Reef Stock – Denver Colorado – March 10, 2012

Unless you’ve been living deep inside a piece of Totoka live rock, by now you should be aware that a huge LED lighting demonstration will be taking place at ReefStock this Saturday, March 13th at the Denver Downtown Aquarium. LED lighting has been a dream on the horizon for almost a decade but this weekend we will all see that this exciting and efficient lighting technology has really arrived to the aquarium hobby, with the reefers being first in line to take advantage of the intensity and coloring options that come from using Light Emitting Diodes. Whether you are into the hot rod or the DIY, spotlights, modular or custom LED lighting, with no less than 10 LED light makers in attendance this weekend we should get a good look at the current state of the art in aquarium LED lighting technology. And if you can’t make it because you don’t live in Colorado or neighboring states, fear not because you can bet your reefing budget that the Reef Builders staff will blogging their hearts out on everything LED at ReefStock so that anyone with internet connection can get front row coverage simply by stopping by the blog. In addition to all these LED lights and the first production LIFI Plasma Arc Seashine lights, we can expect a ton of new products to be announced and we can assure you that you will want to read about all that will unfold in Denver this weekend. With so many high tech lights in one place we may not be able to cause the formation of a ripple in the reefing space-time continuum but at the very least this grand show of LED force should be a great coming out party for the lighting technology which will just about push out all others in the coming years. Follow the break for a rundown of all the future players in the aquarium LED lighting world who will be coming to ReefStock and make sure you tune in to Reef Builders this weekend for all the action.

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Nano Customs might be releasing a new T5/LED light for nano aquariums or at least playing with the idea. This prototype light fixture is milled out of billet 6061 with a integrated passive heatsink & active cooling system for the T5s. The actual T5s are 20 watts each (you’ll get two of them) plus 10 PAR38 (5 on each side) MCPCBs in the fixture which comes out to 12″ x 6.5″ x 1.5″ which is a great size for nano aquariums. “These are built to order, we are planning on making them available in the full range of anodized colors.”  No price or lead time yet so we will have to stay tuned for more although we would love to see these become available in black. We can expect to see this concept fixture demoed at ReefStock where you can be certain that we will get plenty of hands on time with it.

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So the other day I was having a conversation with Jake Adams on the topic of aquascaping as a whole. Obviously we didn’t get too far off into the conversation without being derailed onto some sort of new LED gadgetry. Well over the passing days I came back to the conversation on my own. I find me asking myself what does it  really take to lay down something out of the ordinary, something to leave people in awe.

If you haven’t yet heard, Denver’s ReefStock event will be featuring the greatest diversity of marine and reef aquarium LED lights ever assembled. In addition to Ecoxotic, ReefBrite, NanoCustoms, AquaIlluminations and CoralSky, the Nautilus Ballroom at the Denver Downtown Aquarium will also be displaying the latest LED products from Tropical Marine Centre, Marineland and now also Japan’s most popular LED spotlights, the LeDio lamps by Volx Japan. Pictured above is the small army of gears, err LED spotlights from Volx in every color combination they make including the spanking new 9 watt UV LED lamp which is just starting to make the rounds in the land of the rising sun. How cool is that? Now if we could just find a great little fixture or track light to house these seven spotlights we’ll be all set. Huge thanks to our pal Taka for making the arrangements to display these exotics at ReefStock on behalf of Volx Japan.

Although propeller water pumps have long since taken over the in-tank circulation of reef aquarium water, the OceanProp 15000 is the first such product offering from AquaMedic. On a scale of 1-10 with 1 being the smallest and 10 being the largest prop pump out there, the OceanProp 15K is a 12. This two handed beast weighs in at 1685 grams, over 3.5 lbs! Even the sizeable lever-actuated suction mount is a behemoth that looks like it could support a small flat screen TV. What the OP15K lacks in discreteness it makes up for with a balance of performance and value. Follow the break for more thoughts and pictures.

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If you didn’t already have a hundred reasons to go to ReefStock on March 13th at the Denver Downtown Aquarium, now you have 300 more. AquaticLife has generously donated enough of their Ammonite Hydrometers to equip a small township of reefkeepers with one of the more recently released specific gravity testers. There will only be 300 of these freeby Ammonite Hydrometers available in the ReefStock shwag bags on a first come first serve basis and gauging by last year’s enthusiastic crowd, we expect the supply of Ammonites to be depleted by noon. Huge thanks to AquaticLife for the very generous donation, stay tuned to find out what we’ll hustle next for the ReefStock shwag bag.

My name is Scott Fellman, and I’m the consummate “reef geek”! I bleed saltwater!

