AquaticLog vs NextUpReef
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
AquaticLog
Manage your aquarium with this comprehensive platform. Track water parameters, schedule maintenance, log livestock, and document your tank's progress with photos and videos. Connect controllers for automatic data import and sync across devices.
- Water parameter tracking
- Smart reminders for maintenance
- Livestock management
- Equipment and dosing logs
- Controller integration
- Photo and video diary
- Community features
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AquaticLog keeps water parameters, livestock, equipment and care routines together for every freshwater tank and reef. ONE ACCOUNT, EVERY DEVICE Your log lives in your AquaticLog account, not on your phone. Sign in on a new iPhone, an iPad or the web at aquaticlog.com and everything is already there. Aquarists have trusted AquaticLog with their records for over 13 years. Keep your tanks on the iPhone Home Screen with widgets. WATER PARAMETERS Log pH, temperature, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate, salinity, alkalinity, calcium, magnesium and more. Clear trend charts let you catch a swing before it reaches your fish or corals. Connect a Neptune Apex, Hydros, AquaWiz or Seneye for hourly readings, including Seneye NH3 and NH4. Delete bad readings in batches and schedule retests for out-of-range results. LIVESTOCK AND PLANTS Build a detailed record of every fish, coral, invertebrate, plant and amphibian you own. Add a photo as you add a new fish or coral. Track sex, temperament, diet, difficulty and reef-safety, and move inhabitants between tanks as your collection grows. Tank birthdays and gotcha days share a card you can dismiss. MAINTENANCE MADE SIMPLE Schedule water changes, dosing, feeding, testing and equipment cleaning. Smart reminders make sure nothing slips. Check off a task and it lands with a haptic; once nothing is due, your tank shows what's next. A daily streak beside Reminders rewards showing up. End a repeating schedule on a date or after a set count, and see your maintenance time per week. Service accounts can start client visits and finish them with notes and next-visit plans. DOSING AND FEEDING Track dosing and feeding with a precise history. Log feeding every 48 hours or at another fixed interval. Re-dose additives, repeat feedings and repeat water changes in one tap, prefilled with your last amounts. Repeated doses and feedings fold into one row per day. FISH ROOM AND WATER CHANGES Set up RO/DI with SpectraPure, BRS and Waterbox presets. Track filter changes and TDS for each membrane and DI stage. Manage supplies and spending in Fish Room, with INR support. PHOTO TIMELINE Track growth and coloration. Then vs Now slides between your first photo and your latest, with dates and tank age. Pinch to zoom. Start a build thread for your tank on the community forum and post what changed as it grows. ADVANCED TESTING Log ICP analyses and PAR readings. ICP warnings stay grouped; dismiss individual results and restore them anytime. Share test-kit reagents across tanks in Fish Room: logged tests count supplies down, with fill levels and days left. EQUIPMENT Track pumps, lights and filters, with ratings and reviews. Browse products by category or brand, see which tanks use them, and add them to your tank or shopping list. A spending report totals what you've paid per store, filterable by tank and date range (Pro). EXPLORE AND CONNECT Search public tanks by what lives in them — look for a torch coral in the 15-30 gallon range and see how other nano reefs are scaped. Filter by style (mixed reef, SPS, LPS, soft coral, planted, macro algae, fish only), size, water type and activity, then open any tank to see its photos, parameters, gear and livestock. Find Today, Aquariums, Species, Products and News together in Explore. Read reviews, like photos and earn achievements. Make your tank public to share its link, or copy a snapshot of its parameters, livestock and gear to ask for advice. Available in English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Ukrainian and Brazilian Portuguese. Start for free — new accounts log water parameters without limits for 30 days — then upgrade to Pro for advanced tracking and tools. The yearly plan starts with a 7-day free trial. Get daily AI suggestions based on tank data and see when each was generated. Privacy Policy: https://www.aquaticlog.com/privacy Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
NextUpReef
Manage your entire reef tank system in one app. Track water chemistry, dosing, equipment, and livestock with AI-powered advice tailored to your specific tank. Includes reminders and a guide for new reefers.
