can you siphon

[Mizuro Ami]

i have a planted 2.5g tank and everytime i do water changes, all this particle matter gets upwelled from the sand. i have a couple of small fish in there and some ghost shrimp and its too much of a hassle to mess up the plant roots and move all the fish to clean the sand properly. i was wondering if i could siphon the bottom of the tank. i dont have a siphon thing, but since the tank is so small, you think i could use a small tube, maybe like airline tubing to use as a siphon?

other 2.5g owners w/sand substrate-- how do you clean yours?!

 

[Mamaschild]

Yes you can....just need a TINY syphon Seriously, I have a littel mini-vac that I think I got from PetCo, and it works great. It has that "thing" in it that allows you to shake it to get the syphon started, and the vac tube itself telescopes so you can take it down to half it's length for short tanks.

HTH

 

[Mizuro Ami]

thanks mamaschild!

i'll try going to the petco near here to see if they have what you're talking about. if not, maybe i could fashion a similar syphon thing and try to get it to work.

 

[yvez9]

You could make one with a plastic bottle (500ml or so) and plastic tubing for air pumps by cutting the bottom of the bottle and seeling the hose through the bottle cap.

Of course, the commercial syphons with the auto-start thingy are a lot easier to use and they are quite cheap

 

[Mizuro Ami]

i'll try to get one at petco, but if they dont have it, you think i could use like a turkey baster and just try to manually suck up all the stuff and be careful not to suck up sand or shrimp? it might take too long huh? i'll go to petco..

 

[Apache]

Mizuro,
FWIW, I am able to siphon most of the water from my 2.5 gallon tanks with my Python vac I use for the 30 gal tank.

BTW, your signature at the bottom, gave me quite a laugh. I LOVE that movie!

 

[Sorrell]

I have a million betta tanks to clean everyday and I use turkey baster's and airline tubing depending on my mood Sometimes these two will suck up gravel and sand, but I use a small bucket to collect the dirties and then wash the sand that's in the bucket and replace it Most of the debris in a sand tank will sit on the top anyway, so you don't lose that much per cleaning

 

[Mizuro Ami]

thanks guys, i guess there's a lot of different options i could try. i'll just go with whatever i can get my hands on first

BTW, your signature at the bottom, gave me quite a laugh. I LOVE that movie!

 

[Kittycat]

I use a plastic air tubing to siphon my tanks, even the big ones. (I have to get a larger one for my 50 gal, it takes me hours to siphon 20%!) No pump or auto whatever, just pure gravity.

 

[Teelie]

I've siphoned a 1 gallon and even a bowl before, though mostly it was to get stuff on the bottom without doing a 100% water change, you do need a small siphon or the water will be gone in no time.

 

[Eve]

I have a million betta tanks to clean everyday and I use turkey baster's ...

A turkey baster!

Ye gods thats brilliant! You have just so made my day. Why the hell didnt I think of that?

 

[wuvmybetta]

a turkey baster is a betta keepers best friend