Guide · remote water monitoring
Watching more than one tank? The whole farm water system guide covers the bore, the pump, the header tank and the troughs as one connected system.
Wondering what the sensor is actually doing in there? The interactive explainer lets you drag the water level and watch how ultrasonic, pressure and float sensors each read the tank.
Remote tank and water monitoring, explained.
A plain guide to knowing your water from anywhere: how the level sensors work, how you get an alert before a tank runs dry, and how it keeps working where there is no mobile signal.
Last updated 20 June 2026 · by Alien IT Solutions
What is remote tank monitoring?
Remote tank monitoring puts a level sensor on each tank, dam or bore that measures how much water is there and sends the reading to one dashboard over a low-power radio. You check every tank from your phone instead of driving the property, and you get an alert before a tank or trough runs dry, not after.
It is built for sites with no power and no mobile signal, the exact places a tank is most likely to catch you out.
What you can monitor
Water across the whole property, on the one dashboard. Other sensing has a sister service.
Rainwater & stock tanks
Know what is in the house tank and the stock tanks without climbing or driving to each one.
Bores & dams
Levels at the bore and the dam, including the far ones with no signal, reported back over the radio mesh.
Troughs & pumps
Catch a trough running low or a pump that has stopped, with leak and flow alerts.
Other sensors
For gates, pumps, frost and more, the sister service Rural IoT brings them onto the same kind of dashboard.
How it works
A sensor on each tank
A level sensor measures the water and runs for a long time on its own power, sealed against the weather.
Readings over the mesh
The readings hop over a low-power radio mesh to a gateway, reaching the bores and dams a mobile signal cannot.
One dashboard, with alerts
Every tank on one dashboard, with run-dry alerts by SMS, email or push, and full history and year-on-year comparison.
Who builds it
Tank Monitoring is the water-monitoring service of Alien IT Solutions, an Australian IT, networks and connectivity company with more than 18 years of experience. It is part of a family of rural services, all Alien IT: Rural IoT for other sensors, Paddock Networks for whole-property wifi, Long Range WiFi for long links, and Starlink Rural for satellite internet.
Where this comes from
The primary sources behind the above, so you can check any of it yourself rather than take our word for it:
- LoRa and LoRaWAN, the long-range radio technology behind most rural sensor links.
- Low-power wide-area networks, the wider class of radio these sensors belong to.
- ACMA: low interference potential devices class licence, the Australian spectrum rules these radios operate under.
- Level sensors and telemetry, background on measuring a level and sending the reading somewhere else.
- Internet of things, the general idea behind connected sensors on a property.
Questions people ask
How does remote tank monitoring work?
A level sensor on or in the tank measures how much water is there and sends the reading back to one dashboard over a low-power radio, so you can check every tank from your phone without driving the property. You set a low-level threshold and get an alert before a tank or trough runs dry.
Does it work where there is no mobile signal?
Yes. The sensors use a low-power radio mesh that reaches the bores, dams and back-paddock tanks a mobile signal does not, hopping the readings back to a gateway and then to the dashboard. No-signal sites are exactly what it is built for.
What can it monitor?
Rainwater and stock tanks, bores and dams, troughs and pumps, with leak and flow alerts. For non-water sensing such as gates, pumps and frost, the sister service Rural IoT brings those onto the same kind of dashboard.
What alerts do I get?
SMS, email or push alerts when a level crosses the threshold you set, plus full history and year-on-year comparison so you can see usage and trends. The point is to know before a tank runs dry, not after.
Who installs and supports it?
Tank Monitoring is the water-monitoring service of Alien IT Solutions, an Australian IT and networks company with more than 18 years of experience. Alien IT designs, installs and monitors the sensors, the radio mesh and the dashboard.
Know your water. From anywhere.
Tell us the tanks, dams and bores you want to watch. Alien IT will design the monitoring and price it.
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