Reef Builders -The Reef Aquarium Blog » Product Announcements

Slim Skim Performer new internal protein skimmer from Hydor

Brian Blank — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 03:17:01 +0000

The Slim-Skim Performer is a new internal protein skimmer from Hydor which seems to have a little more punch than the average internal skimmer. The skimmer features magnetic suction cup mounting, multiple venturi impellers all with a low power draw of 5W. There are no numbers for the air draw of this puppy yet but it does feature a toothed overflow-type surface water intake so its sure to grab the nasties floating on the tank’s surface. The skimmer measures about 7” x 4.25’ x 17.75” and is rated for tanks up to 65 gallons (48 gallons heavily stocked). Initial pricing is around £149.99 ($252 USD) in the UK. No word on availability in the U.S. market but we’ll be sure to report as soon as we get word.

[via Practical Fishkeeping]

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Slim Skim Performer new internal protein skimmer from Hydor

Slim Skim Performer new internal protein skimmer from Hydor

HM Digital FM-2 filter monitor, volumizer keeps tabs on your RO/DI system

Brian Blank — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:11:26 +0000

The HM Digital FM-2 filter monitor and volumizer is a nifty tool for keeping track of when to change out your reverse osmosis and de-ionization unit’s filters. The simple digital display can track up to five stages by both time and volume of water going through your RO or RO/DI unit and alert you when to change out that specific stage. No more guessing on how many gallons have traveled through your unit, you’ll be able to set the monitor to keep tabs on the volume rate and know when to change your filters. This will be quite handy to set out a filter-changing cycle where you may want to do more frequent changes to the sediment or pre-filters that are less expensive as well as taking the brunt of the filtration. An LED faucet indicator disc will illuminate a green, yellow or red light when the water is turned on indicating the percentage of elapsed time. Attaching the volumizer is via ¼” quick disconnect connections and will let you chose water volume in either gallons or liters. These units are priced just under $50 USD and is currently on sale for $38.99 over at Bulk Reef Supply.

A five-stage filter monitor with five independent timers and a tri-color LED faucet indicator disc.
The volumizer counts up in gallons or liters (settings can be modified).
Works on time (and volume for the FM-2) for up to five stages (can be less).
The LED indicator disc will illuminate a green, yellow or red light when the water is turned on. The color indicates the percentage of elapsed time.
Auto-Off function conserves battery power. The unit shuts off automatically after 5 minutes of non-use.
The timer counts down in months or days (settings can be modified).
Includes an audible alarm (beep).

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HM Digital FM-2 filter monitor, volumizer keeps tabs on your RO/DI system

HM Digital FM-2 filter monitor, volumizer keeps tabs on your RO/DI system

Fauna Marin’s new Lith filter: January 2010

Ryan Gripp — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:11:18 +0000

Fauna Marin is testing a new Lith Filter that should be available sometime in 2010. This new filter features “high quality acrylic, dosing plug for ease of dosing Ultra Bio, built in flow control (no messy external ball valve)”, and the pump is easily removed from the base. A North Carolina Fish farm is the place to find the evaluation units and if all goes as planned you’ll be able to snag either a 1.5 liter or 2.5 for less than $200 and $249 respectively in January of next year. Now, if we just eliminate the constant “stirring” chore all together we’d really be happy campers.

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Fauna Marin’s new Lith filter: January 2010

Fauna Marin’s new Lith filter: January 2010

BioPellets coming to North America from Aquarium Specialty

Brian Blank — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:43:53 +0000

More good news on the NP-reducing BioPellets we brought you earlier. Reef Builders’ sponsor Aquarium Specialty is bringing the BioPellets to North America in mid-November and they are taking pre-orders today. Aquarium Specialty expects the shipment to arrive the second week of the month and will offer the product in 500 ml and 1000 ml quantities which will run $52.95 and $99.95 respectively. The Reef Builders staff is expecting a batch of this exciting new bacterial filtration substrate in the coming weeks for evaluation on a variety of applications. We’ll be sure to report back with updates and our first impressions with the product in person.

