From Left to Right: Unibody 36, Unibody 54, and Unibody 108.

Late last year, JBJ made their big splash onto the LED lighting scene with their all new Unibody LED fixture. Originally only shown off in one size, the 54watt Unibody, we’ve recently come to discover, via the JBJ USA Facebook Page, that there are actually three completely different models in the lineup. We assume that this trio of sizes is meant to mirror the three different sizes of the rimless JBJ Nano-Cube aquariums that were also just released, but obviously these small yet powerful LED fixtures can target a whole range of other nano to mid-sized aquariums. The three models being offered are the Unibody 36, Unibody 54 (the original model), and Unibody 108. And from what we can tell, the major features are shared universally by all three models, with the only differences being the number of emitters in each model and obviously the size.

The Unibody 54, which was the first model to hit the market, has three rows of six LEDs and the total power consumption is 54watts (hence the name Unibody 54). We assume the two other models, the Unibody 36 and 108, share this naming structure, but we are unsure of how the LEDs will actually be laid out on the CNC machined aluminum block. Regardless of how things are actually laid out, we’re sure each fixture is designed to provide maximum coverage.

The two new Unibody models aren’t quite available on the aquarium equipment market as of yet, but given the fact that pre-production models are already being tested and inspected, we expect the new models to be hitting store shelves in no time. Prices also haven’t been revealed as of yet, but going off the price of the Unibody 54 ($350), the Unibody 36 will probably come in at in the mid-$200′s and the Unibody 108 most likely flirting with $500. Again, these are all speculative points on our part, but we’re confident these will be in the same ballpark as their actual prices.

A little more about these lights: The JBJ Unibody LED fixtures are both sleek and stylish, being made from a solid block of machined aluminum, not unlike the very snazzy Apple Macbook laptops. Each fixture sports multiple rows of blue and white triple spectrum diodes, with both colors being on separate channels and both being completely controllable. The controller can dial in the color spectrum anywhere between 6500K and 20000K, giving users a great deal of control over how blue or white their aquariums look.

Want a job in the aquarium industry but don’t feel like your skills will allow you to compete against biology graduates? Do you have a passion for aquariums but don’t want to maintain them both at home and at work? If the answer to those two questions is yes, then you might want to consider getting a job at an aquarium equipment company where you can use your passion for the hobby to drive a successful career. With the popularity of LED aquarium illumination on the steady rise, job openings for reliable help in the sales and customer service departments for companies that produce this type of lighting are exploding. Looking to expand their operations, Ecoxotic has recently listed a job availability for an “account representative”, which is being described as a position designed to field phone calls and become intimately familiar with their product line to better help customers. The position is full-time and located in beautiful Southern California, where the company is based.

Full job description posted below.

From a San Diego Craigslist listing:

Vista based LED lighting company is looking for a fulltime process oriented Account Rep to establish and maintain the valued relationships with our customers. This role is designed to keep the sales funnel replenished through hundreds of outbound phone calls per week, all documented within our CRM system, SalesForce. Please only apply if you have the tenacity to call every customer once a week to take care of their needs- whatever they may be. They may have a question about our product, need a tracking number, check the status of their order, check our current inventory levels, or place an order. We truly believe steady sales come from consistently contacting our customers, creating a partnership by providing excellent customer service and being their vital resource to generate more sales of their own.

Responsibilities
• Outbound Calling for Existing Dealers and New Dealers
• Documenting every step of the sales cycle in our CRM System
• Customer Service- Answering Incoming Calls and Emails from Dealers
• Up selling New Products and Promotions
• Quote Dealer lighting requirements

Qualities
• Personable and very comfortable on the phone
• Resourceful and diligent
• Process Oriented with the ability to follow directions and follow through
• SalesForce and/or ZenDesk experience is a plus but not necessary
• Willing to learn our product and industry knowledge

Compensation: Hourly + Bonus Structure

Ecoxotic is tweaking their RGB arsenal a little bit with a bigger and better LED remote control for their Panorama Pro RGB modules. This new controller offers up the same great features seen in the original, but now includes several more that allow the end user even more control and functionality. These features include a built-in memory to store up to six do-it-yourself custom colors, the ability to produce up to 20 present colors (up from 16), a quick and slow fading of the intensity, the option to save the “last color profile”, and the ability to not only control the intensity of the light but the amount of specific colors.

