When we first received a sample of the Azurelite LED flashlight from Orphek, we knew that it would be a good little light toy, a useful accessory, but we never thought it would get so much regular usage. We use the Azurelite so regularly we’re even considering getting a second one for a different floor of the house!
To start off, the Azurelite is great because it’s a 5 watt LED flashlight in a small package, for an affordable $40-50. Despite its small size and powerful LED, it isn’t the energy hog and as much as we use it, we’re still running on the batteries that the Azurelite originally came with.
At first we wished the Azurelite was a little more blue, a little more colorful, but the five watt multichip in bright 470nm-ish blue is the right spectrum for exciting a wide range of pigments, and it’s bright enough to actually see stuff in your tank. Better yet, the adjustable focus ring can transform the LED light from a broad, wide-angle spotlight, to a narrow beam of light useful for pointing at corals as well as evaluating water flow speed and direction through a useful cross section of the aquarium water.
The point is, that a powerful LED flashlight with a focusable light beam is great for all manner of things in reef tanks, not the least of which is sneaking up on marine life in the dark. How do you know what’s really going on in your reef tank if you have no idea of the populations of mysis shrimp, amphipods, bristelworms or stomatellas running around your ecosystem at night? You don’t, and the Azurelite is one of those LED flashlights which makes it easy and practical to take night time marine life census of your reef tank regularly.
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