Reef Builders -The Reef Aquarium Blog

Awe-inspiring island views from space

Brian Blank — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:53:24 +0000

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!

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Awe-inspiring island views from space

Awe-inspiring island views from space

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

Scott Fellman — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:36:43 +0000

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.

To my surprise, the tank was located mere minutes away from where I live … a few emails and a pleasant phone call or two later, and my girlfriend and I found ourselves at the lovely home of reefer Kyle Verry, checking out what may be one of the most unique home aquariums I’ve ever seen in person! Like me, Kyle was tired of the “tried and true” aquascapes we usually see, so he wanted to try something altogether different: a very shallow, wide aquarium, with rock work that extends way out of the water. Although he refers to this bad boy as his “nano,” this low-iron glass aquarium has healthy dimensions (48”x 24 ”x 11.5”). Kyle’s particular area of interest is amphibious crabs (the “Sally Lightfoot”-looking ones, although the exact species escapes me at the moment), and he designed this aquascape to accommodate and highlight the habits and needs of these unique creatures.

The tank’s center-mounted overflow is surrounded by a lace rock structure that, for all the world, indeed looks “volcano-like,” projecting high up out of the water and into the air. The rock structure also strategically hides the water returns, and provides a “waterfall-like” return flow to the aquarium. Artistically placed mangroves and a few smaller, submerged rock structures complete the “hardscape.” Kyle—like me—respects the “white space!” He has a lot of open sand areas in this tank! With a pleasing variety of relatively common corals, placed in intriguing areas throughout the tank, there is an amazing view from virtually every angle! And his Tridacna clam shows beautifully from the top-down angle!

The fish stocking list, although modest by any standards, includes a few surprises, such as a Fuzzy Dwarf Lion, Dusky Jawfsh, Purple Tang and a small school of Green Chromis. Kyle has that rarest of all attributes in a reefer—the ability to curb his impulses to add more-and-more fishes to his unique system, detracting from the overall aesthetic. An urchin, numerous snails, small hermit crabs and some starfish rounds out the stocking list.

And speaking of angles, the shallow height of the tank, combined with a 30” tall stand, provides the viewer with a wonderful top-down view. Access to the tank is ridiculously simple. It’s very easy to get your hands, algae scrapers and siphon hoses into every nook and cranny and it shows! The tank is so clean you could consider giving birth there! Oh, and like many good systems, this one is whisper quiet—a big point that helps the overall aesthetic, IMO.

What is so stunning about this aquarium is how well it shows off it’s inhabitants…and how well it does just about everything the owner set out to do. It encompasses all of the factors that I think go into an amazing aquascape: interesting concept, good planning, excellent viewing angles, functional simplicity, ease of access, and an altogether different look. Kyle decided very early on in his project to boldly take “the road less travelled,” and has created an absolutely fascinating system. Perhaps most frightening of all is that he has a custom aquarium business, providing design and consultation services for a variety of customers. Imagine what the guy could come up with on someone else’s dime! Out-of-the-box thinking, coupled with great skills as an aquarist, bode well for the future of Kyle’s company! And he’s a nice guy, too.

This system serves as a great example of what you can accomplish as an aquarist when you push the outer envelope and try to make your dream aquarium a reality! Hats off to you, Kyle, for raising the bar for unique aquarium design! For more of this amazing aquarium, check out Kyle’s site.

Till next time…Stay Wet.

Scott Fellman

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

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

Aquactinics T5/LED Hybrid Constellation prototype caught

Ryan Gripp — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:14:20 +0000

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.

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Aquactinics T5/LED Hybrid Constellation prototype caught

Aquactinics T5/LED Hybrid Constellation prototype caught

This Saturday in Salt Lake City, Mountain West Reef Fest

Jake Adams — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:18:32 +0000

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.

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This Saturday in Salt Lake City, Mountain West Reef Fest

This Saturday in Salt Lake City, Mountain West Reef Fest

Morphologic Studios gets all artsy on PBS

Brian Blank — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:33:08 +0000

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.

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Morphologic Studios gets all artsy on PBS

Morphologic Studios gets all artsy on PBS

LeDio LED spotlight 7W and 21W: PAR values and first impressions

Taka Kamata — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:55:14 +0000

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.

Grassy LeDio LED spotlight in 7, 13 and now 21 watt configurations

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LeDio LED spotlight 7W and 21W: PAR values and first impressions

LeDio LED spotlight 7W and 21W: PAR values and first impressions

Fluorescent Proteins and chromoprotein protect corals as antioxidants

Jake Adams — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:38:06 +0000

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.

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Fluorescent Proteins and chromoprotein protect corals as antioxidants

Fluorescent Proteins and chromoprotein protect corals as antioxidants

MASM Breeding Initiative calling all fish breeders to arms

Rich Ross — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:03:54 +0000

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!

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MASM Breeding Initiative calling all fish breeders to arms

MASM Breeding Initiative calling all fish breeders to arms

Reef Nook Online Aquarium Management

Ryan Gripp — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:58:25 +0000

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.

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Reef Nook Online Aquarium Management

Reef Nook Online Aquarium Management

Kotobuki Eco LED Light Stick in Japan for ¥2,980

Ryan Gripp — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:15:51 +0000

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.

Features
* Slim & Compact
, Bright LED light
High energy and life,
Anti-friendly light lasts, the higher temperature in summer heat
Easy to adjust settings, tank
, Adjustable angle
· LED replacement is not. (LED life about 40,000 hours)
So, long life, you do not have to worry about Wazurawashikatta ball out so far.

[Specifications]
• Material: plastic / aluminum
Rated voltage: AC100V 50/60Hz
, Rated power consumption: 3W
Adaptation, tank: be about 40cm below the tank
, Cord length: approx 160cm (body-length from the power adapter)
* Size: approximately 210 × 40 × 170mm

[Caution]
※ This product is only frame-less tank. (Corresponding to about 5mm thick)
※ Please not over-tighten screws strong. And screws may damage the tank.
※ LED flash, so the semiconductor itself, but that does not have to run out of light bulbs, reduces the amount of light with materials used by the deterioration of materials such as plastic assembly, in some cases no longer lit. Please note that your advance.

via [3reef] Read

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Kotobuki Eco LED Light Stick in Japan for ¥2,980

Kotobuki Eco LED Light Stick in Japan for ¥2,980

Reef Builders -The Reef Aquarium Blog

Awe-inspiring island views from space

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Kotobuki Eco LED Light Stick in Japan for ¥2,980

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