With over 30 aquarium LED products showed off by more than 15 companies at this year’s ReefStock, were going to go ahead a call it: The future is now and LED lighting has truly arrived to the aquarium world. Spotlights, Striplights, moonlights, twilights, power lights and all form of DIY lights used LEDs to light up the ReefStock conference at the Denver Downtown Aquarium last weekend. In addition to the predominantly LED-using coral frag vendors, the LED lighting demonstration featured lights from Japan, Hong Kong, England and especially the United States. Despite some nefarious restrictions there is no way to hold back the floodgates of aquarium LED lighting anymore and the pictures below demonstrate just how much is available now. Follow the break to see what the future of aquarium lighting will look like. Huge thanks to Adam Knudson of Devo Photography for working very hard to get us all these pictures.

CoraslSky’s LED demo light in the foreground with the 3 colors of Versa discs with their actinic striplight in the background

The Aquaray 1000 HD tile may be somewhat exotic in the states but of course it was present at the reefing world’s largest LED light show.
The thin A102 Acan light drew a lot of looks and comments for it’s sleek and attractive lighting fixture.
Volx Japan’s Ledio LED spotlights are some of the most popular in Japan and they were very kind to send along some of their finely crafted spotlights to show off in the ReefStock LED demo.
Volx Japan’s LEdio spotlights come in a wide range of colors including the mystery purple in the center and the all royal-blue 21 watter to the right.

The NanoCustoms booth was a good place to see LED lights in a range of form factors for the nano reefing crowd.

We put on ReefStock specifically so we could get our hands on exciting new products, like the unibody T5+LED hybrid light
The unibody hybrid LED + T5 light from NanoCustoms is truly in a league of it’s own in terms of power and color rendition.

The MR16 LED spotlights were shown off at ReefStock before anywhere else.
The diminutive MR16 LED spotlights will be a hot ticket when they become widely available to the reefing hobby.
The actively cooled picolight from NanoCustoms was quite a looker at this show. A closer look at the brightness within the CNC milled pico led light.
With 5-6 new LED lighting products to demonstrate the NanoCustoms crew really represented at the reef hobby’s most techno-centric aquarium conference.

Newcomer to the reef aquarium LED lighting scene BlueMoon also made an appearance at ReefStock with the slab of LED lights; only Harvey Fell could commandeer a booth which wasn’t on the floorplan the way he did.
Ecoxotic showed off their new all blue Panorama LED module which can also be retrofitted with light-focusing lenses.
Ecoxotic showed off an uber thin platform from which to attach LED stunners into adequate lighting for a near-pico reef.
The all-blue PAR38 LED light from NanoCustoms was seen at ReefStock; it will be a welcome addition to the 2:3 and 3:2 blue:white PAR38s that have made nanoCustoms a leader in reef aquarium LED spotlighting.
There may have been as many as a dozen AquaIllumination lights in use by coral frag slingers at ReefStock
The Naxandra lights from Underwater World were specifically designed for in-house use on the UWW aquaculture facility but Justin Credabel

The pendant-buddy LED strips from ReefBrite can add a lot of pop to coral colors even with lamps that have a great starting color rendition

Even the freaking EcoSmart VorTech controller was sporting a buncha LEDs.
CoralSky’s Ledil-equipped royal blue LED striplights
CoralSky demo light above, AquaIllumination center and Tropical Marine Center’s Aquaray bottom.

Checking out the undercarriage of the AcanLighting A102, the north american version of the EcoLamps KR92
Cherry Corals has been a long time user of AquaIllumination LED lights.
Rich Ross of the California Academy of Science feels up the housing of the Seashine LIFI fixture from Stray Light Optical
Automatic Moonlight from Ecoxotic
The 50 watt LED photon canon lights up a broad swath of the floor more than 3 feet away.
The ReefBrite LED striplights now can enjoy some company with the help of the 2,4 and 6 light brackets.


A closer look at one of several DIY LED lights at the ReefStock conference. Looks like this one was getting a little extra umph from an un-lensed CoralSky SL.
This unique light has built in fans and it uses small incandescent base spotlights that can easily be replaced or switched out to desired effect.
This ghetto-fabulous DIY LED job was hacked into an old current striplight.
A fish-eye view of the business end of the seashine LIFI

Justin takes some PAR readings from the bottom of the LIFI-lit solana tank
236 PAR through 3 feet of air is nothing to scoff at.