- Water chemistry logging
- Dosing checklists
- Equipment control (Pro)
- Livestock tracking
- AI-powered tank analysis
- New tank guide
- Community tank comparisons
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NextUpReef is the reef tank app that keeps your whole system in one place: water chemistry, dosing, equipment, livestock, reminders and AI advice that actually knows your tank. Built for reefers, by a reefer. LOG A FULL TEST IN SECONDS Record alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, nitrate, phosphate, salinity, pH, temperature, ammonia and nitrite. Your last values pre-fill, and every entry is color-coded against your target range as you type. Pick your tank type (mixed reef, SPS, LPS, softie, nano, ULNS and more) for sensible default targets, or set your own. EVERY TREND, TWO SCORES — REEF PULSE See a chart for every parameter with your target range drawn in and water changes marked. Your Reef Score shows how healthy the tank is today; your Stability Score shows how steadily you keep it that way. Tap either score to see exactly what's helping and what's holding it back. REEF AI ADVISOR (PRO) A full analysis of your tank built from your own data: parameters and trends, water changes, livestock, equipment and dosing. See what's working, what needs attention and what to do next, ranked by urgency. Ask Reef AI Chat anything about your reef, check livestock compatibility with the Stocking Advisor, and log results by snapping a photo of your test kit. EVERY DOSE, ONE CHECKLIST The Dosing screen lists everything due today, whether you dose by hand, with your own pump or automatically. Tap Dosed to log it and watch whether alkalinity, calcium and magnesium are holding steady. Choose from 50+ common products with label strengths built in. Pro adds a dose calculator that dials in your daily dose from your own test trend, and a daily dosing reminder at the time you pick. CONTROL YOUR REEF GEAR (PRO) • Neptune Apex: sync temperature, pH, salinity and Trident alkalinity, calcium and magnesium into your logs; switch outlets; run Feed Mode; set heater temperatures; and schedule dosing with a built-in safety shutoff. • Shelly smart plugs: schedules run on the plug, even with no internet. For dosing pumps, each dose is confirmed by power draw and you're alerted if one is missed. • CoralVue HYDROS (early access): cloud-connected readings and control from anywhere. NEVER MISS A WATER CHANGE Schedule water changes and maintenance like filter socks, carbon and RO/DI filters. Reminders arrive inside the notification hours you choose. EVERYTHING IN YOUR TANK — MY REEF Track fish, corals and inverts with care info, plus equipment, lighting schedules, dosing, salt mix, monthly tank photos and what it all cost. NEW TO REEFING? NEW TANK GUIDE Follow six guided phases from setup through cycling, the ugly phase, first fish and first corals to an established reef, with a checklist for each step. LEARN FROM THE BEST TANKS — COMMUNITY Browse the leaderboard and see inside top-ranked tanks: their parameters, salt, lighting, equipment, dosing and water change habits. Compare your tank with others like it. Your tank stays private unless you choose to share it. ON THE BIG SCREEN Pro members can open the web dashboard at portal.nextupreef.com for full-screen charts and a CSV export of their readings. FREE TO START NextUpReef is free to download and use. NextUpReef Pro unlocks AI features, device control, the dose calculator, unlimited tanks and reminders, the web dashboard and more. Every new account gets a 30-day Pro trial with no payment details required. Privacy Policy: https://nextupreef.com/privacy Terms of Service: https://nextupreef.com/terms Questions or ideas: info@nextupreef.com Neptune Systems and Apex are trademarks of Neptune Systems. CoralVue and HYDROS are trademarks of CoralVue, Inc. Shelly is a trademark of Shelly Group. NextUpReef is independent and not affiliated with these companies.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: AquaticLog at 4.2 against NextUpReef's 3.7. AquaticLog also leads on ratings volume (409 vs 3) and review sentiment (70% vs 50%). NextUpReef's advantage is update cadence (every 4 days vs every 10 days) and iOS requirement (15.1 vs 18.1). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. AquaticLog sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and NextUpReef sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
AquaticLog holds the better App Store score, 4.2 against 3.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: AquaticLog has 409 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 70% of AquaticLog's written reviews are positive against 50% of NextUpReef's.
AquaticLog ships an update every 10 days, NextUpReef every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on November 10, 2026 and November 9, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | AquaticLog | NextUpReef |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.2 (409 ratings) — better | 3.7 (3 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 70.1% of reviews — better | 50.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 409 — better | 3 |
| Update frequency | Every 10 days | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.1 | 15.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 25 MB | 59 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Lonnex Inc | Adam Winstead |
Customer experience
AquaticLog
NextUpReef
In-app purchases
AquaticLog
- Pro Monthly Subscription$4.991 Month
- Pro Yearly Membership7 Days trial$39.991 Year
- Pro Lifetime Membership$149.99
NextUpReef
- NextUpReef Pro$4.991 Month
- NextUpReef Pro$39.991 Year








