Reef Builders -The Reef Aquarium Blog

Photo from "Marine Atlas" by Helmut Debelius

After 30-something years in the hobby, you see a lot of trends come and go. Fads and “new” ideas show up and subsequently vanish back into the mists of time. Some of these “fads” do stick around a while, yet many quickly disappear after we move on to the next big thing.

You need only look back in recent  reef hobby “history” to see examples of what I mean: A few years back, Acanthastrea was all the rage. If you had one, it didn’t matter how ugly it was—you were the coolest thing this side of ORA! People were downright proud of the big bucks they dropped on “designer Acans.”  Much has been written about that topic, so I’ll leave it at that. Then came the Micromussa, and suddenly, we were into a whole new coral phase, with a similar madness—inflated prices and trendy names! This one stuck around a lot longer—and with good reason in my opinion, at least Micromussa are actually attractive! It’s really fun for me to follow these trends and how they arise, I tell ya!

Sitting around one night, I was looking at the sexy new equipment I’ve been accumulating for my new system, and I thought about some major trends and fads from over the years to see what impact they had on the hobby. How they impacted us and—for that matter—how they actually stuck around. I settled on two items that really fit the bill. Here are my rants on both:

Continue reading “From revolution to evolution: a look at two hobby trends and their impact” →

Steinhart Aquarium

We always enjoy looking back on the hobby seeing how we’ve progressed over the years, so when we came across this antique, bronzed seahorse design aquarium from the 1920s on Off the Wall Antiques we had to share it. This 20-gallon aquarium was made 1926 by the Jewel Aquarium Co. of Chicago. The tank is old school slate bottomed with some very ornate seahorses added to the design of the stand very reminiscent of the famous seahorse railing of San Francisco’s Steinhart Aquarium from the same time period. The tank is “supported” on the side with bronzed dolphins to keep the sea motif. This classic aquarium was sold for an unknown price but a less-than-stellar reproduction is selling for $8,500, so figure the original had to sell for at in the neighborhood of $15,000. The reproduction does a good job with the stand and base, but the aquarium itself is new and just looks like an off-the-shelf 20g spray painted bronze with what looks like some sort of common Oceanic light fixture. For the $8,500 we figured there would be some sort of ornate top to match the majestic stand.

The High Seas Prop Pump aka Sun Sun pump from Coralvue can’t decide whether it is aping a Hydor Korallia, Tunze Nano Stream or both. It’s no surprise then that the cheaply made Chinese product has been recalled in Canada due to a couple reports of electrocution. We first wrote about the High Seas Prop pump at the Midwest Frag Fest where they sported some ridiculously cheap retail pricing.  In less than six months, the pumps have caused enough problems to be recalled in Canada and if problems arise in the US we could see an American recall as well. If you’ve recently purchased some ridiculously cheap propeller style water pump that came in barely labeled white boxes, we suggest you give the pumps a very thorough examination and maybe pull out the old voltmeter to see if they are already leaking electrons into your tank. We spoke with an undercover EcoTech Marine operative who foresaw the potential problems with the Coralvue  pump when they were displayed at MACNA and it was suggested that they might be better re purposed as rotoscopic binoculars.

Sure. You might have seen frag holders before, but nothing like this that has been made for commercial use. Have a look-see at the “Stair  Frag holder” from Planctonite. The frag rack features over 48 slots for your new babies to sit and grow and it is made out of all cast acrylic.  I like this design because it should be easier to see all the frags in your tank without having to go above to see them all, much like how eggcrate designs work. You can pick one of these guys up for €45.00 ($67).

