Unless you were one of the few dozen captive bred fish brought to ReefStock, chances are you didn’t get to see the show from a fisheye lens. The tight crowds made it difficult to capture how densely packed the floor was with people. corals and exhibits but ReefStock photograper Adam Knudson of Devo Photography brought his trusty fisheye lens so we could all take in the view like a fish. Many more pictures after the break.

A view across the short end of the Nautilus ballroom which was only 50 feet long.

Many of the coral frag tanks were two people deep and several farmers sold all of their frags at the show.
The LED lighting demo served double duty as illumination for the raffle table, half of the prizes had already been awarded at this point.
The AcanLighting A102 was one of the few LEDs sporting a conventional aquarium light form factor.
The Dive Lounge and bar attached to the Nautilus ballroom made a nice place to retreat with a cocktail
Lots of captive raised and captive bred fish from Sustainable Aquatics
Chris Jung does the Supaman
I think we’ve made it clear how avant-garde the unibody LED+T5 light is

The Nautilus Ballroom where ReefStock was held was absolutely packed with people, it was very loud in there.
Jet-setting Tina from Wet Thumb frags was bagging up frags as fast as she could
Looking down only one side of the sprawling coral vending row
John Ciotti handling the Photon Canon (Unless you’re Mike in which case this is a Photon Canonne)
A view of the Seashine LIFI lighting up one of the ReefScape tanks before it was ’scaped.
Pat and Steve discuss how much they like European water pumps
This frag tank was one of the few using metal halides, a form of lighting which will probably become disallowed at future frag vending events

With over 30 aquarium LED products showed off by more than 15 companies at this year’s ReefStock, were going to go ahead a call it: The future is now and LED lighting has truly arrived to the aquarium world. Spotlights, Striplights, moonlights, twilights, power lights and all form of DIY lights used LEDs to light up the ReefStock conference at the Denver Downtown Aquarium last weekend. In addition to the predominantly LED-using coral frag vendors, the LED lighting demonstration featured lights from Japan, Hong Kong, England and especially the United States. Despite some nefarious restrictions there is no way to hold back the floodgates of aquarium LED lighting anymore and the pictures below demonstrate just how much is available now. Follow the break to see what the future of aquarium lighting will look like. Huge thanks to Adam Knudson of Devo Photography for working very hard to get us all these pictures.

CoraslSky’s LED demo light in the foreground with the 3 colors of Versa discs with their actinic striplight in the background

The Aquaray 1000 HD tile may be somewhat exotic in the states but of course it was present at the reefing world’s largest LED light show.
The thin A102 Acan light drew a lot of looks and comments for it’s sleek and attractive lighting fixture.
Volx Japan’s Ledio LED spotlights are some of the most popular in Japan and they were very kind to send along some of their finely crafted spotlights to show off in the ReefStock LED demo.
Volx Japan’s LEdio spotlights come in a wide range of colors including the mystery purple in the center and the all royal-blue 21 watter to the right.

The NanoCustoms booth was a good place to see LED lights in a range of form factors for the nano reefing crowd.

We put on ReefStock specifically so we could get our hands on exciting new products, like the unibody T5+LED hybrid light
The unibody hybrid LED + T5 light from NanoCustoms is truly in a league of it’s own in terms of power and color rendition.

The MR16 LED spotlights were shown off at ReefStock before anywhere else.
The diminutive MR16 LED spotlights will be a hot ticket when they become widely available to the reefing hobby.
The actively cooled picolight from NanoCustoms was quite a looker at this show. A closer look at the brightness within the CNC milled pico led light.
With 5-6 new LED lighting products to demonstrate the NanoCustoms crew really represented at the reef hobby’s most techno-centric aquarium conference.