This is what Aquarium Specialty is saying on the site:

We at Aquarium Specialty are expecting our first shipment of these exciting new pellets the second week of November 2009. We are accepting preorders now and will ship the pellets as soon as they arrive! [...] This product has been developed for (professional) aquarists who want to supply their aquarium inhabitants with large quantities of feeds without negatively affecting water quality. The husbandry of marine species which require large amounts of nutrition has made a crucial step forward with this new product. Examples of such species are Anthias fish, soft corals such as Dendronephthya sp. and filter feeders such as sea squirts.

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BioPellets coming to North America from Aquarium Specialty

BioPellets coming to North America from Aquarium Specialty

Sicce CO2 Life tank-less CO2 delivery shows possibilities

Brian Blank — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 20:14:58 +0000

The Sicce CO2 Life tank-less CO2 dosing system has been seen in Europe in the freshwater aquarium trade and we wonder if the tank-less CO2 delivery system has any future for the reef aquarium hobby as an alternative to tank and regulator setups. It appears the Sicce “patented” system uses a solid carbon block and electrolysis, the method of separating bonded elements and compounds by passing an electric current through them, to deliver CO2 into the tank directly. The electrolytic reaction breaks down the water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen with the oxygen reacting with a carbon block to create CO2. This isn’t the first tank-less carbon delivery system to hit the market with others previously retailing for nearly $200 and garnering mixed reviews from planted tank enthusiasts. The Sicce system retails starting at £64.99 ($104 USD) with refill sets costing £21.49 ($35 USD). We wonder if this technology has been tested in saltwater applications. It would be interesting to incorporate a unit like this into a calcium reactor giving you more real estate under the tank or in the fish room.

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Sicce CO2 Life tank-less CO2 delivery shows possibilities

Sicce CO2 Life tank-less CO2 delivery shows possibilities

Aqua Controller Face Plates from Grey Sea’s Aquatics

Ryan Gripp — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:57:52 +0000

The AquaController face plates are an interesting idea. We think this is a great idea if you want your controller to match your cabinetry that your aquarium rests on. This also hides a lot of cords/cables that you might not want to be seen supporting your saltwater aquarium. You can pick these faceplates from Grey Sea’s Aquatics. They are all unfinished, so you would have to paint, and finish them yourself with the color that matches the rest of your setup. Pricing is as follows ACjr ($27.95) AC3 ($29.95) AC3pro ($32.95). We have a hunch this will be popular with aquarium installers whose customers want something that matches their custom saltwater setup. The next question, are face plates coming for the Apex?

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Aqua Controller Face Plates from Grey Sea’s Aquatics

Aqua Controller Face Plates from Grey Sea’s Aquatics

Dirty Burgess butterflyfish officially reclassified as a Heniochus

Jake Adams — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 19:03:08 +0000

The Chaetodon butterflyfish of the subgenus Roa are amongst the most beautiful, striking and highly sought after marine fish by rare fish collectors. All except the one which goes by the name of “Dirty Burgess”. The dirty burgess butterflyfish is a hybrid of the dull Chaetodon burgessi and some other unlucky Roa butterflyfish such as the Tinker’s or the yellowcrown butterflyfish. The bastard result of this cross is a muddy uncolored fish which looks more like a sick Heniochus than a member of the subgenus Roa. Adding insult to injury is the exorbitant price these fish go for because they are highly prized in Asia as a delicacy for their concentrated mutt flavor. The people who actually would even want to keep this fish in an aquarium can be counted on one hand. Compare to the photo of a full blooded C. tinkeri and it’s easy to see why the dirty burgess butterflyfish is in such low demand for aquariums. Due to the outcry from true Roa fans in the scientific and marine aquarium communities, famed ichthyologists Jack Randall and Rich Pyle have stepped in to bailout the image of the Roa subgenus by reclassifying the dirty burgess butterflyfish where it belongs, as a low level Heniochus.

Randall & Pyle. 2009. Reclassification of the Dirty Burgess Butterflyfish to the genus Heniochus.

