Just Bought A Power Vacume Cleaner!

[goldfinger]

I had a Penn Pax graval cleaner and it died on me after a month, so returned it and exchanged with this unit from Aquarium Systems.
It great does a good job a bit pricy, but I realised if I stuck another filter in the container it becomes an extra HOB filter.
I scrubed off brown algae and even though the netting did a good job sticking an extra floss filter which fitted nicely into the plastic recess grill worked a treat!
You should see what it picked up after runnning it for an hour!
I could add biological K1 in the container, but spending the money was worth it as I can use it as an extra filter for finer particals.
 

 

 

[Chad]

You should take a video of it in operation and post it so we can see how well it works.

 

[Mamashack]

I was wondering how it works too! It does look like a HOB at first glance.
I guess the idea is thoroughly cleaning the gravel without removing huge amounts of water? Sounds like a great idea - how are you finding it in action?

 

[goldfinger]

Tcamos
I'll do a small video soon I could Dremel the restrictor guard off the motor housing to increase the flow, but adding an extra filter does kinda of restrict the flow a bit but the over flow only experienced drips so capacity is good! The cage grill on the tubing does a good job of not letting any gravel back into the motor impeler.
 
Mamashack
The sucking action is fine it hoovered up all poos and excess food I have no substrate in the 300litre tank so it was fine. I'll try it on actual gravel next but from what I can see its strong enough to deal with the waste. 
If I knew it was this good I think I would have bought the 600liter per hour one PGR 2000
 
Only grumble is the flexi tube is too short for a 300litre tank perfect for the 125litre though.
Only noise is from the water tricking back into the tank, but you could easily adapt a finer funnel to transfer the water coming back directly into the tank instead of the waterfall it usually creates.

 

[Mamashack]

Will be interested to find out how it performs with gravel.

 

[goldfinger]

Well done the vid this morning enjoy impressed indeedie!
There was some sand in my gravel and it lifted it to second teir tube but kept it down well. I only found some larger sand bits but no gravel made it past 1/3 up the first tube!
Judge for yourselves as it sucked up loads of pelets that had been rotting where the goldfish missed eating.
All flake food had been hoovered.
I found raising the filter pad a bit to stop the over flow helped but wished I bought the PGR2000 as its slightly bigger TBF.
Checked impella for gravel and stones nothing found clean as a whilstle, but found traces of sand particals. I would like to test it on sand, but I think the distubing the sand method before hoovering still applies to minimise sucking up sand IMO.
 

http/s202.photobucket.com/user/Clipperjay/media/Fish%20Tank/P1030783.mp4.html
http/s202.photobucket.com/user/Clipperjay/media/Fish%20Tank/P1030782.mp4.html

 

[goldfinger]

http/youtu.be/UfPVnSvAxS8

 

[Mamashack]

Thanks for that goldfinger - would you buy one again/recommend it then?

 

[goldfinger]

Yes if you own a 125litre tank this PGR 1000 would work well!
I've got the 300liter tank with glass panels and it comfortably sat flat without hang off the edge so it worked well as a non hanging type!
You can expect to pay around £35 to £45 for the smaller unit, but If I paid £20.00 odd for the usual battery powered ones and use it as a protein skimmer or a HOB filter aswell the maths work out quite reasonable.
Compare it to an Eheim gravel cleaner for £55 then this wins hands down due to the size of the motor and impeller as you can clearly see is no Micky Mouse powered unit!
I had the extra floss pad for ages and it was lucky it fitted into the empty recess as an extra filter, but that type of filter pad is common in most LFS's surprisingly the unit itself seems like it was originally design as a HOB filter, but realized some where down the line it's market was gravel cleaner, after all the only thing different is the hoover attachments that come with this otherwise its a HOB filter?
I could buy a cheap flower pot with grids and stick it on the end of the tube and its a HOB filter?

 

[Chad]

http/youtu.be/UfPVnSvAxS8

Thanks for sharing. It seems quite powerful. Other units I've seen aren't anywhere near this useful.

 

[goldfinger]

No problems Chad!
I've uploaded another vid on the 300liter tank showing it sitting upright without hanging off the sides this video is from my Cannon 550D so its in HD for a better viewing.
Jay

 
 

Vid here bellow:
http/youtu.be/5bCVTDIgzHY
http/youtu.be/Kjgk_h5VPAA

 

[Mamashack]

I've just been offered one at £31.58 on Flubit - do you reckon that's a good price, goldfinger?

 

[goldfinger]

Mamashack thats a really good price TBF! I looked online and only found it for £36 last time.
I'm not familar with the shopping company, but if you trust them then go for it.
I paid a little more due to the LFS exchange, but over all happier as If I have any issues I can just pop into the LFS and get it sorted.
I assume its a PGR 1000?
Do they except paypal or credit card if they do better as its covered if anything goes wrong long term.
 
Jay
check for postage costs it usually adds on top!

 

[Mamashack]

Actually it's this company www.flubit.com and what happens is you make a request for something by adding the website where you've found it and they aim to make you a better offer within 48hrs - the one I added was on an aquatic website for £35.99 and the offer does include VAT & delivery so I think I might go for it.
It is the PGR 1000 - I have a 30L and a 60L tank so hopefully should do the business for both. Gravel cleaning can be tricky as doing a thorough job leads to massive water changes and I prefer to do around 25% every week.
Thanks for the heads-up - it looks like a really natty bit of kit!

 

[Mamashack]

How's it going with yours Jay? I got mine today (the smaller one) and set it going, but I think I may have done something wrong as the water became extremely cloudy very quickly and then noticed that the water was pouring over the top of the filter bag housing. I adjusted it and left it running for a further 20 mins to give it chance to clear, but it was still rather murky after that time. I primed it as it said in the instructions and did the leak test etc.
Can you think what went wrong or did that happen to you?