Captive Aquatics: An Aquarium and Ecology Blog

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:

 

Afraid of Sharks?

So it is officially Shark Week on the Discovery Channel where they are highlighting "shark attacks, killer sharks, rouge sharks" and every other negative aspect about sharks that a human can concentrate on.  I feel as though the entire week is garbage and is used to draw audiences through "fear".  The Consortium for Ocean Leadership posted an article regarding the population decrease of sharks in the ocean due to human activities.  I found the article to be very interesting and I would like to highlight specific parts of the article. 

Sustainable Aquatics Launches a New Website

I like to keep aquarists informed of the latest from companies that go above and beyond, and whos actions benefit people, the environment, push the hobby forward, or all three. Ultimately how a hobbyist spends his or her dollar that dictates where this hobby goes, so spending wisely is important for the future of our hobby and ecosystem.

The Marine Aquarium Hobby in Retrospect: 2010

 
In my 2009 retrospective write up I predicted that we'd see a shift towards efficiency, increased legislation, and more captive breeding in 2010.  Let's see whether or not I was correct...

 

A Documentary Showcases Our Hobby

 

A new documentary showcasing our hobby was just released by Scion Magazine, and it's really good!  It includes interviews with Richard, Dr. Bob and myself (yay), and really shows why we love this hobby so deeply.  With environmental groups putting out so much misinformation and so many flat-out lies about this hobby, it's nice to have something show what it's really all about.

Hitting the 'Wall': What Causes it and How to Avoid it

Regardless of how enthusiastic, or excited you are, you  will eventually hit what I like to refer to as "the wall".  This is where either you don't care about the hobby anymore, or any maintenance, or spectating of the tank is no longer out of enjoyment, but out of habit.

I myself have hit this wall a couple times myself.  I am now able to recognize the signs ahead of time, and find ways to prevent it.

 

Pacific Coast Imports Gen-X Pumps: Settle For Less

 
 
This is a bit of a longer article so please bear with me.  First and foremost, if you have submersible Gen-x pumps IMMEDIATELY inspect the back of the pump for rust. There is a plastic cover on the back that is easily removable.  This article was written about two years ago, but I went to a local dry goods wholesaler last month and the pumps still had exposed metal so if you've got one of these in your tank chances are you've got a rustbucket.  The sad fact is that this company has been knowingly manufacturing this substandard and quite likely dangerous product for more than 5 years!

Reviews and Honesty Policy at the Captive Aquatics Blog

We wanted to write a post letting everyone know a bit about reviews here at the Captive Aquatics blog.  A few of our reviews have been getting quite a bit of traffic and controversy, so we thought we'd let you all know our ideals here.

The Captive Aquatics blog is not intended to make a profit.  In fact, we have declined some offers for additional sponsorship, especially offers from aquarium product manufacturers.  Let me tell you my reasons...

 

Marine Fish Survival: Discussing Coral Magazine's Poll

I occasionally write content and polls for Coral Magazine's web portal, and couldn't help but notice the results of a poll the magazine took of the survival rates of fish in the care of it's readers.  One can see instantly from the responses that the sample size is atypical of our hobby, as are the results.  Additionally, assuming the results are accurate protrayals of reader's success rates (and they probably are, more or less) one can see how successful aquarists can easily forget, or not even know about the very high mortality rates that are the norm in our hobby.