Gerald from Stray light Optical shows off how a single 250watt Seashine can be reflectorized to cast a rectangular shine over the 48″ x 18″ Solana XL 67 (that was so kindly donated to the ReefStock ReefScape competition by Current USA).
The same model of the Seashine LIFI light shining at a higher intensity on the right, and also sporting a much warmer color rendition.

Related Posts:

• Seeing the light: LED optics explained
• Ecoxotic releasing new 453nm blue LED module
• Grassy LeDio LED spotlight in 7, 13 and now 21 watt configurations
• LED Floodlight from Reefbrite is a novel LED spotlight form factor
• ReefStock 2010 pictures part 3: a fisheye view
• Ecoxotic turned a solar collector into an ‘Automatic Moonlight’
• ReefStock 2010 pictures part 1: Setting up
• MR16 LED spotlights from NanoCustoms revealed at ReefStock 2010

Reeftock  2010 is now a pleasant memory. The aquascaping  “ Throwdown”  between myself and my new BFF, Freshwater “Iron Aquascaper” John Ciotti, was a smashing success, bringing aquascaping to the forefront of the marine hobby world, if only for a day.  Some valuable lessons  were learned,  and some new ground was broken along the way in the world of marine aquascaping. Our mission was to demonstrate the many ways that we can express ourselves with our aquascaping.

Both John and I were given identical 48”x18”x18 rimless glass aquariums, a choice of fantastic quarried rock from Marco Rock, and 4 hours to create aquascapes that could enthrall the panel of aquatic celebrity judges, and the chance to inspire the 300 plus attendees. John deservedly won the contest, but the larger victory was for the hobby, which had its first exposure to a new way of thinking about marine aquascaping. Both of us expressed our passions in our rockwork, showing that the road less travelled can certainly be a pleasant one.

Coming from different backgrounds, but sharing many thoughts on design, John and I embarked on completely different aquascaping journeys, much to the delight of those in attendance. We created totally different compositions, demonstrating on a small scale that there are countless alternatives to the “rock wall” so dominant in the marine aquascaping arena.

John, a master of the freshwater “Iwagumi” style of rock arrangement, embarked on a design that, while somewhat common in the freshwater game, was, in my opinion, positively groundbreaking in the marine arena. His design consisted of two opposing vertical elements of slab rock, with an open area in between. On either side, the sand was terraced and buttressed with a variety of smaller rocks, creating a dramatic, yet somehow comfortable setting.  Much care was demonstrated in providing a central area of open sand and an unusually tranquil feeling.  The beautiful influence of Japanese rockwork technique was everywhere- and was stunning. The terracing of the sand was something few, if any hobbyists in attendance have ever seen-nor attempted before.

Lesson One:  We need to open our minds to the many possibilities that exist to create dramatic aquascapes, as inspiration can come from many different places.

My aquascape took a more “conventional marine approach” (is there really such a thing?), relying on strong fundamental rockwork and utilization of some simple- but highly under utilized design elements.  The “Golden Ratio”  of  5/3 was utilized, putting the focal point of the composition about 18.5” from the left side of the tank. The left side  and center of my aquascape consisted of two strongly vertical elements, with one breaking the surface of the tank, and the other sloping downwards into a small field of broken rubble. The sand was sloped gently from back to front , following the contours of the ‘scape. The right side of the scape had a strong, yet natural configuration of rock with a slightly lower vertical element, instead following the slope of the overall rock work from left to right.

Lesson Two: By embracing  just a few common principles of design, we can effectively translate our vision to  a tangible work.

All was going well. Both John and I were in our “zones”- you know the feeling: That oddly relaxing, yet somehow quite stimulating  place that you take yourself when deeply engrossed in your endeavor. Even though we were smack dab in a bustling  room of 300-plus people, it was easy to concentrate on the work at hand. It was gratifying for John and I to take an occasional stroll over to each others’ tank and share a thought or two.  Under the illumination of state-of-the–art plasma arc lighting, we happily worked away the hours.

