Your reef, one smart place: a hands-on guide to ReefMind.ai’s AI

Watch: Captain Chris in action

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For years my reef lived in four places: a controller app, a doser app, a camera app and my test notes. When something looked off, I was the one lining up the dates.

Then my camera spoke up. My Powder Blue Tang “has not been seen on camera in 47 hours (12 frames checked).” ReefMind.ai asked me to take a quick look in person.

This guide follows my own tank, with real screenshots. It works for a first tank or a fifteen-year reef.

Everything in one place

ReefMind.ai puts every clue about your reef on one screen. That matters, because pale corals can mean a chemistry swing, light, nutrients or a new fish.

• Readings. Controller, tester and hand-test results feed one set of trends, alerts and a health score.
• Dosing. Doses sit next to those trends, so you see what a change did.
• Livestock. Tells the camera and Captain Chris what lives in your tank.
• Cameras. Watch between your visits and flag what changed.
• What changed? Tap a water parameter card on your dashboard, then Show what changed. It ranks the doses, water changes, new livestock, probe issues and camera changes from the same days.
• Equipment. Captain Chris only names gear your controller reports or your tank profile lists. He won’t send you to a calcium reactor you don’t own.
• Maintenance. The Tasks tab tracks one-off and recurring chores, like water changes and filter socks. Each can link to a piece of equipment.
• Lights. Model, schedule and PAR (how much light reaches your corals) go in your tank profile.
• Skimmer. The camera reads how full your skimmer cup is.

Captain Chris sees which chores are due or done, and weighs light alongside nutrients when a coral loses color.

ReefMind.ai watches, reads and reminds. It never turns your lights or skimmer on or off.

Works with the gear you already have

Keep your gear and its app. Here’s everything ReefMind.ai connects to today:

• Controllers (the box that runs your pumps and probes): ReefMind.ai supports multiple reef controllers, including Neptune Apex, CoralVue Hydros, GHL ProfiLux and Aquarino. Apex connects through Apex Fusion or a ReefMind Collector on your home network. Probe readings flow in automatically.
• Dosers (pumps that add supplements on a schedule): Neptune Apex DOS, Jebao Wi-Fi dosing pumps (via Jebao Aqua) and Red Sea ReefDose (via ReefBeat). Dosing on a CoralVue Hydros or GHL ProfiLux shows up too, beside doses you log by hand. You can also add an aquavitro Sentia Dose in Settings and enter its doses yourself; ReefMind.ai doesn’t read that pump.
• Cameras, through a ReefMind Collector: Reolink (like the Reolink E1 Zoom), Wyze Cam v4, TP-Link Tapo, TP-Link Kasa, Eufy, Amcrest, Hikvision, Dahua, Axis and Foscam. Standard RTSP and ONVIF cameras work too; those are the video formats most security cameras use.
• Ring cameras, through your Ring account, with no Collector. Link ReefMind.ai from the Ring app. See Ring camera setup.
• Testers: Neptune Trident results through your Apex, the AquaWiz KHA alkalinity tester, and the Focustronic Alkatronic, Alkatronic Professional and Mastertronic. ReefMind.ai only reads their results.
• Lab and hand tests: ICP results (a lab test for dozens of elements in your water). Scan the report, type it in, or upload the lab’s Excel or CSV file. Log hand tests with + Log Test.
• ReefMind Collector: a small box on your home network. It reads a Neptune Apex locally and connects your cameras. Collector V1 and V2 both work.

ReefMind.ai reads your controller. It never changes your controller’s programming, so your tank runs exactly as it does today.

Hand tests go in your order now. In + Log Test, tap Reorder parameters. In Rearrange mode, you can also move the Water Parameters cards on your dashboard.

On the ICP tab, tap Print or Share to send a report of the selected test to your fish store or service tech.

Step 1

Add your livestock first

Your livestock list lets the camera and Captain Chris name your animals. If you do one thing today, do this.

1. Open the Livestock tab. If you don’t see it in the bottom bar, tap More.
2. Tap + Add livestock.
3. Pick what you’re adding: Fish, Coral, Invertebrate or Other.
4. Type the common name. Everything else is optional.
5. Tap Add to my tank. Repeat for your corals and your clean-up crew (the snails and crabs that eat algae).

The camera can only name animals on your list. Without it, the best it can say is “a yellow fish.” My list is why it knew to look for my Powder Blue Tang.

Captain Chris uses the list too. Ask about a pale coral and he knows you just added an Acropora, a branching stony coral.

Tip: not sure of a name? Tap Search trustworthy sources next to the name field. You review the match before anything is added.

Step 2

Fill in your Captain Chris tank profile

Your tank profile tells Captain Chris how you feed and what gear you run, so his advice fits your tank. It takes a few minutes.