Much of my life centers around tweaking my protein skimmer, scraping algae, cleaning up spills, or figuring out how to unglue my fingers. I’ve been keeping marine aquariums since I was 12 years old, and during that time, I have maintained all sorts of aquariums, fish bowls, plastic boxes, and just about anything that can hold water. My passions are aquascaping and marine biotope aquariums. I love this hobby and the people in it!

I’ve mentored fellow hobbyists since 2002 on Bob Fenner’s WetWebMedia.com site, and I was Co-Editor of WWM’s Conscientious Aquarist online magazine for a couple of years. I was past president of my local club, the Marine Aquarium Society of Los Angeles County. I’ve written a number of articles for Freshwater and Marine Aquarium Magazine, Ultramarine UK, Marine Fish and Reef USA Annual, “C” Journal, and other online venues, such as Reef Builders, where I write a weekly blog on a variety of reef-related topics.

In addition to my writing, I have racked up the frequent-flyer miles, travelling all over the U.S. speaking at clubs about all sorts of reef-related stuff. I presented at MACNA XIX in Pittsburgh, IMAC 2008 in Chicago,  MACNA XX in Atlanta, and MACNA XI in Atlantic City, as well as IMAC West in Long Beach, and Ref-a-Palooza in SoCal. I’m really trying to complete a book on marine biotope aquaria and aquascaping before this century is over, and I’m sure my aquarium is due for a water change at some point!

When I’m not trying to replicate the ocean in my aquarium, I’m usually surfing in it at my local beach, dining at new restaurants(another great love), watching ice hockey, or SCUBA diving. I reside in the Los Angeles area. I’m honored to be presenting at my first Denver Reefstock! Should be a great weekend!

Paul Whitby is originally from the UK, but now resides in Oklahoma USA.  While in the UK, he received his Doctorate in the microbiology of fish diseases, specifically diseases of fish with high economic importance and has published several articles in this field.  Currently he is an Associate Professor at the University of Oklahoma where he specializes in the microbiology of Pediatric infectious diseases.

Paul has had several articles published in Reef Keeping online magazine which include several reviews, information on pests and parasites as well as articles on COMAS and the development of a captive propagation program to both conserve coral species and educate new people in the hobby.  In October 2007 his SPS dominated display tank was selected as Reef Keeping Magazine’s Tank of the Month.  Paul has presented several marine aquarium related seminars at local clubs and conferences including Oklahoma’s CRASE, IMAC West, and Arkansas’ Reef Fest conferences.  In 2009 he joined the team of experts contributing articles to Reefbuilders.

He has been keeping saltwater aquariums for over 20 years and has owned a variety of tanks ranging from under 30 to in excess of 600gallons.  His current system, including filtration, is over 1,000 gallons.

The upcoming Seashine LIFI plama lighting fixture by Stray Light Optical Technology is definitely one of most promising new technologies heading into the trade. We had the pleasure of finding out more about this light including pricing and availability from Stray Light Optical’s president and CEO Gerald Rea.

First and foremost, this light has been evolving over the last year or so with the version we showcased in the last post being dubbed the Beta 2 model with the newest version being the Beta 3 shown in the image above this post. With the final beta versions of this light rolling out this month, the Seashine should go into larger production in February with availability and a more formal launch set for the beginning of March. The company is evolving the light to be more appealing to our aesthetic and if all goes as planned, we hope to see the first production level Seashine lights at ReefStock. Pricing and plenty of more information after the break. Read the rest of this entry »

The battery backup for Vortech water pumps has been available as an accessory almost as long as the MP40 has been on the market. However, the first Vortech battery backup was essentially a motorcycle battery in a box that was marketed and produced by IceCap Inc. All has been quiet on the battery backup front for several years until EcoTech announced today that they will be releasing a new, 2nd generation battery backup for Vortech pumps which is now designed and built in-house by EcoTech proper. Some upgraded internals should make the new power pack faster to charge and it should be better at supplying power to the Vortech line of water pumps during a power interruption. The $165 kit will now include two power cables for running more than one vortech pump, or for linking up the batteries in series for increased runtime while powering the Mp10, 20 or 40w Vortechs. The new backup will have a much longer lifespan due to some new charging techniques and from a fresh battery backup you can expect about 24hrs of runtime on an MP40w and just about 3 days from the MP10 and MP20 Vortechs. The battery backup will soon be available from your favorite Vortech vendors and we can expect to get a good look at the new Battery Backup from Ecotech Marine when they come to Denver for ReefStock. Full press release after the break.

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