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Dirty Burgess butterflyfish officially reclassified as a Heniochus

Dirty Burgess butterflyfish officially reclassified as a Heniochus

Master LED from Phillips could be lighting nanos and fuges in July

Jake Adams — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 01:37:31 +0000

We here at Reef Builders can’t get enough of LED lights and the subject of this post is a droolworthy entry. The forthcoming Master LED from Phillips is a 9w LED light with the same form factor as the familiar classic incandescent light bulb. The $50-70 light is estimated to have the same light output as a 40w light and it should last up to 45,000 hours. With a heat sink chiseled right out of the lamp’s body, you know this light means business. The Master LED light series will also include a 7w gu10 accent light and a medium base 7w spot light. The lamps are available in a cool or warm white flavors and they are available from fine European light vendors now with American release scheduled for this summer. We expect these pinnacles of efficiency should be quite a hit with the DIY nano lighting crowd, let’s hope higher power and Kelvin ratings are on their way.

Phillips Master LED

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Master LED from Phillips could be lighting nanos and fuges in July

Master LED from Phillips could be lighting nanos and fuges in July

Reefnet releases Reef Fish ID DVD, for Caribbean fish

Jake Adams — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 20:02:46 +0000

If you’ve been in an American dive shop in the last ten years then you have likely seen the seminal Reef Fish Identification for getting to know all of your Caribbean fish. This book is a fantastic work which is practically untouchable when it comes to pictures of fish from Florida, Bahamas and the Caribbean. We’ve personally gone through two copies of the first edition, we were very pleased with the updates to the enlarged 3rd edition but now we yearn for the ultimate interactive DVD updated to it’s 4th edition. With over 4500 photos, 1800 video clips and 842 species, This reference is a monster people. The DVD includes innumerable features to help you learn your Caribbean fish including a species browser, search engine and a fish quiz. The FishID DVD glory can be purchased online for $55 or as a $20 upgrade to the 3rd edition and if you are at all interested, be sure to take the online tour of all the DVD’s features.

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Reefnet releases Reef Fish ID DVD, for Caribbean fish

Reefnet releases Reef Fish ID DVD, for Caribbean fish

Reefstock 2009, at the Downtown Aquarium in Denver Colorado.

Jake Adams — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 22:58:42 +0000

If you live in Colorado or a neighbouring state, clear your calendar for Reefstock March 14th 2009 at the Downtown Aquarium in Denver. Following on the enormous success of last year’s Reefstock, this year the event will be raising the bar for marine aquarium events all over the country. The Saturday event will present professional presentations by Sanjay Joshi, Joe Yaiullo and Kevin Kohen, all masters of their craft and the Mega Raffle is already packed with lots of valuable and useful aquarium goods. Denver’s Downtown Aquarium features many unique aquarium exhibits which are of the highest quality; Falcifer Butterflyfish, Asian arowanas, platinum barramundi and and truly mature, thriving 5000 gallon reef aquarium are among the gems of the Aquarium. Event sponsors Seachem, Ecotech Marine, AquaticLife, Brightwell, Reef Nutrition and Sera will have exhibits and representatives to answer your product questions. Last year’s presentation of 1000 frags was second to none and even more corals will be available this year. We hope to see you all there, for more information please visit the Reefstock webpage.

Other items you might enjoy:

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Reefstock 2009, at the Downtown Aquarium in Denver Colorado.

Reefstock 2009, at the Downtown Aquarium in Denver Colorado.

Reef Builders -The Reef Aquarium Blog » Product Announcements

Slim Skim Performer new internal protein skimmer from Hydor

Related Posts

HM Digital FM-2 filter monitor, volumizer keeps tabs on your RO/DI system

Related Posts

Fauna Marin’s new Lith filter: January 2010

Related Posts

BioPellets coming to North America from Aquarium Specialty

Related Posts

Sicce CO2 Life tank-less CO2 delivery shows possibilities

Related Posts

Aqua Controller Face Plates from Grey Sea’s Aquatics

Related Posts

Dirty Burgess butterflyfish officially reclassified as a Heniochus

Related Posts

Master LED from Phillips could be lighting nanos and fuges in July

Related Posts

Reefnet releases Reef Fish ID DVD, for Caribbean fish

Related Posts

Reefstock 2009, at the Downtown Aquarium in Denver Colorado.

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