by AquaNerd | Sep 22, 2013 | Conservation, Corals, Fish, Industry
Here is some troubling news. According to a recent article on KeysNet, a news organization that focuses on the Florida Keys, the owner of Tropicorium Inc. and one of his employees have been indicted on felony charges of illegally taking livestock from Florida waters. The article states that the owner, Richard Perrin, and an employee, Joseph Franko, made two separate trips to the Florida Keys back in 2011. On these trips, they brought a customized van and a boat to collect saltwater fish and corals. Where the two men tripped up is that they did not have the proper permits to collect in Florida and they collected a slew of protected species. by AquaNerd | Sep 20, 2013 | Equipment, Industry, MACNA
The CoralVue booth was full of all sorts of goodies at this year’s MACNA. Besides all of the sweet Maxspect and Elos products (some of which we haven’t even gotten to yet), they are showing off a brand new Sharkman controllable powerhead, which will be Reef Octopus’ flagship powerhead. Like many controllable powerheads on the market, the Sharkman produces a strong stream of water flow at a relavitvely low energy consumption. A two-channel controller allows users to modify the flow rates for a pair of pumps, which includes a pulse mode that can create significant wave action. Only one model was on demo at MACNA, which we believe is an 8,000 LPH (approximately 2100 gph) model, but it won’t be the only one available to this new line of controllable pumps. The Sharkman pumps aren’t wholly dissimilar to other powerheads on the market except in two key areas, their controller and their mounting system. The Sharkman Wave Controller is simple and easy to use, providing a digital readout for the selected speed of the pumps and a countdown timer for the food timer function. Both the speed of the pumps and the frequency of the pulse can be independently adjusted to allow for whatever sort of wave action is desired by AquaNerd | Sep 18, 2013 | Equipment, Industry, Opinion
When it comes to moving water around, old salt buckets and plastic water jugs have always been the go to containers. But they have always had a significant downside. Lids would fall off, water would splash all over everything, and you might even accidentally drop one on your foot and cause some significant damage. Fortunately, Seachem has a terrific and very durable plastic container that eliminates all of those issues and then some. Called the HydroTote, this 5-gallon soft plastic jug can take all the abuse in the world and not spill a single drop of water. In fact, Seachem reps were literally dropping a HydroTote full of water from various heights, sometimes going as high as six feet or more. In each situation, we watched nervously as the HydroTote crashed to the ground. Normally, we’re not afraid of a little water by AquaNerd | Jul 9, 2013 | Aquaculture, Fish
Last year, Oceans Reefs & Aquariums unleashed their gorgeous Black Snowflake Clownfish onto the aquarium keeping world. At the time, only one grade of the fish was available, but that’s all changed. Now, ORA is also selling a premium grade version of their Black Snowflake, which have more striking patterns, more thorough white coloration, and several spots. Also announced with the new fish’s availability is lower wholesale pricing, which will help bring down retail costs to the consumer. According to ORA, it took several years of selective breeding to refine the coloration on this fish. And we can say that by judging from the pictures, that effort has really paid off. The fish are outright stunning and, in our opinions, far surpass the original ORA Snowflake clownfish in terms of beauty. Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but we’re sure most of you would agree. The new Premium Black Snowflake Clowns are showing up on availability lists this week, so get your store to order you a pair. by AquaNerd | Jun 13, 2013 | Equipment, Industry, Opinion
When it comes to aquarium illumination, the guys at Kessil seem to have the Midas touch. Since starting their foray into the aquarium realm back in 1Q 2011, at least in the eye of the public, each of their entries onto the market have been extremely well received. Their first product, the A150 and its variations, debuted with a huge splash, and that’s probably an understatement. Since then, the A350 and A360 have racking up even more fans to the brand, impressing us greatly along the way. To date, each of the Kessil products designed for aquarium use have come in the form of LED pendants, and it would appear that the lighting specialists are toying with the idea of branching out, at least where form factors are concerned. They recently teased all of us aquarium nerds with a couple of digital renderings of a potential Kessil LED panel light fixture over on their Facebook page. And from the looks of it, they’re on the right track. Pendant style lighting is sleek and stylish, but not everyone is a fan, choosing to stick with long fixtures instead. Each style has its pros and cons, and if you polled forum users, we know you would get a thousand different opinions. Regardless, there is a real market out there for light fixtures, so it’s no surprise that companies like Kessil are thinking about adding them to their offering. So, what sort of gear is Kessil looking at? Well, their latest digitally conceptualized fixture, which is just being called a “secret” Kessil panel light, is around two feet long and draws approximately 100w. The renderings show off a sleek, low profile light that can obviously be suspended over an aquarium. The hanging brackets that are attached to the fixture look remarkably like on-tank mounting legs, but again this is all a digital drawing board at this point. A handful of buttons grace the front of the fixture, a large top mounted fan provides activine cooling, and there might be some sort of antenna located on the right hand side of the light, though it’s hard to tell. We’re sure that the fixture, if it ever comes to fruition, will play nice with the Neptune Systems Aquacontroller, and going off Kessil’s track record, we know we won’t be disappointed. We honestly like the look of this fixture, and it’s a huge step up from the first concepts that were being rolled out (see below). While virtually all of the details of this secret panel light are still way up in the air, we’re glad to see that Kessil isn’t limiting themselves to just one style of light. Now that we have an idea of what Kessil is trying to accomplish, our big questions will center around the type and quantity of LEDs used. Will Kessil stick to the multi-chip LED that made all of their other products smash hits? All of that remains to be seen, but we will definitely be keeping our eyes peeled. The first LED fixture concept that Kessil teased. Note that this is a really early rough draft, and not an actual fixture.
