Fish

As Ecotech Marine celebrates ten years of business in the reef aquarium scene, I am reminded of how I came to know the once scrappy three young founders Tim, Pat, Justin and first employee Mark. The company cut its teeth on reef tank product engineering with a magnetically stirred kalk stirrer with a built in peri pump, the whole assembly was ahead of its day, and there’s still nothing else like it. My first taste of Ecotech Marine on personal tanks came the summer of 2005, when I acquired two fo the first 50 handmade VorTech MP40 pumps and controller that were ever made as part of their Beta test program. I can remember it clear as day how I thought it would be a good investment to buy two pumps because there’s no way this company will last in the aquarium industry selling pumps for $250 a piece! Well the rest is history now, ten years of it precisely. Rather than dive into a winding history of what Ecotech has done for us, I want to reminisce on the progress of the Vortech controller, a follow up to the post three years ago. The first two I ever got were made of bent sheet metal and had hand soldered electronic circuit boards. There were no buttons, only two indicator LEDs, which looked pretty fancy at the time, and only a potentiometer dial to adjust flow speed. One of the OG motors is now a backup while the other has been running near continuously for eight years, with added functionality being delivered through controller upgrades. It’s easy to see the increasing level of sophistication in Ecotech’s engineering of the Vortech controller from Revision 2, in the Betas, to the first wireless controllers, to the current EcoSmart controller with better indicators and a wireless daughterboard. The development of Ecotech Marine’s RF module on a separate board was a neat trick which was cool to see pop up in the Radion light, and which is very likely to appear in the forthcoming Ecotech ReefLink. Most recently, the cloud-sourcing of EcoSmart Live to the web is only going to get more useful and capable. Whether or not you use Vortech pumps, or are a fan of Radion lights, there’s no denying that the influence of Ecotech Marine’s products go well beyond what they actually make and sell. The reef aquarium hobby is bettered by the presence of Ecotech Marine over the last ten years and with the company just moving into a facility that is eight times larger than before, all signs indicate that new Vortechs, Radions and Ecosmarts will be making their mark for another decade. Readers also viewed: Apex controller may soon play nice with Radion LEDs Ecotech Reeflink ‘controller for aquarium equipment’ supposed hub for Vortechs and Radions Radion XR30w Pro now available Radion XR30w Pro set to start shipping very soon at a lower price Mitras LED and Radion XR30 Pro: comparing the color and spread on a big reef tank Explaining the many ways that Ecotech Marine will offer upgrades to the Radion G2 2nd generation Radion G2 coming soon with Cree XTE, lenses and $100 price drop Radion Pro’s eight color LED cluster brings out incredible coral color rendition

For the photography enthusiasts in the hobby, there was some significant news with Yahoo! announcing upgrades to its photo storage and sharing site Flickr that included 1 terabyte of storage. Flickr may not have been the first but they were one of the best photo sharing websites setting a standard for others coming on the scene later. But since the acquisition by Yahoo! in 2005, not much has changed with the service until yesterday. Coming in with a total redesign, Flickr has some interesting changes most notably the vast amount of storage you’ll get. The reef hobby also seems to inspire tangential hobbies and interests with one of the biggest being photography. Any time you go to a reef show, club tank tour or public aquarium tour there are always at least a handful of photographers toting around a digital SLR camera snapping off shots of corals, fish, aquariums and equipment. The intricate and colorful corals, exotic fish and unique aquariums make for the perfect photography fodder. Besides, we all know how hard it is to not tinker with our aquariums and having another creative outlet gives our systems a much-needed break. This news is significant for the average user looking for ginormous amount of storage. Prior to the changes, you were limited on uploads and file sizes and the new Flickr gives you the ability to upload photos as large at 200MB (up from 10MB before), create collections, post to up 60 group pools and limit the maximum image size available to others. If you happen to have a Flickr Pro account, there are a few issues you’ll want to explore before making the switch. While you were able to have unlimited storage, you are now faced with limits on file sizes. However, Flickr Pro users also get to view view counts and referrer statistics for their images — handy for professionals looking to see what images resonate with viewers and which are shared on the web the most. Flickr also now gives you the ability to view the site ad free for $49.99 a year and if you find that 1TB of data isn’t enough, you can double your storage to 2TB for $499.99 a year. Our overall impressions of Flickr were favorable and feel the site still needs some minor tweaks to make it better and the increased storage is a huge plus. We do feel Flickr Pro users will have to spend a bit of time on the site and weigh the pros and cons before deciding to jump ship for the new free service. As with any significant change, there is backlash from users wanting Flickr to go back to the way it was but overall change is progress and we’re looking forward to a continual stream of added features to make Flickr relevant again. What are your thoughts about the new design? If you aren’t going to use Flickr, what is your favorite photo hosting service? Readers also viewed: Introducing the Reef Builders Flickr Photo Pool