1. Open the Settings tab. If you don’t see it in the bottom bar, tap More.
2. In the Equipment section, find Captain Chris and tap Edit profile.
3. Start with Nutrient & Feeding Profile, marked Start here. Add your foods and any carbon dosing (food for nitrate-eating bacteria) or nutrient dosing.
4. Under Fish Feeding Schedule and Coral Feeding Schedule, add each food, how you feed it and how often.
5. Fill in the gear you run: Lights, Protein skimmer, Return pump, Flow pump / wavemaker, ATO / top-off (auto top-off), Heater / chiller, Calcium reactor and more. Skip anything you don’t have.
6. For Lights, add the manufacturer, model, how many, the display light schedule and average PAR.
7. Add anything else in Free-flow notes for Captain Chris, like “Mostly stony corals, heavy fish load.”
8. Tap Save Captain Chris Tank Profile.

Feeding is the biggest driver of nitrate and phosphate, the nutrients that feed algae. This lets Captain Chris tie a rising nitrate to how you actually feed. Your gear shapes the rest of his advice.

Your tank’s name, volume, type and alert thresholds live in the separate Tank profile in Settings. Captain Chris checks your readings against those thresholds (see Step 5).

Step 3

Connect a camera and watch your reef live

A camera gives ReefMind.ai eyes on your tank, and gives you live video anywhere. It connects through a ReefMind Collector on the same network as the camera.

1. Open the Camera tab and tap + Add Camera, or tap Discover to scan your network for cameras.
2. Name the camera and pick Display or Sump (the filter tank under the display).
3. Enter the camera’s details and tap Test Connection. Once the test passes, save the camera.
4. Tap Live video on the camera card to watch your tank in real time.

Have a Ring camera? It needs no Collector. Link ReefMind.ai from the Ring app, then add the camera with + Add Camera.

Live video starts in about ten seconds, at the best quality your setup can carry. A TV button puts it on the big screen.

New: Wyze Cam v4 on the side glass

The Wyze Cam v4 sits right against the side glass, so you get fish close-ups.

1. In the Wyze app, update the camera’s firmware.
2. In the Wyze app, tap the camera, then Settings → Advanced Settings → RTSP, and turn it on.
3. Create an RTSP username and password and write them down. This is a local camera password, not your Wyze account login.
4. Note the camera’s IP address under Settings → Device Info.
5. In ReefMind.ai, tap + Add Camera on the Camera tab and choose Wyze (RTSP).
6. Enter the IP address, the RTSP username and the RTSP password. Leave the stream URL blank.
7. Tap Test Connection, then + Add Camera.

Wyze Cam v4 is the only Wyze model supported, and the old Wyze Bridge option is no longer used. For more, read our Wyze Cam v4 launch post.

Two cameras work better than one. Pair the Wyze with a zoom camera up front, like the Reolink E1 Zoom, for whole-tank and coral detail. ReefMind.ai looks at photos from every camera on the tank, so together they give it a much better idea of which fish you have.

• Close-ups make clearer boxes to answer in Questions from the camera. Each one you confirm becomes a reference photo for your tank.
• Who the camera has seen (Step 4) uses both cameras, so a fish hiding from one can show up in the other.

Set a focus area

A focus area tells the AI to look only at the tank, not the wall or the couch, for a faster, sharper read.

1. On the camera card, tap View →.
2. Scroll to AI focus area and drag the box over your tank. You can also type exact percentages.
3. Tap Save focus area.

Fix the blue with color correction

Color correction takes out the blue cast from actinics (blue reef lights), so you and the AI see closer to true color.

1. In the same camera view, turn on Color correction.
2. Tap Auto to set it from your latest photo, or set Blue reduction, Warmth, Saturation, Brightness and Contrast yourself.
3. Tap Save.

It applies to photos, live video and the AI’s copy. Your original saved photos never change.

Teach the camera your own fish and corals

Tap any fish or coral the camera found and tell it what’s there. That’s how it learns your tank.

1. Tap View → on a camera. The photo opens on the latest shot with numbered boxes. A dashed box means the AI isn’t sure.
2. Tap a numbered box.
3. Tap the right name from your list, or Not a fish or coral, Rock / equipment / reflection or Don’t know.
4. Something new? Type it under Something else…, pick Fish, Coral or Invertebrate, and tap Submit. Then add it to your Livestock list.

The camera also asks on its own. Questions from the camera on the Camera tab lists what it couldn’t name, with the same one-tap answers.

Answers teach your tank only, and are never shared with another account. It’s early, and it will mix up look-alike fish and blue corals. Every correction helps.

Step 4

Let the camera keep an eye on things

After a few days of photos, the camera sums up what changed in your tank.

1. Open the Camera tab and scroll to What the camera noticed.
2. Read each line as “here’s what the photos show,” then go check the tank in person.
3. “Needs a few more days of photos” means the trend isn’t ready yet.

• Who the camera has seen: which fish showed up, and which haven’t been spotted in a while.
• Coral size and color: whether a coral looks larger or paler lately.
• Algae coverage: roughly how much visible rock and sand has algae or cyano (a slimy red film).
• Skimmer cup: how full it is, how fast it usually fills, and how often you emptied it.

