Reef Octopus appears to be in development of a novel and mysterious water moving device. The Reef Octopus Water JET was spied at LSS Laboratory and it appears to move a blade of water through a long, narrow vent. As a trend of Japanese reefkeeping, small vents like these protrude from the bottom of the tank to help provide a wide and low flow of water along the sand bed. Based on a design by Blue Harbor, Reef Octopus is prototyping this sleek return vent so the final form may vary.
North American reefkeepers traditionally use higher access points to create gyre or flow in a closed-loop system but in Japan, closed loops are not very popular. In the traditional way these subsurface outlets are installed, if the power goes out, this will be the lowest drain point and all the water will escape into the sump. To combat this, Reef Octopus developed the specialized “water chamber” so flow point like these will not drain into the system; the Reef Octopus JET also includes a check-valve to prevent back-siphoning. Since the typical Japanese system used PVC with duck billed Loc-line returns, this one-piece design offers a sleek way to add style to the setup. We aren’t sure when we will see the final product on the market or if it even will make its way to North America.
