by AquaNerd | Sep 25, 2013 | Equipment, Industry, MACNA
AquaticLife had a great showing at MACNA this year, and we managed to get some serious one on one time with a brand new, yet to be released product called the Halo. This LED pendant is still in the prototype phase, but it’s already fully functional and shows great promise. The fixture sports a single multi-chip LED that is loaded with three different controllable color channels. These are broken down into your typical blue, UV, and white emitters. Each channel is manually controllable via dials on the top of the pendant, and users can set up custom lighting schedules with the on-board timer. All in all, the Halo consumes somewhere around 90 watts total, with the LEDs chewing up about 75. While there is no release date or price that has been settled upon, we were told that AquaticLife is toying around with the idea of offering two different models by AquaNerd | Sep 25, 2013 | Corals, Equipment, Industry
One of the coolest, simplest, and most inexpensive products we saw at MACNA was the Coral Holder from Aqua Medic. This straightforward device does exactly as its namesake suggests, holds corals, but it’s not your typical frag rack or ugly piece of PVC. Instead, it is a clean looking holder that can be adjusted to accomodate corals of various shapes and sizes. The Coral Holder isn’t new to the industry by any means, it isn’t exactly a device that you would find in the typical home aquarium. This is mostly due to the fact that hobbyists don’t display corals like retail and wholesale facilities do. That said, the holder could be a great tool for those hobbyists looking to keep bulky Euphylids or top-heavy Caulastrea colonies from toppling over, espeically in a frag tank. The Coral Holder opens and closes along a pair of long pegs on one side that fit into a slots on the opposite side. The two halves can be pulled completely apart from each other if need be, and pushed together to tighten around a particular coral. by AquaNerd | Sep 24, 2013 | Equipment, Industry
When it comes to new protein skimmers, we can appreciate it when companies stick to the tried and true, but we get even more excited when a someone does something a bit bold in order to stand out. Aqua Medic did just that with their aCone line of skimmers, which we got the privilege of getting up close to at MACNA. The cone shape isn’t anything new, but the bubble plate and skimmer pump are quite unique. On top of that, the designers incorporated one very hand drain that should help when it comes cleaning time. The bubble plate is one of the most unusual features of the aCone. It ditches the usual horizontal plate with upward facing holes in favor of a stack of plates that create horizontally opposed bubble channels, which really slow the flow of water and bubbles through the skimmer body. This increases dwell time, and therefore the amount of time the bubbles are in contact with the water. The second big selling point of the aCone is the skimmer pump volute, which isn’t completely unique in its design, but definitely out of the norm. ATI Aquaristik first introduced this sort of design, where water is drawn from the outer edge of the volute with air being injected directly in the middle. Other protein skimmers do this the other way around, drawing in air around the periphery of the volute. by AquaNerd | Sep 24, 2013 | Equipment, Industry, MACNA
The guys from across the pond were out and about at MACNA this year showing off some great new gear from Giesemann. Of course, LED lighting is all the rage, so it was no surprise to see a booth full of gorgeous LED hardware. Included in that bunch was a black version of the sleek looking Teszla, which we really liked, along with a much longer version if the same light, called the Teszla-XT. The Teszla-XT has all of the same features of the standard Teszla model, but just packs in more of it. Instead of a single circuit board full if diodes, it has two, effectively doubling the length of the fixture. This boost in size allows it to cover larger tanks more effectively, and is great for those ultra deep (front to back) tanks. Priced at $799, the Teszla-XT has loads of features, including: 0-100% adjustable intensity on all three color channels Three different color LEDs: white, blue, and royal blue channel Built-in 24hr timer Built-in moonlight cycle Sunrise/sunset feature Computer interface Bluetooth remote control via tablet/PC/Smartphone (requires external kit) Active temperature control system As for the black model, none of the hardware is different from the white, standard sized Teszla, but that black housing sure does look great. It gives users just one more way to make their aquariums look their best, and the choice between iPod white (Giesemann calls it Polar White), anodized silver, and piano black should allow the Teszla to just about fit into any design scheme. Like the white and silver models, the black Teszla will retail for $499. by AquaNerd | Sep 23, 2013 | Equipment, Industry, MACNA
MACNA is always a playground for new products, and the high end aquarium equipment manufacturers from Elos didn’t disappoint. Although their typical vehicle for new product releases has traditionally been the internationally renowned aquarium show, Interzoo, they treated MACNA attendees to their latest developments in the LED world. Elos unveiled their Plant PRO while shacking up with CoralVue in one sprawling booth. CoralVue recently took over exclusive distributorship of the entire Elos line for North America, hence the announcement at this year’s show, but I digress. The new Planet PRO is absolutely packed with features, including impressive modularity of the LED components, programmable NFC tags (a first for the aquarium industry as far as we are aware), an on-board timer, WiFi connectivity, and Bluetooth. It’s basically got all of the most popular methods of wireless control, and the fixture looks oh so sexy to boot. The new Elos Planet PRO comes packed with 24 LEDs, but that number can be tripled (up to 72 LEDs total) by swapping out the LED strips. With this option, users can not only customize the intensity of the fixture, but they can also pick and choose which colors to use to give you the most control over how the aquarium looks. The color options include white, red, blue, green and UV. The fixture comes stock with 120 degree lenses, but they can be easily exchanged with a variety of available lenses that include 15, 25, or 80 degree optics