This new remote is currently available on the Ecoxotic Website for $50.

From the Ecoxotic Newsletter:

Our new Panorama Pro RGB controller provides new features and flexibility to dial in almost any color spectrum. Now you can:

Create your own custom colors and store up to 6 in memory
20 preset colors
Fade between colors quickly or slowly
Increased memory for storing last color profile
Vary intensity and brightness
Turn lights on and off

Create your own custom color or instantly choose one of 20 different color spectrums with the simple touch of a button. Whether you want to add a little fuschia to your reef tank, create an aqua-blue angelfish tank, or gently fade through all the color spectrums in your jellyfish exhibit, the Panorama Pro RGB Module completely changes what you can do with aquarium lighting.

From Ecoxotic’s Website:

Control the color spectrum of your aquarium lighting with just one click. That’s the big advantage of RGB LED technology. You can instantly change the color, vary intensity and brightness, turn your lights on or off, or set your light on fade mode to slowly rotate through the entire color spectrum. The handheld remote works from up to 30 feet away and is super simple to install. You can even add more punch by snapping on a polished reflector, effectively doubling the amount of light focused into your tank.

The end of the year is just a couple of days away, and we felt the best way to say goodbye to 2011 was to host a product giveaway. Earlier in the year we reviewed a pair of the new longer Stunner Strips from Ecoxotic, and now it’s time to pass these great LED strip lights onto one of our lucky readers. To enter in this end of the year contest, all you have to do is head on over to the AquaNerd Facebook Page and click the “like” button. Once the page receives its 1000th “Like”, we will randomly draw a winner from the crowd. If the page breaks 1500, we will give away another LED product. We don’t have a firm date set for the end of this contest, but we will tentatively mark it at the end of January.

Please note that if you have already liked the AquaNerd Facebook page then you are already entered in the contest. Only US residents 18 and over are eligible.

At MACNA earlier this year, AquaIlluminations unveiled a new module under the codename “Phoenix”. This module is the bigger brother of the popular AI Sol, and it has finally received its official name…the AquaIlluminations Vega. What makes this module differen than the Sol is that it offers up a few new features that really push the entire line forward by leaps and bounds. Besides the single row of four LED clusters with five emitters each, the Vega also offers wireless controllability built right in. Users can adjust the intesity of the modules via computer, and even create interesting effects like robust sunrise and sunsets, along with lightning strikes.

As for the name itself, we can’t say that we’re in love with it. The “Phoenix” codename actually seems so much more fitting, not to mention it already had all of the market recognition for that name. Regardless, the light has a lot to offer and at the end of the day the name doesn’t detract from that.

Aquatronica, an aquarium controller system distributed by Hydor, has released a new Moonlight LED, model ACQ510-120, that will give aquarium keepers the ability to illuminate their reef at night. The light comes in at 120cm, or just under four feet, and is housed within an anodized aluminum shell. The light was designed with low power consumption in mind, and the blue glow is focused into the aquarium with the help of a methacrylate reflection lens. This LED light can be installed as a stand-alone fixture and independent from the Aquatronica aquarium controller system, and can be controlled with a simple timer for turning it off and on at specific times. Despite this, Aquatronica is also releasing a Moonlight Dimming Module that allows their controller t dim the intensity of the LEDs to create a variety of moon effects. In terms of mounting options, the Moonlight can be installed into a canopy or onto an existing light fixture with the help of screws that utilize the built-in mounts or an included “plastic velcro fixing system”. Currently, this moonlight is only available in Italy, but it should soon see worldwide distribution.

A little more information can be seen below.

