Product Review : Ice Cap Reef Cam.

by Richard Back

We all love staring into our aquarium. Let's not lie. We often daydream about it during our long, mundane times at work. Many tech savvy people out there has used home security systems to rig up a camera for their personal tank so they can monitor it wherever they are.  But what about for those people who are not so tech savvy?  (like myself)

This is where the new Ice cap Reef cam comes in. Very small in size (1" x 1") you can disguise it in black, blue or custom coraline colored, live rock look alike cases. (Live rock look a like casing is sold separately)
 
Contents of the box

It's very simple setup. You have option to go wifi or hardwired (LAN) and have to download the their app to get it to work. It's not yet compatible with popular controller like Apex but coralvue/icecap said that they will be looking into that . 

Playing with it.

​What I really like about this unit was ability to "stalk" your friends' tank as well as looking into your own. 
As you see from the first picture which is my tank (Afishionado Camera), you can see that I have made a list by adding my friends' tanks. Adding people is very simple operation. Just need their ID code or QR code and their remote password and add them. After that, you will see their tank added to your list and all you have to do is just click on them and you will be able to see their tank remotely whenever and wherever. (pic 2,3 and 4)

 

Resolutions are 720P HD and you would require 2mb of upload speed to support this resolution without any interruptions. For those of you guys who are stuck with bad internet, there are VGA and QVGA options as well. App also supports rotate view for bigger screen option.  

Videos are snappy, changeable resolutions, small form factor, easy to operate and having a list of cameras make this unit very attractive.  One thing if I would have liked is higher resolution but I can see that it could have slowed the live feed (you and your list of friends) considerably.  

It's a great unit and for you early adopters who want to try this unit for your tank, you can find these units retailing for $199 from many reputable LFS and from popular online retailers like Bulkreefsupply.com, Saltwateraquarium.com and marinedepot.com