Reef Fusion 1 and Reef Fusion 2 from Seachem is the new two part calcium/buffer solution that we’ll soon be seeing on store shelves. Reef Fusion is a cute name that fits well in line with Seachem’s original naming convention for their products. Why Seachem has waited so long to throw a two-part solution into the ring is a mystery. With this move Seachem joins B-Ionic, Warner Marine and many other large reef aquarium additive manufacturers in solidifying the efficacy and popularity of using 2-part dosing solutions to maintain a balanced mineral and ionic balance in reef aquaria. Reef Fusion 1 and 2 “contains all utilized majors and minors”, note the use of the word ‘utilized’ and it should start showing up here shortly in December. We are told that the product will be priced very competitively and we look forward to seeing if Seachem does anything special with the formula for two-part solutions. Otherwise, why would they have taken so long to bring this to market?

When we think of marine aquaculture and warehouse facilities we think about the typical havens like Southern California’s thriving wholesaler industry a stone’s throw from LAX. So it’s amazing to see Drs. Foster & Smith’s LiveAquaria, one of the top-notch facilities, in the heart of America’s Midwest a five-hour drive north of Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s largest city. This post was inspired by a recent article in NewsoftheNorth.net on LiveAquaria and it’s director Kevin Kohen.

Let me frame the story for you. Northern Wisconsin was heavily based in mining and logging over the years, in fact my grandparents both Finnish and German immigrants started their new lives in America in Northern Wisconsin as farmers and loggers. Over the years, the Northwoods (or “Up North” as they say there) became the place to escape the hustle and bustle of life with vacation homes abundant on the vast and beautiful lakes of the area. In fact, during the heyday of organized crime in the 1920s and 30s, Northern Wisconsin was home to hideouts of famous gangsters like John Dillinger and Al Capone. In Manitowish Waters, less than an hour from LiveAquaria Rhinelander facility, is a resort named Little Bohemia where John Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson narrowly escaped the FBI.

Continue reading “Wisconsin Northwoods’ “Little Bohemia” of marine life” →

Pseudanthias hawaiiensis, Apolemichthys arcuatus and several other rare hawaiian endemic reef fish are featured in this fresh video of deep diving on the west side of Oahu. There is something surreal about looking at a lightly coral-encrusted volcanic reef slope and seeing a whole range of common aquarium fish that we usually associate with living on a coral-built, coral reef. This fun video features bandit angelfish in pairs, many common tangs, Hawaiian cardinalfish and a bicolor anthias. In one scene you can see a single crosshatch triggerfish in the foreground but the silhouettes of innumerably more in the distance. The especially unique scene is the lone male Hawaiian longfin anthias, Pseudanthias hawaiiensis, an endemic species which is very simlar to ventralis anthias, P. ventralis.

The Cool Sun HID pendant is a large reflector and mogul base lighting unit for use with high power metal halide or high pressure sodium lamps. This pendant may be primarily designed for horticultural use, it’s efficacy at reflecting tons of light beams in the desired direction is applicable to large reef tanks, perhaps eventually for use with Plasma Arc lighting in the future as well. This video documents the beginning of the Cool Sun pendant from sheet metal to fully packaged box; enjoy this mash-up of a music video and a ‘How it’s made’ clip from Sunlight Supply.

There is a new TEK lighting fixture/hood that is very close to landing on US shores. This new TEK fixture is said to have new reflectors, what is new about them? We don’t know. We do know that it should have cooling fans and splash lens shield of some kind. Outside of that, we are awaiting the release of the new product. Premium Aquatics has pricing, and it is as follows:

48″ x 4 Lamp – $358
48″ x 6 Lamp – $473
48″ x 8 Lamp – $578

We contacted Sunlight supply about the new fixture, but apparently they aren’t ready to divulge all the good details about the new unit, but you might want to hold up on that new T5 unit that you were about to buy. Mmmk?

With Aquarium Obsessed out of business, a new US distributor was needed to continue to fill the US shores with Aquatronica products.  We already knew that Sfiligoi will now be handled by Quality Marine out of California, but what is going to happen to Aquatronica? Aquarium Specialty is the new US distributor for their products and will shortly be offering Aquatronica’s wares on their website.