Make your aquarium smart powered by Xiaomi Mi Home

First, it fits my needs, and will probably do the same for yours. It's not a dedicated but flexible enough to perform 99% of the tasks you'd wish to automate. In some cases, the first approach won't work, let's say won't be optimal, and you'll have to spend bit more creativity to find out the right combination.

Secondly, it is very cheap because mass produced, in the first place for asian market where Xiaomi performs much more than in other continent. It is cheap but consistent, part of an ecosystem growing years after years, and certainly more sustainable since Xiamo is not really startup size.

Thirdly, it is based on suitable technology: ZigBee. It's kind of bluetooth low energy and long range. And this is not WiFi, this is important point: you don't want to lose your tank automation just because you're rebooting your WiFi router or because you're shutting it down during the night...

Finally, applications managing all these IoT are quite accessible, with continuous updates to insure optimal user experience and security level (yes yes, it is Chinese product). The accessibility or user-friendliness is not required to me, since I'm SW developer for living, but with the motivation to share the solution to anybody, it turns to be a strong criteria.