What was more gratifying was that we had lots- and I mean lots- of people watching us work throughout the competition, asking questions, sharing thoughts, and just plain staring…deep in thought. When we did glance up from our work,  we could see the “wheels of thought”  spinning in peoples’ heads- the  look that said, “What if I try THAT idea in my tank?” Could it get any better?

Lesson Three: We all have aquascaping talent within ourselves- we simply need to act on our aquascaping visions  and express ourselves with our work.

From a competitive  standpoint, failure to embrace Lesson Three was where I took the fateful turn that would ultimately cost me a contest win, according to the judges…

Despite what I felt was a strong, and very unique vertical structure on the left side of my tank, projecting to the water’s surface and beyond, I  somehow felt that it needed something more…something perhaps more familiar. What did I do? I decided to link my two left-side elements by creating…an ARCH…. capping it with a smaller rock. One rock changed the entire composition,  taking my aquascape from dramatically different to somehow contrived.

Scott Fellman’s submission to the aquascaping competition

John Ciotti submission to the aquascaping competition

One rock, as I was told by each and every judge in the evening post party that followed- made the difference between winning and losing the contest. I never- and I mean-NEVER-have been a fan of arches- they rarely work, and evoke an absolutely artificial feel 9 times out of 10. And as a believer in “natural style” aquascaping,  such structures are  something I avoid like the plague. Yet, I somehow felt it necessary to stray off my path and  try something that I knew would not work. Why? I believe it was something quite simple. Fear. Fear to  try something just a bit unconventional. I had a strong belief in what I was doing, yet reversed course.  Interestingly, I received many, many compliments about how cool the arch was…and that, as pointed out by a couple of the judges later- should have been my first tip-off that I was playing to the masses- and not being true to my vision.  I was not fulfilling my responsibility to the hobby. Ever one to attempt to pull something from the jaws of defeat, I believe that another valuable lesson was learned:

Lesson Number Four:  Follow your instinct. If you believe in your design and your vision, take the road less traveled and don’t stray from it.

In the end, what will be taken from this contest is not who won or who lost…John and I both felt that not only did we BOTH win- but the hobby won as well…Because we expressed some ideas that others may not have expressed before.  Perhaps  just a few people will go home, look at their tank and say, “I want to try that thing that the guy did at the Reefstock aquascaping contest”.  And THAT is the real victory.

Mission accomplished.

Till next time,

Keep Wet

Scott Fellman

facebook.com/scott.fellman

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• Aquascaping techniques, tips and thoughts
• AGA aquascaping contest delivers stunning freshwater views
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• EcoTech Marine launches video contest, giving away one MP10!
• Tear Down The Wall! Re-imagining rockwork for a new century
• A “Fresh” Approach
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Ecotech Marine released the EcoSmart Driver today. This is an upgrade for the existing Wireless Wave Driver or WWD and will be included on all new EcoTech vortech pumps. The new driver has improved wirless range new “EcoSmart” wave modes, Auto Tune mode, and additional features. “The wireless range of the EcoSmart wirelessly enabled drivers has been significantly increased. This allows for the controllers of slave pumps to be located further from sight or even in separate locations.”

The EcoSmart Driver features many new modes including:

• Improved Wireless Range
• On/Off Button
• Wave Auto-Tune Mode
• EcoSmart Nutrient Transport Mode
• EcoSmart Tidal Swell Mode
• Dark Mode
• New and Improved Night Mode, Feed Mode, Battery Backup Power Meter
• The Classic Reef Crest, Lagoonal, Short Pulse and Long Pulse Modes are still included
• A new more water resistant driver case

Hit the read more link to read the full scoop off what this driver has to offer.

So, what IS the EcoSmart Driver?

The EcoSmart driver is an upgrade for our existing Wireless Wave Driver (WWD) and will be included on all new EcoTech pumps. This driver has a new and improved wireless range, new “EcoSmart” wave modes, Auto Tune mode, and much much more.

With the introduction of the new EcoSmart driver to the market, we will be offering a wireless version of the MP10 which gives the discerning aquarist much more control over their small or medium size reef aquarium.

In addition to exciting new modes such as Wave Auto Tune and the EcoSmart multi pump modes, the wireless range of the EcoSmart wirelessly enabled drivers has been significantly increased. This allows for the controllers of slave pumps to be located further from sight or even in separate locations.

