Smart aquarium from Korea makes fish happy, could make Japan mad. Here’s why

There are at least three things that deeply root Korea’s national pride: kimchi, a fermented cabbage that prevents cancer; Hangeul, the easiest alphabet ever created; and Dokdo, a group of inhabitable rocks way out in the East Sea – or the Sea of Japan, depending on which side you’re on – that have been at the center of a sovereignty tug-of-war for decades.

So strong is the sense of Korean identity through these islets, which are called Takeshima by the Japanese and Liancourt Rocks by neutral watchers, that the Korean government spends nearly US$5 million a year to stake its claim on a global scale. This campaigner is on a lifelong crusade for public awareness, and this Korean Olympic footballer was stripped of his bronze medal after carrying a banner proclaiming “Dokdo is our land” during the 2012 Games. It’s also one of many reasons the Japanese envoy in Seoul gets called in for scoldings every few months. Oh, and there’s supposedly a lot of natural gas just waiting to be tapped nearby.

In sum, it’s a touchy issue, but that didn’t stop fish hobbyist and entrepreneur Lee Jun-sang, founder and CEO of Korean startup Mir M&T, from naming his first product Dokdo Tank – a US$500 smart aquarium that he hopes evokes imagery of the Korean islets surrounded by rich marine life.

Mir M&T’s CMO Shaun Bang, speaking on Lee’s behalf, says Lee, who is his cousin, wasn’t hoping to stir a political issue.

“He chose the name because he likes the name,” Bang tells Tech in Asia. “He wasn’t trying to poke a jab at anyone, it’s just that Koreans think of Dokdo as their island. [He] thought about how it could be politically incorrect, but in terms of him being Korean, it was a pride thing.”

The name itself doesn’t lend much to promotion in the global market, where Dokdo is hardly known. But the product itself, which is a year in the making, hopes to make waves through its embrace of the internet of things. It aims to deliver an all-in-one device integrating its own hardware and software, capable of connecting to mobile devices. It gives users control over lighting and temperature settings, while also providing monitoring changes in water quality – something that traditionally required a chemical-based testing kit that looks like something straight out of chemistry class. In Korea, the land of Android, it’s also compatible with iOS and even boasts smart watch support.

CEO Lee isn’t only a tech geek – he moonlights as a clownfish breeder, so he understands how tedious the old way of monitoring an aquarium can be.

“He just loves animals,” Bang explains of his cousin’s motivation. “His idea was to give [users] something that’s super easy to use, and anyone can just buy it, set it up, and learn how to be a hobbyist from there on.”

Remote control

The most tedious part of owning a fish tank is changing the water, especially for saltwater tanks. Water changes must be completed as often as once a week to once a month. The Dokdo Tank filtration unit is designed to automatically clean the water with minimal maintenance, with users only needing to occasionally change the filter (the actual carbon pieces that sift out impurities) once a month. Users don’t have to change the water, but only add more as it naturally evaporates. It’s also suitable for both freshwater and saltwater environments.

The 43-centimeter, 85-liter low-iron crystal cube tank is connected with durable silicone, which eliminates that greenish tint of normal glass, and the whole shebang requires no tools for set-up.

Users can change the lighting to fit the environment inside the tank. It’s powered by 168-watt Cree LED lights, which are 50 percent more efficient than old-school fluorescent tank lighting. There are seven color settings, ranging from cool white to red and green, that give off precise wavelengths based on the marine and plant life inside the tank.