UPDATE: We initially thought this light was only available in a four foot model, which left us scratching our heads. Fortunately, that information has been cleared up for us. The Aquatronica Moonlight will be available in three lengths of 2-feet, 3-feet, and 4-feet. Their power consumption is 2w, 3w and 4w respectively. The moonlights will be available Europe by mid-February and the US will get them a month or two after that.

From Aquatronica:

TECHNICAL DATA:

Lenght : 120cm

Led number: 60

Color : Blue (470mn)

power consumption: 4W

Voltage: 12V

Thanks for the update Mike.

CoralVue dropped a teaser image on us yesterday, showing off a yet to be released 8-bulb T5HO and LED hybrid light fixture. And in being a teaser, no additional information was given. Fortunately, CoralVue has other models that share many of the same characteristics, which allows us to get a good gauge on what this larger fixture will offer. These features include parabolic spider bent T5 reflectors with 95% reflective Germany mirror finish aluminum for each T5HO bulb, a microprocessor controlled ballast that allows for 40% more T5 bulb life, and 1 watt blue LEDs to cause corals to fluoresce or to serve as a moonlight. The light is enclosed in an extruded aluminum housing that is treated with an automotive grade high gloss painted finish. For mounting hardware, this hybrid fixture is provided a free hanging system and an on-tank mounting system with height adjustable legs. A single power cable runs from the fixture to a junction box, which then splits off into six power cords. This may take up a lot of room in the power strips, but it also provides users with the ability to operate many different parts of the fixture at different times, which allows for robust dawn-to-dusk control. The fixture should be available in early January 2012 and an expected price tag hasn’t been revealed.

LED lighting is in full swing in the aquarium industry, and several brands have already climbed to the top of the hill by implementing a wide array of features that include brand name emitters, multiple and independently controlled channels, dimmability, and wireless controllability among many more. With all of these brands vying for the top spot, most manufactures are constantly trying to 1-up each other by offering even more over the top features, which is always a good thing for the consumers involved. One of the latest fixtures to offer a plethora of features is the Metis Hyperion from Pacific Sun. Improving on the groundwork laid out by other LED fixtures on the market, this 8-channel beast sports six different Cree emitters as well as a couple of different UV-A diodes. Each of the eight channels can be controlled independently through various methods of built-in control that include Bluetooth, WIFI, Ethernet, and even a built-in web server. In terms of external control, the Metis Hyperion is compatible with GHL Profilux, Neptune Apex, and the Pacific Sun X-Screen controller tablet. And to help give us a visual of this control, Pacific Sun has released several screen shots and a video demonstration of the software, which can all be seen after the page break.

As can be seen in the multiple screen shots, the software controlling the Metis Hyperion is rather robust. The program consists of many different tabs that control everything from independent channel intensity, to moonlights, to an advanced start-up and shutdown of the light during daily use.

Here’s a brief walkthrough of the software courtesy of the video. To start the control process users have to connect to the fixture by simply clicking on the “Connection” tab and determine how they want to communicate with the light. Once connected, there’s a huge number of things the user can tweak and adjust to their liking. In the video, the disembodied user adjusts a couple of time settings, which elicits an immediate response from the light that are set to mimic a certain time of the day. Following that, the moon light program is tinkered with, and we have to say this program alone is extremely thorough. Metis Hyperion users can simulate all phases of the moon, which cause the aquarium to glow more or less at night depending on the phase that the software is in. Once set, the phases will follow the natural waxing and waning progressions of the moon.

The next feature explored is the simple adjustment of the eight independent channels of the fixture. By moving the sliders up and down in the program, the intensity of each color can be adjusted until the ideal color spectrum is achieved. This type of intensity control is not new to the hobby, as EcoTech and AquaIlluminations both have something very similar to this in their own modules. Following the intensity adjustment demo, the “PAR Table” is then explored and it’s an area where we think the software really flexes its muscles. Up to ten time intervals can be independently programmed, with each one starting at a different time and with a different color output of the fixture. This portion of the software provides the most advanced dawn-to-dusk effects seen in the hobby today and does a much better job of mimicking the intensity changes that occur naturally through the day. And of course, if you tinker with too many settings and realize you don’t like the look or the effect, you can always hop on over the next tab to restore the software to the default settings.

