆𝐹
𝑁𝑃𝐻𝑌 = 8 + ⎡𝑐𝑒𝑖𝑙⎡ ⎤ * (𝐶𝑅 + 4), 0⎤
⎣ ⎣ 4*(𝑆𝐹−2𝐷𝐸) ⎦ ⎦
where CR denotes the coding rate which can take values from 1 to 4, and PL is the
payload rate that indicates the physical payload length in bytes, which is related to the
type of application in a smart city. Cyclic redundancy check (CRC) indicates the presence
of an error detection field, and DE indicates that the low data rate is enabled
The signal values received in IoT solutions must be appropriate for the sensitivity
levels of the transceivers. The IoT ecosystem in LoRa networks should consider aspects
related to losses and gains from the transmitter to the target receiver: CR means the
encoding rate, which can take values ​from 1 to 4, and PL, the user data rate, which
determines the physical length of user data in bytes, which is related to the type of
application in Smart City. Cyclic redundancy checks (CRC) indicate the presence of an
error detection field and DE indicates that low data rates are activated
The signal value obtained in the IoT solution must match the level of sensitivity of
the transceiver. The IoT ecosystem in the LoRa network must consider aspects related to
the disadvantages and advantages of the sender to the target recipient:

𝑃𝑟𝑥(𝑑𝐵𝑚) = 𝑃𝑡𝑥(𝑑𝐵𝑚) + 𝐺𝑠𝑦𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑚(𝑑𝐵) − 𝐿𝑠𝑦𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑚(𝑑𝐵) − 𝐿𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑙(𝑑𝐵) − 𝑀(𝑑𝐵)

where Gsystem and Lsystem correspond to the advantages and disadvantages associated
with antennas and cables. LChannel is associated with loss of transmission which also
depends on environmental conditions or topography in the geographical area. M refers to
fading edge. Background noise must also be taken into account for the interior:
𝑁𝑜𝑖𝑠𝑒 𝐹𝐿𝑜𝑜𝑟 = 10 * 𝑙𝑜𝑔10(𝑘 * 𝑇 * 𝐵𝑊 * 1000)𝑑𝐵𝑚
K is the Boltzmann constant and T is 293 Kelvin or room temperature. To summarize, the
main features of LoRa are:

● High sensitivity when receiving data (end node: up to -137 dBm, gateway: up to
-142 dBm)
● High interference tolerance: Resistant to the Doppler effect, loss of many lines,
and signal attenuation.
● Strong penetration into the interior. High SF, penetration up to 20 dB.
● Low power consumption, around 10 years of battery life
● Short distances between 10 and 20 km.
● Reducing data transmission.
● Point-to-point and gateway connections.
● high scalability. Only gateways can cover a radius of 15 km.
● Two service models: network provider or private network.
As noted above, LoRa is a powerful and unlicensed open technology, and this
benefit has motivated researchers to use LoRa in their projects with urban and rural
solutions. The aim of this research is to conduct a comprehensive study of the effect of
LoRa on developing IoT solutions for various categories of smart cities.

4. Results and Discussions:

This work is aimed to help fish farmers increase the productivity and maintain high
quality disease free aquaculture products. This situation in effect increases economic
benefit for the nation and aquaculture, consumer confidence and safety while reducing
labor cost and energy consumption which in hand increases the overall income of the
farmers.The execution of the projected system is shown in Fig. 12. It consists of pH,
temperature, electric conductivity (EC) and turbidity sensors. The sensor data‟s are
processed in the Arduino module and shifted by means of the LoRa Wi-Fi data transfer
unit to the mobile.Table 2 represents the main and most important characteristics of the
technology used in this paper.
 Figure 12: Execution of the proposed project

Table 2: The Main Characteristics of LoRa Wireless Communications Technology (LoRa

ESP32)

Parameter Value
Frequency 240 MHZ
Type of micro-Processor “Tensilica LX6 Dual Core”
Major Chip “ESP32”
Chip of LoRa “SX1276”
Communication Distance Up to 2.8KM
Computing Capacity Up to 600DMIPS
Operating Voltage 3.3-7V
Operating Temperature -40 to -90℃
USB Adapter Chip CP2102

The data collected from the wireless sensor module for a period of 8 days from July 1 to
July 8, 2019 was transmitted to cloud through the gateway. The device assembly, the solar
panel that powers the device and the various electronic components of the prototype are
shown in Fig 13: (a), (b) and (c) respectively.
Fig 13:(a) Device assembly at Davis Aqua Farm, Kanyakumari District, Tamil Nadu,
India.
(b) Solar panel that powering the sensors and (c) Electronic components within the
prototype

The response curves from the different parametric sensors are shown in Figure.14. From
the data it is observed that there is a cyclic pattern in the measured quantities with distinct
day and night differences. These behavioral changes are anticipated as sunlight has a
direct effect on the temperature, pH and dissolved oxygen level in water. Also these
parameters are closely interlinked, changing one quantity will affect the other two. For
instance, at a very high temperature the oxygen level gets saturated and also decreases the
pH.

