Reef Builders -The Reef Aquarium Blog

We are often captivated by the beauty of coral reefs from below the water’s surface but these awe-inspiring reefs are just as wonderful from space. WIRED put together a stunning photo montage of islands across the globe viewed from far above and we’ve brought some of these incredible images from coral reef zones here for your viewing pleasure. Take your protein pill, put your helmet on then enjoy all the wonderful photos!

If you’re a regular reader of my ramblings here on Reef Builders, at hobby conferences and in and hobby magazines, you know I’m a HUGE fan of “outside-the-box” thinking in aquascaping. No rock walls and boring layouts for me. Nope! Give me something waaay out there! My pledge to you, the reader, is to share any of these inspiring, outside-the-box systems when I stumble on them. Not long ago, I was perusing an online forum when I saw a link to an aquarium that someone referred to as his “volcano tank”. Curious reef geek that I am, I simply had to check it out.

Continue reading “Aquascaping “Outside The Box”—The Volcano-scape of Kyle Verry” →

It sure looks like Aquactinics is planning on releasing a new T5/LED hybrid lighting fixture. We heard murmurs for a long time about how they were going to release a new fixture (MACNA, RAP) but this is the first time we’ve seen a working prototype in the flesh before. This is a 72″ model and no doubt we would expect other sizes to be produced along with this massive model, now all we need are specs of the LEDs in use along with a firm release release date and price. That isn’t to much to ask now is it?

Update: This has been going for the past year at least…check our previous coverage here.

The Mountain West Reef Fest is one of the largest reef aquarium event left this year, and with the massive Wasatch Marine Aquarium Society behind it, this show promises to be one of the largest one-day reef shows this side of the Mississippi. We’ll be there, covering the speakers and products and looking forward to putting a cap on a productive year on the speaking circuit. Some of the other speakers at the Saturday event include Scott Michael, Ike Eigenbrode, Frank Burr and Justin Credabel. Tickets to the MWRF cost start at $30, $20 for WMAS members and we look forward to meeting you there.

We know Coral Morphologic for their quality Florida ricordia, corallimorphs and zoanthids, but did you know they are productive artists in the Miami art scene as well? Recently a local PBS affiliate WLNR featured Morphologic Studio artists and owners Colin Foord and Jared McKay in a segment on “ArtStreet” showing the unique works of art using the living creatures of Miami’s coral reefs as not only inspiration but part of their art. Foord, a marine biologist, started Morphologic Studios with McKay as a way to further the study of Miami’s waters and started the retail arm, Coral Morphologics. Hats off to these two for using art as a great medium to bring awareness and education to the wonderful creatures sharing Florida’s coastal waters.

Earlier this week I received two LeDio 7 watt LED lamps and one Ledio 21 watt from my friend Eiji in Japan who is running the best community site for reefers, 1.023 World.   Actually, he got some samples from Volx Japan who is making the Ledio series. The LeDio lamps I received are the 7 watt Mystery Purple lamp that has blue red and green LEDs in a 3:3:1 ratio,  the 7 watt Aqua Blue has 3 white and 4 blue LEDs and the Coral blue that has 6 blue and one white LED. I measured PAR for each LEDs by setting up LEDs 6″ above the water surface for 20Gal long tank on a newly setup tank for LPS.  As you know, the depth of the tank is only 12inch.  PAR values for Ledio7 of both Mystery Purple and Aqua Blue are around 100 mmol which is an amazing value for 7 watts of LED.  Then, you can easily image that Ledio21 has much higher PAR reading.  Actually, the PAR value for Ledio21 is 679 mmol!!!  This value is the same value ATI Powermodule (54W x 8 ) has over my 48inch SPS dominated tank.  At these intense PAR values we can assume that we can maintain SPS with Ledio LEDs only. By the way, Ledio series designed for 100V, so I used a transformer to reduce the voltage from 120V to 100V. Follow the break for more images of the set up and the lamps side by side. I will be evaluating the popular LED spotlight form factor lamps over a range of corals and report back about my experiences with the Grassy LeDio lamps. So far, so good.