EcoSmart Product Features and Sales Information

• The new EcoSmart drivers are NOT a standalone product
• The EcoSmart driver is available as an upgrade for existing wireless and non-wireless pumps.
• The new EcoTech MP40w and MP10 lines will only be available with the new EcoSmart drivers.

The EcoSmart Driver features many new modes including:

• Improved Wireless Range
• On/Off Button
• Wave Auto-Tune Mode
• EcoSmart Nutrient Transport Mode
• EcoSmart Tidal Swell Mode
• Dark Mode
• New and Improved Night Mode, Feed Mode, Battery Backup Power Meter
• The Classic Reef Crest, Lagoonal, Short Pulse and Long Pulse Modes are still included
• A new more water resistant driver case
• A description of the modes can be found here

EcoSmart Tidal Swell Mode
In this EcoSmart mode water is circulated to create a harmonic balance in your aquarium reminiscent of the changing flow conditions that would be found in nature. Over the course of several hours, the flow pattern will go from very chaotic with an emphasis on left to right flow direction to an emphasis on right to left flow direction, all the while experiencing calm period in between and followed by a great surge of flow at the very end of the cycle. Adjusting the dial changes the maximum speed achieved at any time during this mode. Slave pumps should be positioned opposite the master and on the back of the tank to take full advantage of the EcoSmart modes.

EcoSmart Nutrient Transport Mode
In this EcoSmart mode, water is circulated in a two phase program consisting of wave motion to stir up detritus and surging motion to move the detritus into your overflow where it can be skimmed out. This effect promotes maximum health and nutrient export, as well as increased growth for sensitive corals such as SPS. Adjusting the dial changes the maximum speed achieved at any time during this mode. Slave pumps should be positioned opposite the master and on the back of the tank to take full advantage of the EcoSmart modes.

Classic Reef-Crest and Lagoonal Random Modes
In random mode you can toggle between two different modes, Reef-Crest and Lagoonal. When a pump is in Lagoonal Random Mode, the dial is used to set the maximum operational speed, and the driver will automatically randomize the pumps output to simulate either a high (Reef-Crest) or low (Lagoonal) energy reef environment. If this pump is a master, the associated slave pumps will replicate the master in sync or anti-sync modes.

New EcoSmart Models

All new MP10 pumps purchased from EcoTech Marine will be available for purchase in both wireless and non wireless models:

• MP10 ES
• MP10w ES
• Non-wireless MP10 ES drivers can purchase the RF Module to upgrade to the wireless version

All new MP40w pumps purchased from EcoTech Marine will only be available in the wireless version:

• MP40w ES

All Wireless EcoSmart drivers will be backwards compatible with the MP40w wireless pumps.

Related Posts:

• EcoSmart Driver Pricing and upgrade paths for MP10, MP20, MP40 Vortech pumps
• EcoSmart Driver rebate for Vortech MP40 owners
• EcoSmart Driver unwrapped and unboxed
• Video: Wave Auto Tune on EcoSmart Driver
• EcoTech Marine launches online parts store
• EcoTech marine “developing remote control” for Vortech
• EcoTech Marine launches video contest, giving away one MP10!
• Vortech mod increases flow with caveats

The first two models (10k, 20k) were supposed to be ready by late February but it looks like they are behind schedule from VDE/GS certification. (VDE Certification is extremely important in the European Union we are told.) What’s new? Royal Exlcusiv’s Red DragonIII pumps are said to have a LCD screen on board which will show speed in RPM, power consumption in watts and a on/off display among other features.

Royal Exclusiv is being upfront that the engine block and electronics coming from China. However, they state that the  rotors, impellers, shafts, cables, and the pump heads,  final assembly and quality control are being done in their plant in Germany (Cologne).

Brushless Red Dragon 2 Classic Pumps

What is a brushless pump? A brushless “DC (BLDC) motor is a synchronous electric motor powered by direct-current  (DC) electricity and having an electronic commutation system, rather than a mechanical commutator and brushes.” And we have been told that Royal Exclusiv is releasing two new versions of the Red Dragon Classic 2 in a brushless form.