Frameless fish tanks are increasing in popularity as evidenced by the venerable Twenty Gallon ‘High’ 20H getting the rimless/frameless treatment. In PetSmart to boot! Back in our day, when we wanted to get an aquarium it was standard-issue to have a black frame or worse, one with faux wood trim printed on. In no time at all some amount of salt creep or mineral stain builds up to ruin that new-tank look and feel, especially with hard water african cichlids. Rimless and frameless tanks have been growing in popularity in the aquarium hobby, fish tanks in a range of sizes have been getting stripped of their bracing for that clean look. But it really took us aback to see a classic aquarium size getting the clean-line treatment, at a chain pet store no less. Like the beautiful frameless cube aquariums this frameless 20H fish tank is made by Marineland. For now the frameless 20H aquarium is not going to take over for the ones we have laying around as they are a little more expensive than the plastic-framed counterparts. At the moment the Frameless 20H is only sold as a set with at minimum a Marineland LED strip light for $149 or with the stand for $239. But for now the march of the frameless fish tanks won’t be over until you can pick up a bare 20H, ten gallon or even a five gallon fish tank for a similar price as the standard ‘framed’ aquariums. Readers also viewed: Marineland Frameless Cube Aquariums are now the norm for UPG Mr Aqua Frameless Glass Aquarium tanks

Nanoreef ES of Spain is bringing a modular approach to the sump starting next month. The novel idea allows you to add more features and functions to your filtration and maintenance by just adding different modules that gives you a unified look beneath your aquarium. The translucent white plastic components will kick off with weir overflow assemblies (dubbed the R2) for undrilled tanks as well as return lines from your sump (dubbed R1). If you are looking for a combined product, try the RK1 and RK2 which are integrated overflow and returns in two different sizes. For your sump, you can grab an S30 or S50 (holding 30 or 50 liters) that features integrated chambers for filter media, protein skimmer, return pump and even a refugium. You can even add on an additional reservoir to hold top off water, kalkwasser or other liquid you’ll be adding to your tank. The products will start trickling out to the market in June and will look to extend availability as production and demand ramp up. The prices look to be on par with other products, starting with around €55 for the overflow return and €355 for the S50 sump.  From what we can tell from the images, the workmanship looks pretty solid providing a clean look for your extended filtration. [via Nanoreef ES] Readers also viewed: ZeoBlue zeolite reactor from Spain’s Blue Quercus [VIDEO] Atomic Reef is back at producing nuclear reef aquarium equipment ATB is producing some sweet looking sumps NextReef Sumps are the simple foundation for under tank filtration New pictures from Royal Exclusiv show more details of the dreamy Dreambox Coral Reef Spain launches new premium salt Reef Octopus Nano Overflow goes into production with tightly integrated features Reef Octopus overflow box a bit of a mystery

When it comes to aquarium illumination, hobbyists are often left with a tough choice for mounting their lights. On one hand, you can go the route of style and aesthetics, beig left with a difficult install from the ceiling or some sort of hanging hardware. On the other, you can use unsightly tank brackets that are simple to incorporate, but really detract from the overall look of the setup. Fortunately, lighting hardware producers have started to get smart and make gooseneck brackets, which are both simple and stylish, and the latest Lamp Clamp from Coral Compulsion is no different. The suitably called Lamp Clamp is a very simple, elegant way to illuminate your marine aquarium. It has a power cord, power switch, and socket built right in, giving new life to the Par30 and Par38 form factor LED lamps that have sort of waned in popularity over recent years. The Lamp Clamp has a flexible arm that is coated in vinyl to give added protection against corrosion. It holds up to 2lbs worth of LED goodness and an acrylic mounting clamp with nylon screws holds it securely to aquariums up to 1″ thick. Besides being an incredibly simple light source, the Coral Compulsion Lamp Clamp is also very affordale at only $39.99. It is available in both black and white versions, and comes with a 90-day warranty.

Having worked the retail marine LFS beat for many moons, we’ve seen countless people come in to the shop, day in day out, trying to get their water parameters right or worse, trying to figure out what the problem is. The chemistry of fish tanks and marine aquariums is very complicated, and sometimes the more chemistry you add to try to balance things out, the more the ions become harder to read. Water changes are awesome; provided you are using better water than you started with, almost any water quality issues can be remedied by doing large partial water changes. It’s actually kind of amusing what percentage of aquarium products and devices are designed directly or indirectly with the notion to prevent you from doing a simple water change. Biopellets? Carbon? GFO and Poly Filters? Yup, those are all for improving water quality vis-a-vis delaying the next water change. Now we’ve thoroughly advocated the changing of large volumes of water in nano reef tanks like Ecoreef One and Ecoreef Zero but this guy Jaime Andueza is taking the approach on a full on reef aquarium. Due to his own ‘pitfalls with chemistry’ compounded by an inability to read test results from color blindness, Jaime had the idea to due nearly complete water changes* on his reef aquarium, and it seems to be working for him. That big asterisk in the title and in the text above is because if you couldn’t tell from his accent, Jaime is Australian and he’s pulling his water right off the reef. When doing large water changes, the greater the fraction of water being changed the more crucial it becomes to ensure the replacement water is of the utmost quality, completely mixed, oxygenated and of an appropriate temperature. With water pulled off the reef he doesn’t have any of those issues, except to keep his water warm. What we wanted to bring to your attention with this video is that water changes trump all. Back when the previous generation of aquarists were trying to breed this or that species, or let alone keep it alive, the answer always seemed to be more water changes. If you’ve got some chronic aquarium chemistry issues and you feel like you’ve tried everything, do consider large water changes with high quality replacement water and see if that doesn’t improve the quality of your fish tank. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5tVuqYFf48 Readers also viewed: How it’s made: Reef Aquariums 3 days, a camera and a reef aquarium: Upgrade recorded in stop motion The beauty of unintended good planning Stunning reef aquarium gets even better after upgrade to Elos Epower and E-liteXp lighting This simple two-bommie aquascape exudes subtle beauty Simple, low tech reef tanks can be bliss France’s Neo Aquarium creates then sells unique all-in-one display Are Reef Aquariums Getting Too Lifelike?

