With 60-70 participants and about 400 attendees the third ReefStock was the best show yet. The crowd came early and it stayed late for the ReefScape competition, the talks and the raffle. While we were doing all we could to oil the gears of the show, we had the great fortune to get in touch with avid ReefBuilders reader Adam Knudson who volunteered for extreme photography duty. The images you will see over the next couple days are mostly his and we thank him from the bottom of our tropical saltwater heart for documenting every square inch of this show. Continue reading for the first onslaught of pictorial inundation.

Hard work vendors and exhibitors line up for their well deserved meal of gruel.
ReefNutrition has long been a leader in trade show booth presentation.
We had well over a dozen coral frag slingers with several thousand frags and small colonies to pick from.

John and Jake speak with Scott about a new environmental controller.
Dr. Paul feels up some of the new Marco Geode rock.
The ReefStock shwag bag was bursting at the seams with literature, catalogs and free samples.
Ocean’s Paradise brought many nice captive raised specimens of clownfish, anemones and cardinalfish.

Thomas and Stephane from AquaMedic go over the game plan with Shaun about the AquaMedic strategy for the show.
Guin shows off a double Fancy Ocellaris that was hand picked to her specifications.
Marc and Scott talk to John about the thirsty Ecoxotic booth display tank.
Reefkoi gets subjected to a little tomfoolery during the evening of setup.
The coral frag slingers eye up the competition, perhaps making some ‘first minute’ deals before the doors swing open.

Wes looks over his frag booth lit up by a DIY LED light.
There were many fine clownfish donated to the livestock raffle including a wyoming white and two onyx clowns from Ocean Gallery II and a pair of semi’cassos and semi’flakes from ORA.
We can always count on Dirk to bring out a ton of great books, we hear he sold quite a few at this show.
Midwest Saltwater came all the way to Denver to represent their full range of reef aquarium ceramic shelves, ledges and frag stations.
Perfect Australian scolymias lined up like trophies in the aquarium of Mile High Aquatics.
Joy from ReefBrite Prepares to demonstrate their full line of LED, halide and T5 lighting products.

We almost had to charge Dirk extra for all the vertical space he was using.
Elite Reef showed off their affordable line of cone shaped protein skimmers.
Seachem displayed their extensive and mature full line of aquairum products, including the new 2-part solution called Reef Fusion.
Piscine Energetics erected this fine booth what seems like minutes before opening the doors
Sustainable Aquatcs brought many nice captive raised and captive bred fish

Someone had to take a nap in the middle of the afternoon.

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We recently received our print edition of CORAL magazine but the digital edition has just been released. The articles center around Smart Reefs, which was done up by Reef Builders own Jake Adams. You’ll learn about energy-saving products and tactics along with green reef aquariums with using the least amount of energy for the best possible reef tank. This includes LEDs, T5 and efficient pumps and water movers like Tunze and Vortech. Also in this issue is “Feeding Anemones”, Controlling pH, and an inside look at fish from a vertebrate perspective. So go ahead and hit that read link below to check out the latest issue.

[via CORAL]

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AquaMedic in Germany has a bevy of new products, some we’ve covered already. One such product is actually quite large and odds are it won’t come to the US market. However our friends in the UK and the rest of the world will be able to enjoy it. The new AquaMedic round-circle aquarium will be available in two sizes 100cm and 120cm in diameter. The frame is made out of VA-Steel and the “high quality” cabinet will have detachable acrylic plates, with retail pricing expected to come in around 2500 euro.

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The Reef Angel, a new programmable controller, is coming to market and looks to be a great way to get a fully customizable controller at a lower cost relying more on DIY programming and some assembly rather than the turnkey products on the market today. While this may not be the best product suited for the typical reefer, those of us looking to sacrifice some time and energy for overall costs may appreciate this controller kit.

According to the company’s website, “Reef Angel is the first controller kit to offer the reefing hobbyist full control of hardware and software to accommodate all their reefing needs. At your fingertips is the ability to create the most sophisticated controller you will ever need. With a very simple to use interface and easy to learn programming language, Reef Angel will give you endless possibilities.”

The introductory price is $180 for the complete kit, which will give you the main controller, a relay box and communication cable along with a pH probe, three fully assembled waterproof temperature sensors, two float valves, power cord and serial converter cable. Additional options include a pulse width modulation (PWM) booster for Meanwell LED drivers, 1000 mA LED drivers, plus additional float switches, pH and temperature probes.

Based on the open source Arduino code, the Reef Angel will require some programming language skills that should be relatively easy to learn. The site does include some pre-formatted codes and with a robust open source community around Arduino, picking up the nuances shouldn’t be too hard. If the company can get some vocal early adopters on board, I’m sure new codes will begin to pop up on the company’s forum boards.

Below are some some more details on the components:

Main Board

• ATMega328P – microcontroller
• 2x 24LC256 – Serial I2C EEprom memory, one with jumper to block write access.
• pH circuit
• 128×128 color LCD screen
• DS3231 – Real time clock with battery backup
• Power LED
• Status LED, mainly used for alert and diagnostics.
• Thumb analog joystick
• 1x 8 Port I2C expander with inverter gate
• 1x 8 Port I2C expander with inverter gate circuit only (option to solder direct to circuit board)
• Routed enclosure, mounting screws and assembly instructions

Relay Box

• Assembled PCB board
• 8x miniature relays
• Relay driver circuit
• Override and status LEDs circuit (the circuit is built in the board, but no switches or LEDs are going to be provided)
• PWM booster circuit for Meanwell drivers (Additional $15)
• 1000mA capable LED driver (Additional $25)
• 2x Plugable terminal connectors for LED cable if any of the 2 above choices are opted in.
• 8x Outlet sockets
• Inlet socket with built-in fuse compartment
• Connection wires
• Routed enclosure, mounting screws and assembly instructions

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NanoCustoms made a very strong showing at this year’s ReefStock with many new products, one of the most notable being their MR16 LED spotlight. The MR16 from NanoCustoms is a Mini-Me version of the industry-leading PAR 38 LED spotlight from NanoCustoms that is already lighting up Nano Reefs and small tanks all over the world. The array of MR16s that NC demoed were all using three XP series LEDs, XP-E blues and XP-G whites, which all share a common triple lens reflector of 40 degrees and which are driven with an internal driver. The color combination we saw at ReefStock were all white, all blue, a ‘12k’ with 1:2 ratio of blues to whites and a ‘20k’ with a 2:1 ratio of blues to whites; NanoCustoms expect to ship all of these color combinations except for the all white but we are pushing for them to release the all white as well to satisfy more color tastes as well as the nano planted tank keepers. Due to cost and availability, the XP-G whites may be replaced with XP-E series whites. The LEDs of the NC-MR16 will be running between 350ma and 500ma when they start becoming available in two to three months: they will sell for $45 each and they will fit into, and work with any standard MR16 light fixture. NanoCustoms will offer an off-the-shelf 12 volt DC power supply for the DIYers in the house but any standard 12v PS will work to drive these lamps. The Mini-Me MR16 LED spotlights will be a very welcome addition to the nano aquarium lighting market where reefers may want a slimmer profile than what is currently afforded by the PAR38 lamps.

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