Reef Builders -The Reef Aquarium Blog

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.

MX series LED spotlight fixtures are an exciting new lighting product for the reef aquarium. Unlike many of the simple E26 LED spotlights that we’ve been seeing a lot of lately, this lamp is a complete fixture, including a clip-on actuating base that can adjust to suit your preferred lighting angle. Aquatouch of Phoenix, AZ has been testing the MX series LED spotlight fixtures for several months now and have deemed them worthy of importing to the aquarium trade for resale. The MX series spotlights come in six color combinations that can be combined to attain your preferred lighting intensity and color rendition. At $359.95, the LED spotlight fixture privilege won’t come cheap but we expect the lifetime and performance of these lamps to more than make up for it, at least for bragging rights! Aquatouch is already taking pre-orders for the MX series spotlight LED fixture and they expect to start shipping in early December. Follow the break for a look at the six different colors of the MX series LED spotlight fixture. Continue reading “MX series LED spotlight fixture from Aquatouch” →

LeColt LED spotlights have been made into at least three models, which are very popular with Japanese reef aquarists. The 3 watt and 10.5 watt flavors are unique multicolor LED spotlights which will soon be gracing American time zones thanks to expected imports by Aquatouch of Phoenix AZ. The 3 watt LED lamp is a single color, high-output LED with a single lens and it comes in a 6700K white or true actinic blue. The 10.5 watt LeColt consists of seven LEDs rated at 1.5 watts each. The lamp is available in 6 color combinations with varying amounts of blue, white, red and green LEDs. The 3 watt will retail for $89.95 and the 10.5 watt will retail for $269.95. Both are expected to start shipping from Aquatouch in early December. For more information visit the Aquatouch LED webpage where they are also taking pre-orders for these hotly anticipated LED spotlights.

The Neo Arm E26 base is a multi-directional clip-on lamp that will soon be available from Aquatouch. If you’ve been lusting after any number of LED spotlights that we’ve covered recently but are uncertain about the best way to screw your lamp, the Neo Arm is clearly one of the most stylish ways to support your LED spotlight for single and small to medium sized lamp applications.The Neo Arm is specifically designed to clamp on to rimless aquariums, a trend which is quickly overtaking the modern pico and nano reef aquarium segment. The clamp features a tension-tightening rubber boot which grips firmly onto the glass edge with 360 degree rotation around the clamp. The head also features 180 degree swiveling rotation and 180 degree vertical freedom for spotlighting your nano reef from an angle. The Neo Arm looks especially svelte when used with the single 3 watt and 4 watt LED spotlights. Aquatouch is taking pre-orders for the Neo Arm and we hope that this support for LED spotlights will be available and shipping from AZ in early December. The Neo Arm is expected to sell for $89.95; for more information visit the LED webpage on the Aquatouch website.

We here at Reef Builders like to maintain a positive tone in all of our writing but occasionally we have to bring light to very selfish and myopic actions which are deleterious to our hobby. Case in point: Reef Central removed a very valuable block of information from the bulletin board once the money stopped coming in. After years and tens of thousands of dollars in sponsorship, Seachem decided that sponsoring with Reef Central was no longer a part of their marketing strategy and that they preferred to do customer support through other avenues.  Seachem had this to say about the move:

Dear Reef Central Members:
We would like to take the opportunity to inform you that Seachem Laboratories will no longer be an active sponsor of ReefCentral.com. We have made this decision in an attempt to consolidate and streamline our avenues of product support to our customers and appreciate your understanding of this. We are grateful to all who have supported us in this community over the years and hope you will continue to do so in the future. Any and all product support-related questions can be addressed via our website, www.seachem.com.
Sincerely,
Seachem Product Support

Although Reef Central members could have benefited from a half decade of posts in the Seachem sponsor forum, since Seachem was no longer paying the site Reef Central very selfishly removed that subforum altogether, along with thousands of posts relating to using Seachem products which are very popular with a big swath of the reefing community, ourselves included. It’s a pity that Reef Central’s operators couldn’t see the value in leaving the thousands of answers which had been posted in the Seachem forum over all those years but we guess it will reinforce the growing trend for manufacturers, businesses and reef clubs to create their own forums where they will be shown a tad more respect.

The Waikiki Aquarium’s outdoor stony coral reef display has long been one of the first great examples of stony coral growth in a captive environment. The dense coral growth, amazing colors and the pioneering techniques that are a part of this aquarium exhibit have made this display one of the most recognizable in the world. The application of the Carlson Surge Device to this aquarium and the tremendous flow it produced was one of the factors which first underscored how critical water flow is for coral growth and health and it was one of the forces that kicked off a renaissance in water moving devices for the home aquarium. This historical video from Dr. Wing Hung Chung chronicles the Waikiki Aquarium’s outdoor reef display as it was back in the year 2000, well before the reef aquarium hobby experienced a surge in popularity. Even today this outdoor aquarium exhibit is still a pinnacle of captive coral growth and it’s awesome to see moving picture of this iconic reef display. However, with free flowing saltwater and abundant natural sunlight, this reef had better look stellar since it required no artificial lighting or mineral or additive replacements. Now that they are building completely closed in reef systems, it will be interesting to see what Carlson and Delbeek do with their mega-reefs in Atlanta and San Francisco.

There is a new phosphate and silicate remover available from Fauna Marin called Ultra Power Phos and made in conjunction with Bayer chemicals. One of the main ingredients Reef Builders has found out is Iron-hydroxide. Fauna Marin says that it will “rid your system of phosphates in even the most extreme case and furthermore will not release the pollutants back into your system once the media is exhausted. Not only is the New Ultra Power Phos cheaper than its main rivals, due to its unique binding agents you need to use less of the product and requires less changing.”  Those are some pretty powerful claims with a bottle of the stuff retailing for $39.95.

We received information about the new Magnets in the Tunze Osmolator 3155. We did a review of the unit a week back and Tunze has gotten back to us with the availability of the new magnets.

The magnet holder for both sensors is part 3155.600, it is $32.55.  The magnet holder for the float only if you wanted to mount the sensors separately is part 3155.500 and it is $29.52.  I hope to have them in stock in 3 weeks.

For those of you wanting to get your hands on a new magnet mount, contact your favorite Tunze retailer and ask to pre order the part number above, and you’ll be sure to receive a copy. Our Tunze Osmolator 3155 review is also a good read if you are looking into a top off device but not sure which to pick

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]