by AquaNerd | Nov 15, 2013 | Industry, Science
The aquarium hobby is teeming with all sorts of water pumps, with most of the industry’s best focusing on medium to large sized aquariums. There is a healthy offering for the smaller side of the hobby, and that segment is about to get a little more crowded. Sicce, the Italian creator of plenty of popular aquarium items, is now offering up a nano model of their crowd favorite Voyager pump. Aptly called the Voyager Nano, this pump comes in two different models, which both have an incredibly small size with a total length around 6.5 cm (barely over 2.5 inches). The flow rates for each model are 1000 and 2000 liters per hour (approximately 263 and 526 gph, respectively). Another interesting feature, which isn’t unique to the Voyager Nano but can be found on all of the newer Voyager models, is an automatic cleaning and lubricating system of the impeller chamber. In addition to keeping the motor and impeller clean and free of bubbles, the system also keeps the motor block cool, prolonging its life. This is especially important for those times when the pumps are being used on pulsing wave makers. In addition to the aforementioned features, the Voyager Nano also includes a vibration absorbing magnet mount, which is capable of handling glass thicknesses up to 12mm. The magnetic support also gives the pump a rotation of 360°, letting nano aquarists get the flow wherever they need it by AquaNerd | Nov 15, 2013 | Industry, Opinion, Science, Tanks
Several months back, Current USA debuted their Satellite LED lighting for freshwater aquariums, and the whole time we were thinking when they would release a set of stylish, low-profile, tank mounted lights for to the saltier side of the hobby. Sure, they already had the True Lumen and True Lumen Pro strip lights, but these were bare bones setups that, in our honest opinions, sacrificed aesthetics for pure function. Ideally, those lights were meant to hide inside of canopies or tank hoods. Well, the (somewhat) new Orbit Marine LED fixtures is Current USA’s response to that question, as they look pretty sharp, mount over an aquarium with built-in legs, and are loaded to the brim with some really useful features. According to Current USA, the Orbit Marine LED fixtures sports the aquarium industry’s first dual daylight and dual actinic multi-chip LEDs. They accomplish this by combining 8,000K and 12,000K white into one chip and 445nm and 460nm actinic blue into another. by AquaNerd | Nov 7, 2013 | Corals, DIY, Equipment, Fish, Industry, Science, Tanks
For years, all-in-one aquariums have been limited to small volumes and insufficient out-of-the-box features. Most of tanks that saw mainstream success stayed around 30-gallons or less, with just about all of them coming with inadequate filtration for a fully functional reef aquarium. Even adding extra equipment proved to be difficult, as the rear chambers of these tanks were often too small and the built-in lid limited what you could put in the back. Innovative Marine changed all that when they introduced their NUVO line of aquariums. The sleek, open-top aquariums had huge rear chambers for additional equipment, and they even made solid performing protein skimmers and media reactors that could easily fit. After a couple of very successful years, IM has expanded their initial lineup to include the all new Shallow Reef (SR) series, which was designed specifically from a hobbyist standpoint. The new SR tanks come in three beefy sizes of 60, 80 and 120 gallons by AquaNerd | Oct 7, 2013 | Equipment, Industry
This may or may not be news to everyone, but it is certainly news to us. The US distributor for Aquarium Technik BURIAN has either lost their exclusive distributorship of the ATB brand, or has gone out of business altogether. We were doing our usual perusal of the aquarium forums when we happened upon a post on Reef Central by someone claiming that they were told that ATB USA had gone out of business when contacting them for service repairs. Not wanting to take that at face value, as many rumors are generated on forums that end up not being true, we went to the ATB website. To our surprise, ATB USA was not listed anywhere. Instead, the list names Tenji as the distributors for the US. We are a bit surprised by this news, but given ATB’s seemingly diminished presence in the hobby as of late, it really shouldn’t come as one. ATB has lost significant ground in the last two years to all of the other brands that have adopted the cone shape. This isn’t to say that the quality of the ATB skimmers has declined, but hobbyists want to spend less for that quality and there are tons of other options available. We don’t exactly know when ATB USA went out of business, since nothing has been publicly announced. by AquaNerd | Oct 2, 2013 | Conservation, Corals
Here’s a bit of good news for the aquarium industry. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has decided to postpone listing 66 coral species under the Endangered Species Act by six months. After hearing extensive comments on the matter, NOAA determined that they needed to gather more information before making a final decision. They will complete their data solicitation by October 2013 and expect to make a decision on the information no later than June 2014. If NOAA finds sufficient reason to list the proposed corals, then each species will then become illegal to own or even propagate. And just taking a quick glance at the list, passage of the proposal would affect each and every one of us, tremendously. That announcement out of the way, here’s a little background on the story. The listing of these corals under the ESA stemmed from a petition by the Center for Biological Diversity to list a total 83 coral species. That petition was originally filed in 2009, but inactivity on NOAA’s part prompted legal action by the CBD. After some initial back and forth, an agreement was eventually constructed in which the National Marine Fisheries Service would conduct a year-long study of the proposed coral species in order to determine if their listing under the ESA was necessary