Click through to see the images. Operators of Seawalkers at Green Island, Australia (GBR) have an attention-starved fish in their waters.  Gavin has become a tourist attraction in and of himself.  And can you blame people for wanting to meet him?  Just look at that silly, toothy grin!  Visit Mail Online to read more about Gavin.

Plastic light diffuser, otherwise known as eggcrate, is one of those tools of the aquarium trade that has tons of different uses. Besides making for the perfect frag rack, eggcrate can also serve to block jumping fish from escaping the open top of an aquarium, separate unruly and aggressive fish, or even act as an in-tank refugium for growing macroalgae. In terms off assembly, the plastic can be bound together with zip ties or various types of glue and plastic bonding chemicals. The uses of eggcrate are virtually limitless, and because it comes in also comes in a black version, it won’t stand out like a sore thumb in your aquarium.

Click through to see the images. Sometime between 7.30 PM on Saturday, May 11 and 12:00 PM on Sunday, May 12, thieves gained entrance to the business through the ceiling. All in all, the thieves made off with over $15,000 in fish and equipment. Of which, three breeding zebra L046 plecos (Hypancistrus zebra) and one Flagtail fish were among the items stolen. It's interesting to note that the zebra pleco is banned from export from Brazil is currently threatened in the wild due to construction of the Belo Monte Dam in the Xingu river in Brazil, where the fish is found. Due to this threat, several captive breeding programs are working to captively rear this fish. (via Herald Sun News)

The Fluval FX6 is yet another new Canister Filter for fish tanks and aquariums that need some serious filtration. Building on the previous big mombasa of canisters the Fluval FX5, the sixth iteration does away with grey and orange for black and red, plus a few new bells and whistles. Ratings for canister filters are funny things, as surely no one would use just one Fluval FX6, or any single big canister, to filter a 400 gallon aquarium as Hagen suggests. But the point remains that 500 gallons per hour of bypass-free mechanical, chemical and biological filtration goes a long way. Some of the innovations of the Fluval FX6 canister are built in fittings for performing water changes, although you gotta bring your own hookups and electronic monitoring and control of the pump motor to ensure a strong consistent output. We got really excited when we saw what appeared to be control dials on the top of the Fluval FX6′s top housing. Alas, these turn out to simply be “maintenance dials” so you can set the date for when you last cleaned the filter media, or when you want to remind yourself of when you need to get back in there. For somewhere between $350-399 you can pick up a Fluval FX6 for your dirty fish tank, but at least it comes with the full complement of filter media. Key Features: Multi-Stage Filtration produces healthy aquarium water For fresh and saltwater aquariums Features Smart Pump Technology for optimal filter performance, efficiency and management Advanced motor technology provides better performance and reliability while consuming 10% less electricity Click-Fit AquaStop Valves allow fast setup and leak-proof maintenance Valves are positioned at 45 degree angles and rotate for easy installation Self-starting filter-just add water and plug in-Smart Pump Technology will do the rest Monthly maintenance indicator allows you to remember the date of your last filter maintenance/water change Heavy-duty Anti-Clog Telescopic Strainer ensures continuous flow Multi-Directional Output Nozzles can be adjusted to create specific water flows Purge Valve with Drain Hose for easy maintenance and flushing of the canister Water change feature eliminates need to carry buckets of water-simply attach appropriate hose to the output-Smart Pump Technology will do the rest (Kit sold separately) Flow rate: 2130 litres (563 US gallons) per hour For aquariums up to 1500 litres (400 US gallons) Readers also viewed: Fluval Sea PS1 protein skimmer is a small economy internal foam fractionator New Fluval EDGE 46L aquarium is twice as tall and double the volume Fluval Edge Heater is 25 watts of compact heating for nano aquariums Fluval G3 canister gets reviewed on camera by Practical Fishkeeping C-Series Fluval power filter from Hagen now with lots of stages Fluval Chi, Ebi and Flora nano tank starter kits Fluval G series filter gets its own mini site Deep Sea Aquatics and Hagen partner up for direct distribution deal