Reef Octopus Releasing a Cupid Nano Skimmer

We just came across this video of a new Reef Octopus nano skimmer simply called “Cupid” and wanted to share this somewhat different design. The skimmer is obviously an in-tank model and is still in the testing phase, but it is slated to be finished very soon according to the video’s description. A few of the features present on this skimmer that we can see include a new Bubble Blaster pump called the OTP-300s, a 3″ diameter body, and a 13″ height. Another interesting detail about the “Cupid” skimmer is the fact that it is completely open bottom, meaning there’s no bubble plate or riser tubes to direct the bubbles out of the skimmer body. The water and bubbles just fall out of the bottom of the skimmer and back into the aquarium. We have our reservations about this design, but according to the maker of the video, it performs well, though we can’t really judge its performance based on this brief clip especially since the skimmer appears to have just been placed in the aquarium.

As can be seen in the video, the design of the Cupid has led to an overabundance of microbubbles in the aquarium, but we’re not sure if this is necessarily a byproduct of the open bottom design or simple because the skimmer is brand new, or at least appears to be, and hasn’t broken in yet. Regardless, microbubbles in an aquarium are a bad thing, hence our reservations about the product. Other than that handful of details, there’s really not much else to go on. Sure, we can see the brackets and we assume the entire body can be adjusted vertically based on the placement of different thumb screws, but we don’t know how large that range of motion is. Pricing details and tank ratings are completely unknown at this point, but we’ll keep an eye our for them and update as soon as we know anything.

On a final note, if microbubbles flooding into an aquarium is normal operation for this skimmer, then we doubt it will do all that well on the aquarium market.