CRI, or Color Rendering Index, is a somewhat dated term used to describe how accurately a given light will protray colors when compared to a reference light of the same color temperature. While not typically used or measured for aquarium lights, this term has gained renewed interest due to the recent explosion in popularity of LED aquarium lighting.
Continue reading "Aquarium Lighting and CRI - What is CRI?" »
Heal the Bay, an annual volunteer beach cleanup, is hosting it's 2010 bay area beach cleanup!
"On Saturday, September 25th, from 9:00am until 12 noon, over 14,000 volunteers from all over Los Angeles will take action to rid our beaches and inland waterways of unsightly and harmful debris. Coastal Cleanup Day (CCD) is an international event with over 90 countries around the world participating, making it one of the largest volunteer efforts on the planet!" Register today!
PUR stands for Photosynthetically Useable Radiation. PUR differs from PAR because the basic definition of PAR is any light in a specific frequency range. PUR is the usable portion of PAR, and different photosynthetic species will have a different PUR range to which they respond.
Continue reading "PUR and Reef Aquarium Lighting: What is PUR?" »
Today, as with most other days recently, I was making frags for a new propagation system at work. Then out of nowhere, while fragging some Radioactive Dragon Eyes one of the polyps exploded right into my eyes, what a great long distance shot!
Now just for some background, I've gotten zoanthid fruit punch in open cuts before, and even in my eyes countless times, but as soon as this particular brand of sea juice hit my eyes there was a weird, itchy tingling that I hadn't felt any other times. Having work to do however I pressed on.
Continue reading "The Palytoxin Afternoon - Watch out for Zoanthids!" »
Today Merritt and I will be reviewing an affordable and easy to use PAR quantum light meter: the Apogee Instruments MQ-200 digital Quantum Meter with waterproof probe. Whitney at Apogee Instruments was kind enough to send over the latest MQ-200, complete with data recording features. We had some fun playing with it in a few of our coral and invert holding tanks - check out the results, pictures, and video below!
Continue reading "Apogee MQ-200 Aquarium PAR Meter Video Review" »
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!
Continue reading "Caring for Trachyphillias, Part 2: Species and Collection Location" »
How to keep your brain (coral) healthy!
Unfortunately, due to the fact that Trachyphillias are generally known as beginner corals, the majority of hobbyists run into problems when attempting to care for this genus long term. Fortunately, these issues are generally correctable with some time and patience, and the information listed in this series can be applied to any stressed LPS coral. While beautiful, these LPS corals tend to be some of the most problematic "beginner" corals to keep, and this is due to several issues which I will be discuss ing in this multi-part series.
Continue reading "Caring for Trachyphillia in the Reef Aquarium" »
I'm hoping to get my hands on a review unit soon, but in the meanwhile check out the video below to see it in action:- Recirculating, double body system
- Efficient, uses only 8 watts
- Sponge microbubble trap
- Effective for aquariums up to 75 gallons