iOS app

Your tank, read carefully.

Reef Warden turns controller telemetry into a record you can actually read — live chemistry, interactive history, dosing totals, and widgets that tell you the truth about how fresh the data is.

Read-only by design. The app observes your controller; it never switches an outlet or changes your programming.

Getting started

Three steps.

01

Get your invitation

Reef Warden accounts are created by invitation from your aquarium service partner. You will receive an email invitation to set your password.

02

Sign in

Sign in with your email and password, then the six-digit code from your authenticator app. You can enable Face ID afterwards for quick sign-in, and the app stays signed in until you sign out.

03

Connect a device

Your partner links a supported controller, or you pair a ReefWarden Helm by scanning its setup code. Readings appear once the device begins reporting, typically within one polling interval.

Inside the app

Five screens.

Each one answers a different question: what is happening now, what changed, and what the equipment did about it.

My Reefs

Every tank on your account with a status ring, the headline readings, and a 24-hour sparkline. Tap a tank to open it.

Live

The latest snapshot from your controller, grouped into Chemistry, Environment, Power, and Dosing so related readings sit together. Controller alarm flags and configured bounds are shown alongside each value.

Trends

Interactive history for any single metric. Pinch to zoom, drag to pan, or pick an exact date range.

Dosing

Per-head dose volumes and, when you designate the heads a water change uses, a combined total of water changed.

Power

Whole-system wattage with a per-outlet breakdown, so you can see what actually draws power and when.

Reading the charts

Built to not mislead.

History is grouped by what a reading actually is, and drawn according to how it behaves. A discrete chemistry test and a continuous probe are not the same kind of measurement, so they are not drawn the same way.

Over a long range each point summarises the readings inside it — averaged for continuous probes, last-value for discrete tests. Averaging can soften a brief spike, so narrow the range when you are looking for short events: zooming in re-reads the underlying record at finer resolution.

Chemistry

Alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, nitrate, phosphate
Sample-and-hold readings from a Trident are drawn as steps, not smooth ramps — the value holds until the next test.

Environment

pH, ORP, temperature, salinity, water level
Continuous probes, averaged within each point on the chart.

Power

Total watts plus each outlet, amps, line voltage
Total Power sums every outlet at each moment; individual outlets remain available as chips.

Dosing

Per-head dose volume, water changed
Read from the controller's own dose log, so scheduled small doses are counted, not just full batches.

Widgets

A glance is often enough.

Add Reef Warden to your Home Screen in small, medium, or large — the large layout carries every reading at once. On the Lock Screen, choose the combined panel or pair the Environment and Chemistry widgets side by side to fill the row.

Widgets refresh on their own schedule. On iOS 17 and later the medium and large layouts also carry a refresh button. They mark readings as stale rather than presenting old numbers as current, and they clear themselves when you sign out.

To add one: touch and hold the Home Screen, tap +, search for Reef Warden, and choose a size. For the Lock Screen, tap and hold the Lock Screen, choose Customise, then add a widget.

Home Screen

Small, medium, and large. Status, temperature, pH, and full chemistry.

Lock Screen

Inline above the clock, plus circular and rectangular panels below it.

Honest freshness

A reading older than about 45 minutes is labelled stale on every size.

Chemistry first

Alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, nitrate, and phosphate where space allows.

Accounts and privacy

Read-only, and yours.

Reef Warden does not command your controller. Nothing you do in the app switches an outlet, changes a setpoint, or alters your programming. Where the app lets you record equipment state, that is stored on your device as your intended configuration for reference — it is never sent to the controller.

Your aquarium data belongs to your account. There is no advertising and no selling of data. See the privacy policy for the full detail.

Staying signed in

The app keeps you signed in until you sign out, so it will not interrupt you mid-week. Signing out revokes the session, clears your widgets, and — if you were offline at the time — completes the revocation the next time the app can reach the server.

Changing your password signs out every device.

Troubleshooting

If something looks off.

The widget says “Stale”

The widget reports the age of the newest reading, not whether the app is open. “Stale” means your controller has not delivered new data for roughly 45 minutes. Check that the controller and its bridge are online — the app itself being closed does not cause it.

The widget is blank or says “Open the app to sign in”

Widgets clear themselves when you sign out. Open the app, sign in, and visit My Reefs once; the widget fills in on its next refresh.

A chart shows a gap

Gaps are deliberate. When delivery pauses, the line breaks instead of drawing through missing time, so an outage never looks like a flat, healthy reading.

Dosing shows 0 for today

Dosing totals are scoped to the window you have selected. If no dose ran in that window the total is genuinely zero — widen the range to see the last one.

Readings look wrong

Reef Warden displays what the controller reports. A probe that needs calibration will read incorrectly here too. Compare against an independent test before acting on any value.

Requirements

What you need.

iPhone or iPad running iOS 15.5 or later. Widgets require iOS 16 or later; the in-widget refresh button requires iOS 17 or later. A Reef Warden account by invitation, and a supported aquarium controller or ReefWarden Helm device.

Something not working the way this describes?

Open a ticket with what you saw, when it started, and which screen you were on. Do not include passwords or authentication codes.

Contact support