The Liopopoma fasciatum above and the Achilles Goldrim Hybrid surgeonfish below are evidence that it was possible to get very neat and rare fish even if you were an aquarist working at the Steinhart Aquarium back in the 70s and 80s. The aquariums might look different but the species are the same. Sure the bare coral aquascape might leave a lot to be desired but dead coral skeletons was the norm back then. Gotta hand it to the Steinhart though, we’ve seen dozens of wrasse basses before but never it’s giant counterpart L. fasciatum from the Pacific before and the goldrim x achilles hybrid below is probably the oldest known photo of that particular cross. Let’s hope these photos can inspire Matt, Rich, Charles and Bart not only top these exhibits but perhaps they can even recreate a nostalgic tank with the huge L. fasciatum, giant jawfish and the falcifer butterflyfish. Kevin Cheung is an enthusiastic photographer and he recently saw fit to scan his slide film images of these very neat historical photographs. We’ve selected a few of the more interesting images which are posted after the break, huge thanks to Kevin Cheung for granting us the use of his images to share with you, many more in his flickR album.
1″ and 1.5″ Loc-Line and modular tubing in those diameters are the unicorn of aquarium plumbing: surely they must exist in some form for industrial applications but whatever the case, these holy grail outlets have never made an appearance in the aquarium hobby. The Omni Flex Nozzles from Oceans Motions aim to fill the gap where 1″ or larger modular fittings would be very welcome on large aquarium construction. Omni Flex nozzles are available in 1 and 3 piece sections that can articulate from 0 to 135 degrees depending on how many sections are used; they come with slip, male thread or female thread adapters and prices starting $16-26 for the 1″ OmniFlex and $20-40 for the 1.5″ sections. If you are cranking a lot of water volume through your reef you might consider the dual nozzle which is only available in 1″ at a $5 premium to the configuration you choose. The price of the Omni Flex Nozzles might seem to be somewhat high per piece but if you consider how many 3/4″ loc-lines you’d be using to push the same amount of water the cost would add up quickly and DIYing similar pipes would probably just look tacky. The Omni Flex Nozzles are not exactly new but we thought it’d be worth to bring these little known devices to your attention. Any long term users care to chime in on their performance?
NanoTuners may have just started carrying the Meanwell ELN 60-48D dimmable LED driver but their initial order must have been meager because they are already sold out. The meanwell ELN 60 can power up to 13 high power white or blue LEDs running at up to 4 watts each, or a total of 60 watts of LED power, hence the ELN 60 model name. The D denotes that this Meanwell driver is dimmable with a adjustable voltage from 1.1-10 volts. Standalone this dimming feature is not much more than a fancy analog adjustment but when paired up with capable controllers like the ReefKeeper, Apex and GHL Profilux, the Meanwell ELN 60-48D can be used for full LED lighting control. At 60 watts this dimmable driver is currently the largest available LED driver so if you need more LED power you’ll have to double up or more. NanoCustoms is slinging the Meanwell ELN 60 for $39 which is expected to be back in stock this coming week. Time for LED DIYers to start warming up the soldering iron.
Mirko is our European reefing correspondent and currently the front man behind the premier Croatian reefing website, CroReef.
Aquatronica is pleased to present you its new module in preview, the Tunze Pumps Module (ACQ460). This module will provide yet another function for the Aquarium Controller system: the “Turbelle Tunze” movement pumps control-inside the aquarium. With the ACQ460 connected to the Aquarium controller unit you will be able to set up one or more programs for the dimmable movement pumps, reproducing tide or wave effects as well as many other effects using various combinations of pumps at different times of the day; with the Tunze Pumps Module you could also add a day/night light sensor to the system (optional) to synchronize the lights and wave effects. ACQ460 will be on sale from March 2010. Sorry, still no photo available.
Fauna Marin’s new Ultra Pest control will be available soon. And as much as we would like to think we don’t need products like this we all do at some point in our saltwater keeping lives. This Ultra Pest Control is a pest control (aka killer) or coral dip that is designed before you place your corals in to your main display tank. Technically, we all should quarantine our corals before placing them in to our main display tank, but lets be honest. How many of you actually do this? The Pest Control doesn’t contain any Iodine while still killing most bacteria and parasites on the corals themselves. Fauna Marin says its made from natural extracts and will not change the coloration of the coral. You can start ordering it now, but it should be available later this month. Expect pricing to be around $35. Contact your favorite Fauna Marin retailer or order it online.
The 200 lumen per watt efficacy barrier has just been breached by a fresh round of testing on Cree’s latest generation LEDs. Seems like just this past summer we reported the new advancements of Cree’s XP-G LED reaching a record 132 lumens per watt at the nominal drive current of 350mA and that record was also broken in December with gains of up to 186 lumens per watt under the same conditions. Cree announced via a press release that a “industry-best reported efficacy record of 208 lumens per watt for a white power LED.” Hitting 200 lumens per watt with these CREE LEDs was achieved with a color temperature of 4579k. While this high barrier has been broken, we won’t see these fall into production LED fixtures anytime soon. We’ve got the full press release after the break.
We might think of some reef fish as being rare but this video of a huge school of wrought iron butterflyfish shows how locally common some fish species can be. While most aquarist would be content to see even one Chaetodon daedalma here in the U.S., these lucky divers at have born witness to a what they call a “wrought iron ball” with hundreds of medium sized fish swimming together and converging and dispersing from grazing spots within seconds. The video was uploaded by a dive shop called Bientos that operates out of Hachijo-jima, a popular dive spot in the Izu Islands South of Japan but north of the Ogasawara Islands. We’ve posted our share of wrought iron butterflyfish videos in the past but this writhing mass of this species really takes the cake.
Tim Wijgerde of Coralscience.org is building a mesophotic reef system, basically a low light reef. Tim dropped in to share with us why he decided to do a low light reef tank and what low light reef animals can teach us about traditional high light reefing.
Coralscience.org is currently constructing a system which will mimic the mesophotic reef zone. Mesophotic coral reefs are light-dependent (sub)tropical coral communities that occur in the deepest half of the photic zone, and therefore receive little sunlight. Starting at 30-40 m (100 – 132 ft) and extending to over 150 m (500 ft), these reefs have received little interest due to their secluded existence. They are inhabited by fascinating marine species, of which most cannot be kept alive in marine aquaria. New technologies however have paved the way for establishing systems which may harbor an unsurpassed diversity of marine life.
You remember AquaDriver’s Pitbox? It is designed for your sump overflows, usually the last stage of the sump where the water flows over to the return pump section. What usually happens with this? Besides microbubbles forming, there is usually a good amount of noise. To solve this, Aqua Driver created a device that will sit on your overflow section in your sump and actually control the water. So you know what the best part to all of this is? The price. Smaller models have been seen in Europe for 79 euro ($108) which is a small price to have a silent, microbubble free sump. Who is going to by us these?
The new NanoScope from DD aquarium is a scope with a lens that allows you to peak inside your saltwater aquarium world. While most of us can only see the outside of our tanks, the NanoScope seeks to change all that. Although the mesoscope looks awfully familiar with a similar design and basic idea. Comparing it to the mesoscope, the nanoscope has a lot of room to grow as the tried-but-true mesoscope seems to be a better built unit. Of course, how much can you learn from just analyzing a picture? While the original mesoscope has a retail for $495, DD aquarium solutions has not set a MSRP yet for the NanoScope. Hopefully it will be cheaper so that the mass market can afford to get a peak into their saltwater aquariums. Be sure to watch the video below the break of what you can capture of the NanoScope.
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