The Flipper Nano algae scraping magnet is one of the best new-yet-familiar products announced at MACNA 2013, which became available for prime time at MACNA 2014. We picked up a sample of the new Flipper Nano and all we have to say is “where has this algae magnet been all our lives?”
What made the Flipper algae magnet one of the best of its kind is not the neat flipping ability that allows it to flip from a scraper blade to its scrubbing pad. What makes both the the Flipper and Flipper Nano great is that they are plain and simple, well built and well designed algae scraping devices that make short work of unwanted growth on the aquarium glass without having to get your hands wet.
The Flipper Nano is made from the same DNA as its predecessor without feeling cumbersome or any less effective tanks and glass thicknesses for which it was designed. On one side the sharp stainless steel scraper blade makes super short work of tough green spot algae and small coralline patches while the scrubber pad is more than enough to tackle to everyday coating that builds up on aquarium glass.
The patented flipping mechanism which allows the Flipper to flip from one surface to the other by removing the dry side and rotating it 180 degrees is just as effective in the Flipper Nano as it is in its bigger brother. Apparently, the ability to float was not intentionally designed in the original Flipper but nevertheless, the Flipper Nano can also float should it fall victim to a botched flipping attempt, and you can catch it on the next pass as it floats back towards the glass.
While the Flipper nano might be targeted for smaller tanks and thinner glass, the size of the Flipper Nano’s business end is not that much smaller than the original Flipper. The scraping blade is just about half an inch shorter and the scrubbing pad is only slightly smaller in surface area meaning you can get a lot of scrubbing and scraping done on your smaller reef aquarium and won’t have to invest too much time into passing over all surfaces of the aquarium glass.
One of the best features of the Flipper has always been that the dry side is thinner than the wet side so you can easily see what you’re scraping, and this important detail is carried over to the Flipper Nano. Furthermore, the wet side is still very low profile so it’s incredibly easy to slide the scraper between the glass and the live rock or decorations.
There are pretty algae magnets, there are really strong ones and really tiny ones, but we at $25 we don;t think you can pack as much functionality into a magnetic algae scraping tool for the price as the Flipper Nano brings to the aquarium cleaning toolbox. [Flipper]
FCC regulations require us to inform you that we were given this product for review but our opinion and review of a product is never affected by how we acquire it