Newcomer to the reef aquarium LED lighting scene BlueMoon also made an appearance at ReefStock with the slab of LED lights; only Harvey Fell could commandeer a booth which wasn’t on the floorplan the way he did.
Ecoxotic showed off their new all blue Panorama LED module which can also be retrofitted with light-focusing lenses.
Ecoxotic showed off an uber thin platform from which to attach LED stunners into adequate lighting for a near-pico reef.
The all-blue PAR38 LED light from NanoCustoms was seen at ReefStock; it will be a welcome addition to the 2:3 and 3:2 blue:white PAR38s that have made nanoCustoms a leader in reef aquarium LED spotlighting.
There may have been as many as a dozen AquaIllumination lights in use by coral frag slingers at ReefStock
The Naxandra lights from Underwater World were specifically designed for in-house use on the UWW aquaculture facility but Justin Credabel

The pendant-buddy LED strips from ReefBrite can add a lot of pop to coral colors even with lamps that have a great starting color rendition

Even the freaking EcoSmart VorTech controller was sporting a buncha LEDs.
CoralSky’s Ledil-equipped royal blue LED striplights
CoralSky demo light above, AquaIllumination center and Tropical Marine Center’s Aquaray bottom.

Checking out the undercarriage of the AcanLighting A102, the north american version of the EcoLamps KR92
Cherry Corals has been a long time user of AquaIllumination LED lights.
Rich Ross of the California Academy of Science feels up the housing of the Seashine LIFI fixture from Stray Light Optical
Automatic Moonlight from Ecoxotic
The 50 watt LED photon canon lights up a broad swath of the floor more than 3 feet away.
The ReefBrite LED striplights now can enjoy some company with the help of the 2,4 and 6 light brackets.


A closer look at one of several DIY LED lights at the ReefStock conference. Looks like this one was getting a little extra umph from an un-lensed CoralSky SL.
This unique light has built in fans and it uses small incandescent base spotlights that can easily be replaced or switched out to desired effect.
This ghetto-fabulous DIY LED job was hacked into an old current striplight.
A fish-eye view of the business end of the seashine LIFI

Justin takes some PAR readings from the bottom of the LIFI-lit solana tank
236 PAR through 3 feet of air is nothing to scoff at.

Gerald from Stray light Optical shows off how a single 250watt Seashine can be reflectorized to cast a rectangular shine over the 48″ x 18″ Solana XL 67 (that was so kindly donated to the ReefStock ReefScape competition by Current USA).
The same model of the Seashine LIFI light shining at a higher intensity on the right, and also sporting a much warmer color rendition.

With 60-70 participants and about 400 attendees the third ReefStock was the best show yet. The crowd came early and it stayed late for the ReefScape competition, the talks and the raffle. While we were doing all we could to oil the gears of the show, we had the great fortune to get in touch with avid ReefBuilders reader Adam Knudson who volunteered for extreme photography duty. The images you will see over the next couple days are mostly his and we thank him from the bottom of our tropical saltwater heart for documenting every square inch of this show. Continue reading for the first onslaught of pictorial inundation.

Hard work vendors and exhibitors line up for their well deserved meal of gruel.
ReefNutrition has long been a leader in trade show booth presentation.
We had well over a dozen coral frag slingers with several thousand frags and small colonies to pick from.

John and Jake speak with Scott about a new environmental controller.
Dr. Paul feels up some of the new Marco Geode rock.
The ReefStock shwag bag was bursting at the seams with literature, catalogs and free samples.
Ocean’s Paradise brought many nice captive raised specimens of clownfish, anemones and cardinalfish.

Thomas and Stephane from AquaMedic go over the game plan with Shaun about the AquaMedic strategy for the show.
Guin shows off a double Fancy Ocellaris that was hand picked to her specifications.
Marc and Scott talk to John about the thirsty Ecoxotic booth display tank.
Reefkoi gets subjected to a little tomfoolery during the evening of setup.
The coral frag slingers eye up the competition, perhaps making some ‘first minute’ deals before the doors swing open.

Wes looks over his frag booth lit up by a DIY LED light.
There were many fine clownfish donated to the livestock raffle including a wyoming white and two onyx clowns from Ocean Gallery II and a pair of semi’cassos and semi’flakes from ORA.
We can always count on Dirk to bring out a ton of great books, we hear he sold quite a few at this show.
Midwest Saltwater came all the way to Denver to represent their full range of reef aquarium ceramic shelves, ledges and frag stations.
Perfect Australian scolymias lined up like trophies in the aquarium of Mile High Aquatics.
Joy from ReefBrite Prepares to demonstrate their full line of LED, halide and T5 lighting products.

