If you have been reefing for last few years, you have undoubtedly heard of Reef Roids and Polyplab.

Polyplab, a Canadian-based company that specializes in coral food, has been steadily growing their brand stateside with their amazing products, great customer service, and visible presence in the reefing world through attending all the big shows like Reef A Palooza.

After they conquered the powder coral food market, many wondered what the coral food giant’s next step would be. While many companies try revolutionary methods to make a huge impact in the reefing world (neptune Systems’ Trident, Reef Kinetics’ Reef Bot comes to mind), Polyplab took different and subtle approach and went on to improve already-existing products that we all use on a regular basis. I saw one example of that during last year’s Reef A Palooza NY. I was having an conversation with Jakes Adams from Reef Builders, and during the interview, he surprised me with the fact that Polyplab‘s cellphone lens clip was the item that left the biggest impression on him for the show. That speaks volumes; they are really making reefing better, more convenient, and more fun for us end users.

Fast forward to this year’s Reef A Palooza Orlando, I stopped by their booth and talked to Stefano. He showed me some of their items, and here are few that caught my attention:

1.) Premium Coral Frag Glue.

One of the most used yet basic item that goes into core foundation of our reef keeping world is Cyanoacrylate glue. It is used no matter who you are in the hobby as long as you keep corals in your system.  Many companies produce it and they all work and serve their purpose. Now if that’s the case, how is this product different from the others? While I can’t give you an actual numbers about its thickness or its percentage of numbers of actual glue, I can say that IC Gel, from what I saw from their demonstration at the show, works very well, activates quickly, and held the blue lid of big jar on a index card with dab of glue. What I can tell you from personal experience is that it works as they claimed when I tested it in various aquarium settings. What makes this stand out and I am sure many have experienced this before, I have lost partial to significant amount of glue in bigger tubs due to water somehow touching the tip and activating the glue within. To fix this, Polyplab produces their glue in 4 gram packets that are easy to use or dispose after single (large frag session for regular hobbyist) or multiple sessions without worrying about wasting things away. This makes things very convenient for every day hobbyists like myself.

2.) Scope.

How many of us have examined our tanks at night, looking for odd behaviors in our animals or to scan for parasites? How many of us have used some sort of apparatus or asked LFS owners to turn their lights blue so that we can observe the florescence of certain species of coral or invertebrate? Scope is the new product from Polyplab for that exact purpose. Is it the first blue LED flashlight in the market? Certainly not. Many brands have come before them, however, they have really refined the flashlight and increased their standards of quality, durability, and functionality. I have not used a premium brand like Orphek’s version, but comparing Polyplab’s to so many off brands from China, this flashlight was a night and day difference.

First thing you notice when you grab this light is that it is solid. You can feel the heftiness of anodized black aluminum which is good for various things like taking knocks from our daily clumsiness or having resistance against forming rust from our saltwater environment or just having a good heat sink for your LEDs which will make it last longer. (It is still recommended that you take care of your product to make sure that it works in tip top shape)

The LED that they use is a very powerful but very pleasant wavelength of blue color to the eye. As you can see from the picture, on my not so small, 210 gallon display tank, it has no problem penetrating all the way down to the floor on the wide spread mode. What makes this unit unique is that it gives you control over this light. I can clearly tell that this light was designed by a hobbyist for hobbyists in mind.

For example, you have the ability to control the lens from wide to zoom-in with ease by sliding the lens part in and out. It’s too bright for you? What if you don’t have the height or have a small tank? For my nano 10 gallon tank, I simply lowered the intensity of the light by gently tapping the power button. (It goes blink, light/intermediate strength, full blast) I really appreciated the fact that they spent their time to design and input all the necessary functions us hobbyists will utilize and make it useful regardless of their aquarium size.

Narrow lens                                                                             Wide lens

I really like the way this company is making strides in introducing vast improvements on widely used and existing products. It will make our hobby more convenient, effective (less waste), and enjoyable as we dive into night observation of our beautiful animals in our slice of oceans. If you guys are looking for new glue or a new night LED light, be sure to check them out.

Polyplab will be at Reef A Palooza New York June 22-23, 2019. Be sure to stop by their booth to check out their demonstrations and to ask them any questions that you may have regarding their products.

Happy Reefing!