Red Dragon 2 Classic 7,000 which will deliver 7,500 liters with a max head height of 4 meters at about 70 watts. These are currently being tested to select users in Germany now and will be the first pump released in the series. The next is the Red Dragon 2 Classic 16,000 with a max delivery of 16,500 liters with a max head height of 5 meters using about 200 watts. This larger model will hit in late April if everything goes to plan.

You can expect to see Vertex Aquaristik branded pumps coming to market soon. Vertex already has a place holder on their site dedicated to DC pumps. This is continuing the partnership started earlier last year with cone protein skimmers and only makes sense to expand the product line. We are not sure what specific models will be targeted but you can count on these models being lower in price and not available in the main Red Dragon pump lines.

Related Posts:

• Royal Exclusiv working on new Red Dragon pump replacement
• UV-C Power Cleaner Disinfection (UV sterilizer) from Royal Exclusiv
• Red Dragon II Titanium woes: Breaking Titanium Axles, rusted impellers
• Red Dragon II pumps 240 watt, 350 watt recalled
• Royal Exclusiv updates Red Dragon pumps with cooling bypass and titanium shafts
• 220v Vertex Alpha skimmers coming, rest of world now happy
• Alpha 300 cone skimmer by Vertex Aquaristik
• Vertex Alpha Cone Skimmer 170, 200 specifications

Centropyge debelius, the blue mauritius pygmy angelfish is a fish that is so rare and elusive that these may be the first new photos of the species in the last several years. Although Blue Harbor succeeds in obtaining quite the resume of the rarest of the rare reef fish, C. debelius is so seldom seen or collected that this the this pygmy angelfish is a feather in the cap of Koji Wada and the gang. This freshly caught adolescent specimen still retains some of the juvenile markings of black spots in the soft dorsal and anal fins although will eventually mature into a nearly solid blue bodied adult, with attractive black wormlines on the face and breast. Don’t even start getting any wild ideas of getting your own because this fish will likely sell for the cost of a complete reef setup, a nice one.

Related Posts:

• Blue Harbor’s incredible rare fish menagerie on captured on video
• Pygmy Angelfishes can get really dark under intense lighting
• Blue Harbor shows off why Attenuatus flasher wrasses are HOT!
• Rusty Flame pygmy angelfish hybrid video
• Roa excelsa status: one is still swimming
• Blue harbor shows off some Lipogramma klayi gems
• Centropyge resplendens showed off in new LA Fishguys video
• Debelius Pigmy angelfish being targeted for collection

On Wednesday we starting to receive  a flood of complaints about some sort of malware/issue warning on the site. Apparently from Google’s own Safe Browsing tool. You can see what our site looks like on the issue right over here and you can look at what Google’s site looks like too. There was bad code that was installed on the site in the deep public back-end. How was it installed? Our ad server was targeted from out of date code that was vulnerable to attack.   The strange thing was the malware didn’t appear to be working at least not for a while and that is why it took so long to track down the problem. Regardless, the ad server has been completely removed and installed with a different secure ad  system. This has been one of the more sophisticated attacks I’ve seen, and its been reported by the media.

Reef Builders has grown tremendously over the past year. As a result evil bots/persons were scanning the site looking for vulnerabilities as they wanted to leverage the amount of traffic we get for their own use. Because of this we’ve added a very powerful hardware firewall to the site which blocks about 99% of the attacks we were getting subjected to. We should have added this sooner and I’ll take the blame on this one. This was my fault.

Special thanks to all who emailed, called, tweeted, and blogged about this. We wouldn’t be around if it weren’t for you.

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The following is a short summary of the notable wavelength peaks of the LIFI at the full intensity of approximately 250 watts for the emitter:

• 380 nm – 0.04 watts
• 400 nm – 0.08 watts
• 420 nm – 0.118 watts
• 449 nm – 0.156 watts
• 460 nm – 0.164 watts
• 500 nm – 0.190 watts
• 521 nm – 0.183 watts
• 548 nm – 0.187 watts
• 591 nm – 0.205 watts
• 599 nm – 0.190 watts
• 662 nm – 0.140 watts
• 671 nm – 0.113 watts
• 730 nm – 0.048 watts
• 757 nm – 0.057 watts

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• Quick ‘n Dirty hands-on with the last Beta of the Seashine light
• New Seashine LIFI plasma light rolling out soon, Game Changer gets initial pricing
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• Plasma Arc LIFI lighting already in use at the Monterey Bay Aquarium

This installment of the Reef Builders podcast (episode #3) has myself,  Jake Adams, and Brian Blank talking about exciting things that happened in February 2010 in the industry we all know and love. Sit Back, relax and enjoy the show.

