by AquaNerd | Dec 11, 2013 | Corals, Fish, Industry, Photography, Science, Tanks
By: Daniel Leija The use of cell phones is nothing new in this hobby, as they’ve been a vital tool with applications that help us calculate how much calcium to dose in our tank and give us the ability to monitor and control our aquariums from afar. While these apps haven’t been around for too long, comparatively, something that has been in use for what seem like an eternity is cell phone cameras, and hobbyists are always improving aquarium photography with their phones. With the constant competition of who is the best and top dog of the smartphone industry, it is the camera in our phones that is always upgraded. For example, the iPhone 5 has an 8 megapixel camera. This year the iPhone 5s was released, and while it stayed with its 8 megapixel camera, it increased its aperture to f/2.4, allowing up to %33 more light into the camera. It also got really neat features like the burst mode allowing you to capture things in action with more success. It also got the slow-mo feature slowing videos down making for really neat shots of fish eating or swimming. While DSLR macro shots are relatively nice, we all know that is another hobby that gets expensive. Nothing is going to beat a nice crisp shot you get with a true macro lens attached to that awesome camera of your choice, but we have found great success snapping close up pictures of our tanks with our phones by AquaNerd | Dec 5, 2013 | Equipment, Science, Tanks
By: Joe Savoy At the last Reef-a-Palooza show in Costa Mesa, California, I had the absolute pleasure of bringing home the recently debuted Orphek Helix 3000 cone skimmer. If you’re anything like me, you get excited when it comes to brand new equipment, and needless to say, I was excited for this one. When you first lay eyes on the Helix, it looks like your typical cone skimmer but with a few subtle yet significant differences. Everything about it is sleek, from the white DC pump to the collection cup cover and everything in between. Rated at around 400 gallons, this skimmer has the potential of skimming a wide variety of tanks due to the controllable pump. One of first things you see notice on this skimmer is the high RPM controllable DC pump. This 3000 l/h (792gph) needle-wheel pump, at full power, draws 25 watts and has a pause mode with an automatic timer for 10 minutes. The pump basically forces bubble-enriched water through what is called the helix disk, Orphek’s take on the bubble plate. This disk directs the movement of the water in a 360 degree spiral motion up the cone to increase contact time and produce a more efficient skim 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 14, 2013 | Science, Tanks
One of the biggest concerns with aquarium hobbyists is accidentally introducing chemicals and other harmful substances into their precious aquariums. While many of us are aware of these risks of cross-contamination and go to great lengths to clean our hands before getting into our tanks, we have been limited to soap products that aren’t exactly aquarium safe…until now. Reef Suds is a brand new aquarium-safe soap that is all-natural and designed specifically for aquarium hobbyists. It is so safe, in fact, that you can place the soap directly into an aquarium (as pictures), though we don’t recommend it. Expected to launch later this month, each bar of Reef Suds will retail for $9, though there is currently a special introductory price hovering just above $6. And better still, $1 from every bar of soap sold is donated directly to the Coral Reef Alliance. In addition to the soap, Reef Suds is also hoping to build a community around their product. They have already been active on Nano-reef.com and will start sending out regular newsletters that will include hobby news, tank of the month, coupons, and giveaways. Special thanks to Jarod for sending us this info. 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