We almost had to charge Dirk extra for all the vertical space he was using.
Elite Reef showed off their affordable line of cone shaped protein skimmers.
Seachem displayed their extensive and mature full line of aquairum products, including the new 2-part solution called Reef Fusion.
Piscine Energetics erected this fine booth what seems like minutes before opening the doors
Sustainable Aquatcs brought many nice captive raised and captive bred fish

Someone had to take a nap in the middle of the afternoon.

One of the big attractions at this weekend’s ReefStock is the first public viewing of the production level Seashine lights from Stray Light Optical. As we hustle to finalize all the last minute details of ReefStock, we still had time to fire up the final Beta level Seashine light that we are beginning to review. This post is just about throwing light on a wall but for all the nitty gritty details of this light, see our previous coverage. Hit the read link for our raw first impressions of the Seashine lighting up a wall.

First of all, you should never, Ever, NEVER handle a light while it is turned on, especially when the innards recreate the surface of the sun; we are professionally trained bloggers and at least I was wearing an oven mitt, and a fancy one at that. The images were made with the white balance adjusted to a flat white surface while the Seashine was at 100% power intensity. The wall it is lighting up is semi-gloss and a shade between eggshell-white and cream-white. In the image above we are holding the light about 8″ away from the wall at full brightness. The image below is still full intensity but now the pendant is about 20″/50cm from the wall. The neat square projection of light from the Seashine is very different from the uneven spread we are used to from halide pendants.

In this image the light is about 50% intensity and ~10″ from the wall. At this power level the light coloration has definitely shifted to a cool white shade.
The image below is still 50% intensity and about 20″ from the wall.

At the minimum power level of 20% the Plasma Arc light becomes very blue. It’s not quite the deepest 20,000K radium blue but we would compare it to the color of a well driven 14-15,000K halide lamp.

Unless you’ve been living deep inside a piece of Totoka live rock, by now you should be aware that a huge LED lighting demonstration will be taking place at ReefStock this Saturday, March 13th at the Denver Downtown Aquarium. LED lighting has been a dream on the horizon for almost a decade but this weekend we will all see that this exciting and efficient lighting technology has really arrived to the aquarium hobby, with the reefers being first in line to take advantage of the intensity and coloring options that come from using Light Emitting Diodes. Whether you are into the hot rod or the DIY, spotlights, modular or custom LED lighting, with no less than 10 LED light makers in attendance this weekend we should get a good look at the current state of the art in aquarium LED lighting technology. And if you can’t make it because you don’t live in Colorado or neighboring states, fear not because you can bet your reefing budget that the Reef Builders staff will blogging their hearts out on everything LED at ReefStock so that anyone with internet connection can get front row coverage simply by stopping by the blog. In addition to all these LED lights and the first production LIFI Plasma Arc Seashine lights, we can expect a ton of new products to be announced and we can assure you that you will want to read about all that will unfold in Denver this weekend. With so many high tech lights in one place we may not be able to cause the formation of a ripple in the reefing space-time continuum but at the very least this grand show of LED force should be a great coming out party for the lighting technology which will just about push out all others in the coming years. Follow the break for a rundown of all the future players in the aquarium LED lighting world who will be coming to ReefStock and make sure you tune in to Reef Builders this weekend for all the action.

Ecoxotic

ReefBrite

NanoCustoms

AquaIllumination

CoralSky

Grassy LeDio

Naxandra

Marineland

Tropical Marine Centre

AcanLighting

Nano Customs might be releasing a new T5/LED light for nano aquariums or at least playing with the idea. This prototype light fixture is milled out of billet 6061 with a integrated passive heatsink & active cooling system for the T5s. The actual T5s are 20 watts each (you’ll get two of them) plus 10 PAR38 (5 on each side) MCPCBs in the fixture which comes out to 12″ x 6.5″ x 1.5″ which is a great size for nano aquariums. “These are built to order, we are planning on making them available in the full range of anodized colors.”  No price or lead time yet so we will have to stay tuned for more although we would love to see these become available in black. We can expect to see this concept fixture demoed at ReefStock where you can be certain that we will get plenty of hands on time with it.

So the other day I was having a conversation with Jake Adams on the topic of aquascaping as a whole. Obviously we didn’t get too far off into the conversation without being derailed onto some sort of new LED gadgetry. Well over the passing days I came back to the conversation on my own. I find me asking myself what does it  really take to lay down something out of the ordinary, something to leave people in awe.