3.1.1. Water Temperature Graph: From Figure.14 temperature graph, it is seen that
there is a cyclic increase and decrease in temperature which is in accordance with the
measurements taken in day and night respectively. In this particular pond the temperature
stays mostly within the tolerable limit for good growth of aquatic life and hence no
specific action is required to control this parameter.

3.1.2. Water pH level Graph: As witnessed in Figure.14 pH graph, the pH level of water
tends to show a reverse cyclic behavior compared to that of temperature within a period of
24 hours. This kind of response is normal and is due to the fact that when the temperature
rises, the molecular vibrations rises which enables water to ionize and produce more
 Fig.14:Response curves of (a) temperature sensor (b) pH level sensor and (c)
dissolved oxygen level sensor measured for a period of 8 days

hydrogen ions thereby leading to a fall in pH during the day and a rise during the night
time. A pH variation of up to 2.5 was observed for a day which is detrimental for the
fishes. The tolerable variation of pH for good aquaculture is only 0.5 and a higher pH
variation can be attributed to a possibility of algal growth within the pond. Algae and
microorganisms grow rapidly in water with low hardness. Thus algal growth affects the
pH of the water. A balance in the hardness of water must be brought about in order to
maintain the pH level.

3.1.3. Dissolved Oxygen Level of the pond Graph:One of the key parameters that
control the sustainability of aquatic life in a fish pond is the concentration of oxygen
dissolved in water. Similar to temperature response curve, the dissolved oxygen level also
showed cyclic behavior. During day time algae and photosynthetic microorganisms use
CO2 and sunlight for photosynthesis and produce oxygen that dissolves in water. This
contributes to the rise in O2 level in the pond. During night time, the oxygen level swiftly
goes down as it is used up by the fishes in the pond. From Fig 14 Dissolved Oxygen
graph, it is noted that the O2 produced is not sufficient for the fishes to survive during the
night time and every morning fishes lack oxygen which can lead to their poor growth or
even death. Hence it is vital to aerate the ponds from time to time especially during the
night time.
The results were discussed with researchers at Tamil Nadu Fisheries University at
Puthalam, Kaniyakumari District Tamil Nadu and the following measures were proposed
to maintain the optimum water quality as given in Table 2.

Table 2:Measures to be taken when water parameters reaches threshold value

Measures to be taken - Measures to be taken - Above

Water Parameter
Below threshold value threshold value
No upper threshold value as
1. Switch on aerators, higher the oxygen dissolved
Dissolved Oxygen
2. Deploy oxygen pills. higher the sustainability of
aquatic life.
Add any one of the salts to the
pond water
1. Sugar
Add to the water the
2. Gypsum
following in the ratio 25
3. Lemon Salt
pH kg/acre each.
4. Probiotics - introduction of
1. Agriculture lime
microorganisms.
2. PVC lime
Any one of the methods can be
adopted to bring down the pH
value.
Can be maintained in an
Heating water with submersed
Temperature optimum level with proper
water heaters.
vegetation.

The proposed model was implemented in an aqua pond and results were obtained
for 24 hours using various sensors. The following are the plots obtained for varying water
quality parameters with respect to time.
Figure.15 shows the plot of Ammonia with respect to time the graph shows red
colour during the time 10 A.M to 5 P.M during that particular interval of time the
ammonia value crosses the threshold limit. During that time the farmer will get an alert
message to “to enter fresh water into the pond”. Figure.16 shows the variation of
Dissolved Oxygen with respect to time .During 8 P.M to 5 A.M the DO values falls
beyond the threshold range. During that particular interval of time they get a alert message
to give “oxygen pills or if possible on the aerator set”.
Fig.17 shows the variation of Salt parameter with respect to time. The plot shows
that the parameter does not cross the threshold limit.

Figure.15 Variation of Ammonia with respect to time

Figure.16 Variation of DO with respect to time

 Figure.17 Variation of Salt with respect to time

Figure.18 Variation of Bi-Carbonates with respect to time

Figure.19 Variation of Carbonates with respect to time

Figure.20 Variation of pH with respect to time

Figure.21 Variation of water quality parameters with respect to time

Figure 22: pH sensor measurements (a) low level water (b) Low level water at 9range
(c) high level water

Figure 18,Figure 19 and Figure 20 shows the variation of Bi-Carbonates, Carbonates and
pH with respect to time. This parameter doesn’t crosses the threshold range during that 24
hours and Figure.21 shows the how the multiple water quality parameters alter with
respect to time in a single plot. Figure 22 shows the pH level indicator, when the water
level rises the Specified pH level the pH sensor send the message to the Monitor.

