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 13, 2013 | Equipment, Science
BuildMyLED, an Austin-based aquarium equipment manufacturer that specializes in custom LED lighting options for marine and freshwater aquariums, recently announced their latest product, LED refugium lighting. In typical BML fashion, the light fixtures are offered up in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, with several different beam angle options, a couple of different colors, and in three different spectra also being available. While LED refugium lighting isn’t anything new, BuildMyLED is doing something that most others don’t. They really did their homework, and have designed three different versions of their lights to each grow a particular type of algae. Instead of just making a single catch all type fixture, which is one of the options, their refugium lights are designed to specifically grow either red or green macroalgae. The Universal Spectrum refugium LED might seem like the best choice on the surface, but today’s hobbyists are finding that certain types of algae perform better than others in their specific systems. In my personal tank, I’ve found that my Dragon’s Tongue algae does far better than Chaetomorpha or Caulerpa, though in another system that is similarly designed the green macroalgae have done better. So, we definitely see significant value in targeting a specific type of algae. The custom refugium lights come in eight different lengths, with the shortest being 12″ and the longest being six feet by AquaNerd | Nov 7, 2013 | Science, Tanks
Since our initial reveal of the new R420R Razor 300w LED fixture came to us via poor quality video from a random trade show in some other country, we felt that this official announcement from Maxspect was a far more proper introduction. This new Razor is the largest in the lineup, sporting six clusters of LEDs across its nearly four foot wingspan. Besides the length and number of LED clusters, little is different from the other Razor models. In fact, the 300w verion sports the same control panel, the same LED colors, and all of the other features that have made the Razor such a popular choice for aquarium keepers. Priced at $899, the Razor measures 43.5 inches long, making it a perfect match for four foot long aquariums. With the mounting legs, which are included, the fixture stretches it reach by another four feet, allowing hobbyists even with eight foot tanks to join in on the fun. Despite its size, the R420R 300w fixture weighs just 9 lbs, allowing the hanging options to be virtually limitless. The fixture isn’t quite available to purchase, but it is showing up on the websites of retailers as they start taking pre-orders. You might remember from our previously released writeup on this fixture that it is actually replacing a 200watt prototype that was shown off at MACNA, as Maxspect felt the 200watt version just wasn’t going to cut it on larger tanks by AquaNerd | Nov 6, 2013 | Equipment, Science, Tanks
Good news AquaIllumination fans. The long awaited AI Director controller is now available to pre-order through any one of a number of different aquarium equipment retailers. Priced at $99, the AI Director allows hobbyists to control any of the wirelessly enabled AI modues with any web enabled device from any part of the world. Users will be able to access the controller via AquaIllumination’s cloud-based service, myAI, and native apps for both iOS and Android will also be available soon. A single AI Director can manage up to 10 tanks and up to 30 different AquaIllumination LED modules. Users can also take advantage of all of the features of each light, being able to adjust weather patterns (rolling clouds and lightning) lunar cycles, and coral acclimation cycles. The Director can also control up to 100 time points per LED color per group for a given day by AquaNerd | Oct 28, 2013 | Equipment, Industry
Here’s a product we spotted at MACNA back in September that we totally overlooked in our coverage. It’s the Reef Spectrum P47, and instead of wrapping a bunch of LEDs in a plastic housing molded around a gaudy heatsink, ReefLEDLights chose instead to put their chassis under a stylish carbon fiber shell. The fixture comes packed with 47 Cree LEDs, two of which are meant to be a moonlight, and a controller that adjust the intensity of the white, blue, and moonlight channels independently. In addition to the manual controls, this well rounded fixture can also be controlled via Neptune Apex and Reef Angel aquarium controllers. The Reef Spectrum P47 isn’t a small or lightweight fixture. It has a footprint of 18 1/4″ x 9 1/2″, and although the product description didn’t mention weight and we didn’t have a scale with us a MACNA, we assume it tips the scales at probably 25 pounds or more. This is an assumption, and we wouldn’t be surprised if it weighed more than that. Refocusing on the business end of the fixture, Carclo optics are offered in a couple of different varieties to direct the light downward, into the aquarium. Aquarists can choose between Ripple Wide Optics for greater depth penetration or Wide Angle Reflectors for those shallower tanks.