Continue reading “LeDio LED spotlight 7W and 21W: PAR values and first impressions” →

Coral antioxidants and fluorescent proteins  are about to crossroad after the publication of the paper by Palmer et. al on Coral Fluorescent Proteins as Antioxidants. According to Palmer, Modi and Mydlar, most corals have been known to produce a wide range of fluorescent proteins but the purpose for these proteins was relatively undocumented. The research team examined how some corals seem to produce more fluorescence when they are stressed or injured, and they used Hydrogen Peroxide scavenging rates as a proxy measurement for the antioxidant potential of these upregulated proteins. The paper noted that chromoprotein, cyan fluorescent protein (CFP) and red fluorescent protein (RFP) behaved as powerful antioxidants that protected corals from free oxygen radicals, promoting healing in the compromised tissues of corals. It is unclear how this study might relate to GFP infection in stony corals but if the intense fluorescent color of ZEOvit and ULNS aquaria is anything to go by, the keepers of these kinds of oligotrophic reef aquarium systems might want to rethink why their corals are so bright, and whether their brilliant corals might be stressed into appearing so bright. The Astreopora coral above has displayed a concentration of chromoprotein in purple spots for over two years now. This coloration occurs precisely where the coral appears to be developing some sort of aberrant growth form all over the colony. Under certain conditions, fragments from this colony can also display the odd purple coloration and whether this is some  sort of Chromoprotein “infection” akin the GFP infection is totally speculative, but it’s still totally cool. The Porites image to the right is from a short piece on the topic from NatGeo.

The Marinelife Aquarium Society of Michigan, MASM, has officially kicked off their innovative Breeding Initiative with their first Breeders Challenge.  If you have been looking for an excuse to get into breeding marine ornamentals, this is the program you have been waiting for. Not only have Matt Wittenrich, author of “The Complete Illustrated Breeder’s Guide to Marine Aquarium Fishes” and Matt Pedersen, MASNA’s 2009 Hobbyist of the Year and IMAC’s 2009 Hobbyist of the year, been lined up as MBI advisors to help breeders throughout the Initiative, but they will also be part of a breeders workshop in March 2010 hosted by MASM. You don’t need to be a member of MASM to participate, but you’ll need to keep a breeding journal on the MASM site, and the Initiative includes marine fish and inverts that propagate via sexual reproduction. There are 4 classes of breeding animals based on how difficult they are to breed ‘A’ being the easiest, ‘D’ being the hardest. Points will be given to participants achieving breeding milestones including spawning, hatching, metamorphosis  and 60 days post metamorphosis and various awards will be awarded for successes. This MBI Breeders Challenge runs from November 1, 2009 to December 31st 2010, so click here and start breeding!

There is a new tank management software type service available online, the service which is called Reef Nook allows you to enter information about your tank and the creatures that live inside it. Chuck runs reef nook and offers a lot of features that will make Reef Nook a viable choice to keep stats on your aquarium. There is better news, Reef Nook works with popular aquarium controllers like Reefkeeper, AC3/Apex and Aquatronica. Profilux development is in the works so that controller will be added to the list of the already expanding controllers. I’m glad to see a service that allows you to monitor your aquarium and input tank parameters and such, as I had the idea a long time ago but from lack of time failed to do anything about it. However, Chuck seems to be doing a real good job of taking feedback and wants this to become very user friendly. To do that he needs your help to make the site better, so be sure to drop on over to Reef Nook and get your free account.

Another day, another LED light. This light made by Kotobuki is being released in Japan and offers a slim and compact unit that actually looks quite slick. The Kotobuki LED light is rated at only 3 watts so its best for nano, or ideally a pico aquarium and you could easily pick one up for around $33 (¥2,980) if you live in Japan. The only draw back with this LED light stick is the tank needs to be rimless, or without that pesky black frame that is common to add to aquariums in the United States. Few US manufacturers have figured out that frameless looks better, something that the rest of the world has already figured out.

Continue reading “Kotobuki Eco LED Light Stick in Japan for ¥2,980″ →