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 | Nov 6, 2013 | Science, Tanks
A couple of years ago, Royal Exclusiv released a beautiful line of double cone protein skimmers that provided a whole new type of cone shape to their Bubble King brand. Instead of the straight cone or a cylinder topped with a hideous conical transition into the neck, the double cone introduced a wine glass shape whose gentle curves not only looked great, but also provided for better movement of the bubbles through the skimmer. At the time of their introduction, the Bubble King Double Cone skimmers were aimed at the larger tank crowd, with the smallest model being rated for 500 liters (approximately 131 gallons). To address tanks under the 100 gallon mark, Royal Exclusiv has just introduced their Double Cone 150, which is rated for tanks up to 350 liters (around 92 gallons). The Bubble King Double Cone 150 sports a Mini Red Dragon 600 needlewheel pump that draws 625 lph air and 800 lph water. Those numbers are adjustable, as the volute on the pump’s intake can be rotated in or out to dial in the desired performance. The body has a footprint of roughly 7.7″ x 9.6″ (without the pump) and an overall height of 19.7″ 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 | Nov 5, 2013 | Fish, Science, Tanks
Oceans Reefs & Aquariums have another brand new coral frag to boast, and it’s the beaufitul ORA Mind Trick Montipora. This stunning monti, which is better known as the Jedi Mind Trick, has been in the hobby for quite some time, developing an extensive following and spreading through the tanks of hobbyists and retailers with a Jedi-like quickness. It sports a green body with red polyps and a very distinguishable purple growing edge, which is what really sets the coral apart. The ORA Mind Trick is primarily an encrusting Montipora that will eventually take on a more plate like appearance if it reaches a rock ledge. It does well under a variety of light intensities, but colors up best with plenty of blues to help that purple growing edge pop. ORA first acquired a single frag of this coral from a local hobbyist back in 2009. They have grown it out in their greenhouse, obviously reaching enough frags to be able to send them out en masse to fish stores across the US. As far as the name goes, ORA has to be very careful with particular coral names due to all of the legal hurdles associated with intellectual property and trademarking. Because the term “Jedi” is a product of George Lucas and likely owned by Disney, ORA couldn’t exactly use it in their commercially available product, at least not without having to pay royalties deal with some other repercussions. So, the coral was renamed to the ORA Mind Trick Monti, which we doubt anyone (at least on the hobby side) will fuss too much about 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.