Each camera’s summary now says what changed, the likely reason from your own tank data, and one next step.

Once a week, ReefMind.ai also checks every camera. If one stops sending pictures, you get an email with the fix to try.

Worried about a fish? If you tell Captain Chris a fish looks sick, or a camera check notes a visible sign, he offers a Sick fish check.

Send a photo, and it lists the visible conditions it may fit, how confident it is and what to look for. If it names a condition, you can ask for a hospital-tank plan. It goes to Tasks only after a second tap.

This is the panel that caught my Powder Blue Tang. It didn’t tell me what was wrong. It told me to go look.

These are observations from photos, never a diagnosis. Fish hide, sleep in the rock and swim out of frame. The camera can’t tell you if an animal is healthy, and ReefMind.ai always says so.

Step 5

Talk to Captain Chris, the reefing assistant who knows your tank

Captain Chris answers your reef questions with your own tank’s numbers, not generic advice.

See him in action in the video above.

1. Tap the round Captain Chris button in the bottom corner of the dashboard.
2. Type a question, or tap the microphone to talk.
3. Tap one of the suggested follow-ups under his answer to keep going.

You can attach a photo, too. iPhone HEIC photos and large phone photos now attach without trouble.

He reads your whole tank first: tests, readings, livestock, gear, profile, dosing, recent changes, camera notes, coral growth and ICP results.

I asked him what one thing I should work on this week, the way a new reefer would. He started with my own numbers:

“Your nitrate is 46.6 ppm (parts per million), which is above your critical limit of 45 ppm…”

“…your phosphate is 0.4 ppm, which is above your critical limit of 0.33 ppm, so you must work to safely lower them.”

“Aim to lower your nitrate by no more than 10 ppm per day because dropping levels too fast can shock your fish and cause your corals to bleach.”

He told me to confirm both with a hand test first, then walked me through a 10% to 15% water change. He said to hold my carbon dosing steady, so the recent increase had time to work.

My limits, my trend, my dosing.

Talk to him out loud

Most reef questions come up with wet hands. Tap the microphone and talk. He answers about a second after you stop, you can interrupt him, and captions stay on screen.

A live voice session runs up to 10 minutes. He gets ready as you open the chat, and reconnects on his own if the connection drops.

By voice he sees the same tank data as chat, like your dose times. He stays on the question you asked.

Voice is included in Plus and Pro, and in trials.

Say your results the way you would out loud. If he mishears a number, just correct him before you confirm.

What to ask him, at any skill level

On the Corals tab, a coral with two or more dated photos also gets a Play time-lapse button.

New to the hobby? The Learn tab now has beginner picks on cycling, first fish, acclimation, salinity, easy corals and quarantine.

He knows ReefMind.ai too. Ask “how do I set up my camera?” and he gives you the taps and a link to the right screen. He remembers the conversation, and asks back when your question could go two ways.

He can do small jobs for you, typed or by voice. Ask him to add a reminder, open a chart or screen, or log a water change, a dose or a livestock note.

He shows a card first, and nothing is saved until you tap Confirm. He never changes your equipment or your settings. Dosing and safety answers stay careful: change one thing, then test again.

Collector V2 vs V1

The Collector is the small box that sends your controller and camera data to ReefMind.ai. Here’s what the new V2 adds.

• Board: V1 runs on a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W. V2 runs on a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B–class board, with a lot more headroom.
• Live video: V1 plays Live View on your camera’s lighter Fast stream. V2 can play Full HD, with hardware video decoding. ReefMind.ai checks your camera and Collector can carry it, and falls back to Fast when they can’t.
• Network: V2 has built-in Gigabit Ethernet and dual-band 2.4/5 GHz Wi-Fi.
• Setup: V2 can skip Wi-Fi setup. Plug in an Ethernet cable from your router and it connects automatically.
• Size: V1 is a little larger than a stick of gum. V2 is about the size of a deck of cards.
• Your V1 keeps working exactly as it does today.

No Collector box? You can run the Collector in Docker on a Mac, a Windows PC or a NAS. In Settings, tap Generate Collector setup code to get the download and setup steps.

Collector V2 is $100 plus shipping, one time, and doesn’t change your plan. Find it on the Collector page.

Get started in ten minutes

Here’s the whole guide as a checklist.

• Add your fish, corals and inverts on the Livestock tab.
• Fill in your tank profile: feeding first, then lights and skimmer.
• Connect your controller, doser or tester, or log a test.
• Add a camera, set a focus area and turn on color correction.
• Name a few things the camera found.
• Ask Captain Chris one real question.

That’s my reef today: controller, dosing, cameras, tests and livestock in one place instead of four.

Reefing is a skill you build one good habit at a time. Start with your livestock today, then ask Captain Chris the question you’ve been meaning to ask.

Brett Miller
Founder, ReefMind.ai