Captive Aquatics: An Aquarium and Ecology Blog

Video of an LED-lit Estuary Biotope Nano Aquarium

Here's a video featuring a biotope we've set up featuring only species we collected by hand from a local estuary, some endemic to the area (click the video to view in HD).  We've also seen juvenile reef species such as the achilles tang and racoon butterflyfish, protected by turbidity and mangrove roots.

AI Vega Powerpuck Customization Awesomeness!

 

Aqua Illumination's Vega + Powerpuck customization shows the most promise for LED fixtures that we've seen in, well, at least a year if not two, and possibly ever.  The fact that they're offering multiple diodes, a drag-n-drop configuation (with a spectrograph!) makes this fixture possibly the only fixture we'd spend money on.  Interchangeable, customizable LEDs?  Yes please!  Kudos to AI for what is sure to be a stellar LED light.  We can't wait for the release!

Teszla LED Light Preview - Geisemann's (Excellent) Compromise

Geisemann Aquaristic is known internationally for their uncompromising and high quality products as per european consumer standards, dominating the 'best of the best' niche in lighting fixtures for decades.  However, this dedication has met an impasse in reef aquarium LED lighting:  american consumers don't want premium quality at a premium price, and american aquarists make up over 90% of the aquarium LED market currently.  What's Geisemann's answer?

New LEDs Turn Heat Into Light

 

While I'm usually quietly behind the scenes consulting for the next generation of aquarium LED lights, I had to share this breakthrough by Dr. Santhanam and his team that was recently published in Physical Review Letters: LEDs that actually cool their surroundings, turning heat energy into visible light energy!  And just as incredibly, have an efficiency of over 200%. 

Pause for a moment to let that sink in.

 

 

X-Aqua Reef Aquarium LED Light Teaser Pics

Here are some pics of X-Aqua's newest/upcoming reef aquarium LED lights, both behind the scenes and a finished product.  Full review when I have the time, but they're looking good!

 

New X-Aqua LED Light Coming Soon

They say a picture is worth a thousand words: the above is a picture of X-Aqua's foray into LED reef aquarium lighting.  Pictures, specs, and hands-on experience coming soon...

Kessil LED Lights: Getting it Right!

As you probably already know Kessil, of horticulture LED fame offers a 36w LED pendant designed for reef aquarium lighting.  The A150w as it's called is available in three color temperatures, only one of which is of interest to reef aquarists with a penchant for accurate color rendering and high-PUR outputs such as myself (spectrograph on the left). 

 

Ecotech Marine's Radion XR30 LED Light: a Swing and a Miss?

I'm sure you've heard about EcoTech Marine's latest product from all of the "me too" aquarium blogs that are out there these days:  EcoTech is yet another company making a foray into reef aquarium LED lighting, and yet another company to do so with what seems to be barely, if any orginality or any improvement in technology. 



Using off-the-shelf Cree and Osram emitters that are made for household lighting, not photosynthetic invertebrate illumination, the Radion XR30 reef aquarium led light appears to me to be obsolete before launch.  Here's why:

 

What You Should Know Before Purchasing an LED Light

The following musings began as a simple post on 3reef and ended up being quite long.  However, I think the info is valuable to anyone in the market for LED lighting.



There is much, much more that goes into an LED unit besides the diodes used. Top quality emitters can be used, but if you have supbar electronics, drivers, etc on the inside, then you have a subpar light. Sure, the diode might be rated to last 50k hours with a 30% output loss over that period, but what if the drivers used are only rated for 10k hours (plus, what are the specs of said driver: is it constant-current, constant voltage, what is the tolerance, variance range, etc?).

Ecoxotic Announces LED-Lit Pico Aquarium

Dubbed the "EcoPico", Ecoxotic will be offering this clean, LED-lit 5 gallon setup on the 31st for just over $100.  Follow the link for more info, and expect a review soon!  Oh, and please don't stock it with three cardinalfish...