Captive Aquatics: An Aquarium and Ecology Blog

Skimz iBox LED-lit Nano Aquarium Announced

Skimz, a Singapore-based aquarium product manufacturer, has announced their new "iBox" (I know, I cringed at the name as well) ~8 gallon LED-lit nano reef (or nature!) aquarium. Not many details are available, but the iBox aquarium does have integrated filtration, 21 watts worth of LED lighting, and comes in red, black, and white.  Check back for the hands-on review!

 

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Caring for Trachyphillias, Part 2: Species and Collection Location

Part two of Caring for Trachyphillias in the Reef Aquarium

In part two of this series we'll be going over one of the most overlooked factors in how Trachyphillia will fare.  For some reason Trachyphillia from Indonesia and the Solomon Islands tend to do much better than those from Fiji when introduced into the reef aquarium.  In my opinion, this is due to the depth of the collection areas in Fiji, but it could also have to do with any number of other environmental factors.  It's easy to forget that there's still so much about this hobby that we don't know!

Current USA TrueLumen Flexible LED Strips Announced

Current USA has just announced a new line, dubbed 'True Lumen' of LED strips and T5 bulbs designed for reef aquarium lighting.  I'm not  a big fan of T5 lighting, but I sure am a fan of LED lighting, so check out the True Lumen flexible LED strip specs below!

ElosLighting: Aquarium LED Lighting from Elos

 

Classy, beautiful, and perfect for lighting rimless freshwater, nature, and reef aquariums, Elos USA has released a stunning new line of LED aquarium lighting products

Introducing four brushed aluminum aquarium LED light fixtures, Elos style has once again seriously impressed me.  Let's go through them one at a time, shall we?

Read Reef Hobbyist Magazine!

As most informed reef aquarium hobbyists know, the best information is available online for free, whether it's from WetWebMedia, Advanced Aquarist, our blog, or now, Reef Hobbyist Magazine! 

RHM is a quarterly article full of information about, what else, reef aquariums!  Click the link above to download full issues in PDF format or to order free print copies.  So, download now, and avoid forum mis-information!

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Ecoxotic Panorama LED-Lit 25 Gallon Rimless Cube Nano Aquarium

Latest in the barrage of new goodies from LED aquarium lighting manufacturer Ecoxotic is their 25 gallon rimless cube nano aquarium!   I've become a big fan of Ecoxotic, and they continue to deliver. A seemingly awesome all-in-one nano reef tank, this super-svelte glass aquarium is sized perfectly for the 18" Panorama modular LED fixture! 

- 18"x18"x18" rimless glass aquarium with false back for internal sump/return pump
- 25 gallon capacity
- Build in sump with protein skimmer, return pump, bio media, and auto-topoff bottles
- Matching black stand available
- Free shipping to the lower 48!
- Affordable (MSRP of $250 for the tank, and $250 for the stand)

Check out the pics!

AquaRay's AquaBeam 500 LED Reef Aquarium Light Strip Review

American Aquarium Products (a US distributor of TMC Aquarium Products) sent over the AquaBeam 500, a wide angle aquarium LED light strip for review - and I'm impressed.  The latest generation of Cree LEDs (the XR-E and XR-G emitters) and are now viable (and excellent) LED options for reef aquarium lighting and nature aquarium lighting!

On to the review!

New from Nano Customs: Nano T5 + LED Retro Kit

The nano aquarium lighting geniuses over at Nanocustoms, Chris and Clive, have cooked up another awesome retrofit for the popular Biocube 29 and Nanocube 28:  a slick T-5 and LED retro with built in heatsink/parabolic reflectors that can be cooled with the stock hood! 

Prop Pumps and In-Tank Reef Aquarium Water Motion: A Step Backwards?

Rather recently, the hobby has seen an explosion in 'prop' or other in-tank water pumps designed to produce a 'reef friendly' wide or variable current, rather than a laminar stream.  Models abound, with the most popular being Hydor's Koralia series, EcoTech Marine's Vortech line, and the Tunze Stream models.  While certainly better than the power head, all of these pumps are just that: a pump, with all associated hazards to motile invertebrate life, inside the aquarium.

It seems the term 'closed loop', once considered by hobbyists (and still considered by anyone that has a vested interest in their system such as public aquariums, hatcheries, and aquaculture facilities) to be the ultimate form of random, turbulent water motion is slowly but surely losing popularity.  This is too bad, because the internal pumps still have several drawbacks: harm to invertebrate life (think how many anemones have been shredded!), heat transfer, electrocution risk, inefficiency, and let's face it: they're ugly, and a giant pain to move around/adjust/clean.  I feel that there are several reasons closed loops/dump buckets/other types of more 'quality' water motion have lost popularity in favor of these internal pumps, which I'd like to discuss individually.

Picoreefs.com Custom Pico Aquarium Review

So, we're back to catching up with reviews.  Our visitors love nano and pico reefs and aquariums, so I decided to review this spiffy all-in-one 3 gallon pico aquarium sent to me by picoaquariums.com as a first of many reviews to come shortly!

Pico Aquarium's 3 gallon wide all-in-one