4. Conclusions

This work was carried out as an aid to the fish farmers to take necessary and timely
measures with the change in parameters. A smart system has been developed to monitor
the dissolved oxygen level, pH level and the temperature of the aquaculture pond which
consists of sensors to measure pH, dissolved oxygen and temperature. The data collected
were sent to the cloud with the help of Dragon LoRaST IoT Gateway module and the
farmer can retrieve the data from any part of the world. During Internet connectivity
issues the gateway will directly send SMS alert to the end user updating current condition
of the aquaculture system .The installation being permanent does not require additional
cost for maintenance. Also a periodic validation of the water quality through manual
testing is not necessary in this technology which makes it energy, time and cost efficient
for the farmers.

5. Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the owner and employees of Davis Aqua Farm, Thoothukudi
District who were really helpful to us during installation process and in maintaining the
installed system in a very good manner which helped us to get the actual real time results
from the aquaculture system. Also we would like to thank the researchers at Tamil Nadu
Fisheries University at Puthalam, Kaniyakumari District Tamil Nadu for their feedbacks
and support in formulating the controlling parameters for the system when the threshold
range is breached.

6. Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

References

1. de Jong, Jelte. Aquaculture in India. RijksdienstvoorOndernemend Nederland (RVO.

nl), 2017.
2. Fisheries Statistics Unit, Fisheries Division Department of Animal Husbandry,
Dairying and Fisheries, Handbook on fisheries statistics 2014, Fisheries Survey of
India,Mumbai, India,2014, pp. 5.
3. Ayele, Eyuel D., Nirvana Meratnia, and Paul JM Havinga. "MANER: managed data
dissemination scheme for LoRa IoT enabled wildlife monitoring system (WMS)." In
2018 9th IFIP International Conference on New Technologies, Mobility and Security
(NTMS),IEEE, 2018, pp.1-7.
4. Bhatnagar, Anita, and Pooja Devi. "Water quality guidelines for the management of
pond fish culture." International journal of environmental sciences vol3, no. 6
(2013): 1980.
5. Raju, K. Raghu Sita Rama, and G. Harish Kumar Varma. "Knowledge based real
time monitoring system for aquaculture using IoT." In 2017 IEEE 7th International
Advance Computing Conference (IACC), IEEE, 2017, pp.318-321.
6. Bartolomeu, Paulo, J. Fonseca, and Osvaldo Pacheco. "Distributed monitoring
subsystems based on a Bluetooth implementation." In EFTA 2003. 2003 IEEE
Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation. Proceedings (Cat.
No. 03TH8696), vol. 2, IEEE, 2003, pp .121-124 .
7. Sutar, Kirankumar G., and Ramesh T. Patil. "Wireless sensor network system to
monitor the fish farm." International Journal of Engineering Research and
Applications 3, no. 5 (2013): 194-197.
8. Zhu, Xiuna, Daoliang Li, Dongxian He, Jianqin Wang, Daokun Ma, and Feifei Li. "A
remote wireless system for water quality online monitoring in intensive fish culture."
Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 71 (2010): S3-S9.
9. Xue-fen, Wan, Du Xing-jing, Yang Yi, Zhang Jing-wen, Muhammad SohailSardar, and
Cui Jian. "Smartphone based LoRa in-soil propagation measurement for wireless
underground sensor networks." In 2017 IEEE Conference on Antenna Measurements
& Applications (CAMA), IEEE, 2017, pp114-117.
10. Saari, Mika, A. Muzaffar bin Baharudin, PekkaSillberg, Sami Hyrynsalmi, and
Wanglin Yan. "LoRa—A survey of recent research trends." In 2018 41st International
Convention on Information and Communication Technology, Electronics and
Microelectronics (MIPRO), IEEE, 2018, pp .0872-0877.
11. Israr Ullah et al.,2018, “An Optimization Scheme for Water Pump Control in Smart
Fish Farm with Efficient Energy Consumption” Processes 2018, 6, 65;
doi:10.3390/pr6060065.
12. Anju Soman,2019, “IoT based Terrace Gardening System using LoRa Technology”,
International Journal of Computational Engineering Research (IJCER) Volume, 09.
13. Ujwala T S,2020,” Review on Fish Farm Aquaculture Monitoring & Controlling
System” INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING AND
TECHNOLOGY,vol.7,pp.2880-2887.
14. Nikitha Rosaline,2019, “IoT Based Aquaculture Monitoring and Control System”,
Journal of Physics: Conference Series, oi:10.1088/1742-6596/1362/1/012071.
15. Abir Tawfeeq, 2019, IoT based Aquaculture system with Cloud analytics”,
International Journal of Applied Engineering Research, Volume 14, Number 22
(2019) pp. 4136-4142.