Hosts: Jake Adams, Brian Blank, Ryan Gripp
Producer: Ryan Gripp

Podcast RSS

[iTunes]Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes

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Related Posts:

• Rob Toonen shares what deep reefs tell us about keeping corals with Sacramento reefers
• Link to Reef Builders and get added to our new Reef Links Page
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• Reef Builders Celebrates 2000 Posts
• Reef Builders Podcast #2 — Midwest Frag Fest
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• Reef Builders Tank of the Month June 2008
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One of the largest aquariums in the world, the Dubai Mall Aquarium has sprung a torrential leak that threatened the safety mall visitors. Eyewitnesses say they first saw a crack in the glass with a little bit of water leaking and some water on the floor. At some point turned that crack must have grown to produce the fire hydrant stream of water coming out from the front panel. The Aquarium staff must have been aware of the problem before it turned into a geyser as when the police arrived to evacuate mall visitors there already were some divers in the tank apearing to coordinate some kind of repair. Let’s hope that the problem can get resolved before there is any loss of human or fish life. Thanks Paul!

via [DailyMail]

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With a retail price of $199 and $249 for the SWC 120 and 160 cone skimmers respectively, any prospective buyer should be skeptical of freakishly low price for a cone skimmer. The entry level cone skimmer buyer should be asking themselves “what’s the catch?” but after handling both models for the better part of yesterday we can tell you that the SWC 120 and 160 are definitely more skimmer than what we come to expect from the price. Sure the off-brand skimmer pump leaves something to be desired, the cone’s seam is not flawless and the wedge pipe flow control is not the most acute. However, the friendly price and minute footprint more than delivers on two benjamins worth of foam fractionation and the cone-scape is likely going to start looking very different once these two models start making the rounds. Follow the break for full unboxing expose with construction and design notes all along the way.

well padded shipping box absorbs shock and keeps the skimmers in place.
The SWC 160 on the left has a 9″ x 7″ base and the SWC 120 on the right has a 6″ x 7″ base. Althought the 160 is only 2.5″ taller than the 18″ 120, it probably holds about twice in volume for mixing air and water.

For the entry level price you’d think that small details would be missed but the riser tube has a well beveled edge. . .
. . . and the O-ring for the skimmer cup has a well recessed groove for easy removal of the cup.

At this angle you can see that the SWC 160 on the left is quite a bit more body than it’s little brother the SWC 120. For the price you’d think that the body is plastic but it is indeed acrylic, even if the diffuser plate/chamber is injection molded plastic.

The following sequence mostly depicts the SWC 120 who’s construction reflects that of the SWC 160 fairly well.

The in-body pump assembly is tight yet easy to get to with the removal of four thumb screws.
No wasted space here
Air flow control on the left, water level control on the right

It would have been nice to have a gate-like valve for flow control but the wedge pipe is a small compromise to make for the price

Some designs that have the diffuser plate mounted to the internal pump can be a little haphazard but this assembly was good-n-tight.
The diffuser plate has well countersunk holes for minimizing turbulence



Four noise dampening feet will reduce vibration. These soft plastic feet are not as desirable as silicone for this job but once again, a minor compromise given the price.

The Atman pump greatly resembles the Sedra 2500 and 3500 pumps found on smaller ASM skimmers.

The SWC 120 and 160 skimmers are equipped with a hybrid meshwheel that basicaly has some mesh material sandwiched between two pinwheels.
This hybrid meshwheel produces a lot of air but with such tight spacing this thing will clog up rather fast, requiring frequent cleaning
The aspirator valve is pretty standard
The SWC 120 also came with a classic needle wheel for those who would give up some air intake for less frequent maintenance of the impeller.

All the parts splayed out

FTC regulations require that we inform you that SWC Skimmers is a ReefBuilders sponsor and that we were loaned this product for review, but our opinion of a product is never affected by how we acquire them.

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