If you haven’t yet heard, Denver’s ReefStock event will be featuring the greatest diversity of marine and reef aquarium LED lights ever assembled. In addition to Ecoxotic, ReefBrite, NanoCustoms, AquaIlluminations and CoralSky, the Nautilus Ballroom at the Denver Downtown Aquarium will also be displaying the latest LED products from Tropical Marine Centre, Marineland and now also Japan’s most popular LED spotlights, the LeDio lamps by Volx Japan. Pictured above is the small army of gears, err LED spotlights from Volx in every color combination they make including the spanking new 9 watt UV LED lamp which is just starting to make the rounds in the land of the rising sun. How cool is that? Now if we could just find a great little fixture or track light to house these seven spotlights we’ll be all set. Huge thanks to our pal Taka for making the arrangements to display these exotics at ReefStock on behalf of Volx Japan.

Although propeller water pumps have long since taken over the in-tank circulation of reef aquarium water, the OceanProp 15000 is the first such product offering from AquaMedic. On a scale of 1-10 with 1 being the smallest and 10 being the largest prop pump out there, the OceanProp 15K is a 12. This two handed beast weighs in at 1685 grams, over 3.5 lbs! Even the sizeable lever-actuated suction mount is a behemoth that looks like it could support a small flat screen TV. What the OP15K lacks in discreteness it makes up for with a balance of performance and value. Follow the break for more thoughts and pictures.

The OP15K is rated for 15,000 liters of water per hour, or just shy of moving 4000 gallons every 60 minutes. Although many pumps ratings are somewhat questionable, when we pitted this water pump against similar devices we found the 4000GPH rating believable. Although the pump is labeled as consuming between 9-20 watts of power, we found that ts consumed up to 24 watts when run full bore. 4000GPH at 24 watts is a pretty good balance of flow and power usage which somewhat balances out the large footprint of this two handed prop pump. The included controller allows the user to select a lower flow mode for those times when swimming pool flowrates are not necessary. What sweetens the deal for the OP15K is a reasonable retail price which should hover in the $200-$230 neighborhood depending on your neck of the woods. If you can get past how massive this pump is, $200 for 4000 gallons per hour at 24 watts is as sweet a deal as there is in the aquarium world. This pump will most likely shine in the largest of reefs and even some fish tanks or in aquaculture situations where massive gyre flows are being produced. If the nanoProp follows in the footsteps of the OceanProp then the NanoProp might be a more widely adopted water pump, both of which will be on display at the AquaMedic booth at ReefStock.

The three bladed propeller design is unique among aquarium water pumps

The angle on the propeller blades is relatively shallow.
The complete OceanProp 15000 breaks down into few parts, two of thsoe are the mounting bracket
In our testing the OceanProp 15000 consumed up to 24 watts of power when run full bore in saltwater which is still a paltry amount for the flow this beast creates
We can’t imagine how much more flow the OceanProp could create if run in this configuration without the intake strainer, even if it would make Sushi of your reef fish.
The OceanProp 15000 is a beast to handle; although it is being held with one hand this is really a two-handed water pump.
The OceanProp next to Hydor’s Koralia Evolution 14000
The OceanProp next to Hydor’s Koralia Evolution 14000
The OceanProp next to Hydor’s Koralia Evolution 14000
The included controller runs a modicum of features: high flow, low flow, night mode and a few different long pusling modes

FTC regulations require that we inform you that we were given this product for review, but our opinion of a product is never affected by how we acquire them.

If you didn’t already have a hundred reasons to go to ReefStock on March 13th at the Denver Downtown Aquarium, now you have 300 more. AquaticLife has generously donated enough of their Ammonite Hydrometers to equip a small township of reefkeepers with one of the more recently released specific gravity testers. There will only be 300 of these freeby Ammonite Hydrometers available in the ReefStock shwag bags on a first come first serve basis and gauging by last year’s enthusiastic crowd, we expect the supply of Ammonites to be depleted by noon. Huge thanks to AquaticLife for the very generous donation, stay tuned to find out what we’ll hustle next for the ReefStock shwag bag.