And here are the remainder of the images (click to enlarge).

A couple of months ago, we first came across the brand new Panorama Pro LED fixture while cruising around the vendor hall at MACNA, and we’re happy to say that Ecoxotic has made this new light available to the masses. At 24″ in length, this fixture comes powered by a mixture of five Panorama Pro LED modules that consist of three 12K White/445nm Blue and two 445nm Blue modules. With this out-of-the box combination, the color of the resulting light should be white with a very rich blue undertone that makes your coral colors pop. But if those colors aren’t to your liking, the fixture is completely upgradeable. With the fixture’s modular design, several more modules and multiple Stunner Strips can be incorporated into the layout, which also allows users to also customize the color spectrum being emitted. Heck, even the RGB Panorama Pro modules can be put into the fixture and we all know how many colors that thing is capable of rendering.

More information and a video can be seen below.

Besides the new array of LEDs, the Panorama Pro fixture also sports a black aluminum housing and an adjustable mounting bracket that can be locked in an “open” position to allow the aquarium keeper into the tank without having to wrestle with power cords and lights. The fixture has a total of four mounting options, which consists of a tank mount, stand mount, wall mount, and hanging kit. Each of the mounting options give aquarists more choices depending on the look they want, and each is sold separately. The features packaged with this new Panorama Pro fixture include two inline on/off switch with adjustable dimmer control, two power supplies, five polished reflectors, two 3-way splitters, and an EcoCham cleaning cloth.

With the entirety of the aquarium industry moving toward LED lighting, it was only a matter of time before companies once deeply rooted in metal halide and T5HO technology started committing entire light fixtures to the LED market. One such company, Giesemann who is well known for their T5HO bulbs and high end light fixtures, has dabbled in the LED game for a little while by offering up hybrid fixtures in the past. However, with their latest upcoming product, the company has jumped head first into the deep end. Called the Teszla, this new LED fixture is quite stylish and has an impressive list of features that should make it a solid competitor in Europe, where it will be first released, and eventually here in the US.

The first thing we noticed about this light when we first laid eyes on it was the stylish design. The Teszla features sports an iPod-white housing and slightly concealed touch sensitive buttons, at least from what we can tell. The fans are discretely tucked away into the top of the fixture, and the mounting arm is simple and unobtrusive for the most part.

Diving into the electronics, we see an impressive list of features that includes a micro-controller that monitors the internal temperature of the LED. When the fixtures internals reach a certain temperature, the fans kick on to keep the diodes from overheating. This allows the lights to run at optimum temperatures all day long, extending their life to make sure hobbyists get the most out of them. Each panel of LEDs is powered by its own power supply. This allows the lights to be more versatile and modular. As for the diodes themselves, the Teszla uses a combination of CREE XM-L White, CREE XP-G Blue and royal blue, and two “special” LEDs. The total power consumption is approximately 66 watts from 20 emitters, and all of the diodes are controlled by an ultra modern processor. You might also notice there are no optics on the LEDs contained in the Teszla. The brains at Giesemann felt that the optics robbed the aquarium of light and focused too much of the remainder into a high PAR beam that bleached corals out. So, they stuck with the 120 ° of light output.

The on-board LED controller also seems to be rather robust. Once the user selects the color of their choice, the light automatically begins to cycle through a sunrise and sunset program that starts and stops at a predetermined period. Continuing on into the night, The Teszla also simulates lunar phases with the royal blue LEDs running at reduced power. Many of these features can be handled with the touch sensitive buttons already on the fixture, or users can hook the light up to the computer to alter the lighting scheme further.

As for mounting options, currently two exist. The Teszla can either be mounted to the tank with the provided arm and bracket (seen above), or it can be suspended over the aquarium with adjustable steel cables. As for the pricing and availability, the Teszla will make it’s debut in Europe to the tune of roughly 400 Euros. Eventually it will find its way into the states, but that time is not determined.

We originally found this story on Reef Builders, but eventually dug up some more information on Recif France.