Super New Gravel Vac....

[Qays]

Sounds like a good siphon, my siphon is really rubbish, i may look into this .... tell me when you find out the name / make

Considering you should do a water change and substrate cleaning once a week, i don't see the point in doing just cleaning the gravel when you will still have to do a water change anyway.
If you don't do water changes often enough you can end up with extremely high nitrates or even worse, have a ph crash in the tank over time.

You didnt get the point of the whole thread did you?

 

[Rafael Dilone]

By any chance are you talking about the Extendable Air Vacuum. It does everything you say and it sounds like it looks the same. But I can be wrong seeing as there are so many that do the cleaning the same way

 

[Bex]

No, that's not it. I think it was just called Power Gravel Vac but i'm not sure of the make at all. I will post it here later when I get home.

 

[LiveLifeGoJump]

I have one & I find it good but as pointed out in an earlier post the 'end' is too big (in length & width) so I intend to shorten it to see if that helps. Without the 'end' it is idea for my fry tanks (no substrate) making removing unused food an easy job without having to change loads of water each day.

With mine you can fit a syphon tube to it and draw the water into a bucket when doing water changes so would be good for low level tanks.

The 'sock' is very fine so no clouding of water.

The only problem is the sliding joint is not the tightest fit and when cleaning the gravel in the main tank it keeps shortening by itself. My local garden centre sells plastic tubing in it's fish section so will try to get some so I can make up solid section to suit my tanks.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Sounds like a good siphon, my siphon is really rubbish, i may look into this .... tell me when you find out the name / make

Considering you should do a water change and substrate cleaning once a week, i don't see the point in doing just cleaning the gravel when you will still have to do a water change anyway.
If you don't do water changes often enough you can end up with extremely high nitrates or even worse, have a ph crash in the tank over time.

You didnt get the point of the whole thread did you?

I posted that because there are a lot of newb's here on the forum which may look at the title of this thread and think "hey, if i get this, i'll never need to do water changes again!", i was making a general post.

 

[Bex]

Right, for anyone who wanted to know what our gravel vac is, it's called Power Gravel Cleaner by Aquarium Systems and it's in a pinky/blue box. Also says PGR 1000 at the bottom. It was £28.95 - not cheap but worth it's weight in gold IMO.

Obviously there are different ones available and it seems a couple of members weren't too impressed with theirs - perhaps this is a different one? I think it's maybe the filter sock that makes the difference. Maybe you can shop around? It's a shame you can't try these things before buying them isn't it?

Anyway, mine works great for me and is taking a lot of hassle out of keeping my gravel poop free!

 

[Bloo]

Wow, is this it ?? It looks ultra sophisticated. Mine was a much simpler battery operated one.

This one looks like you plug it in and it's electronically driven with some sort of filtration system thingy ?

Perhaps worth it if you have some messy plecs and just want a mid-week clean.

 

[cs091]

I've had a little gadget for years that runs off the air pump like an UGF lift but just the plastic tube bit. It lifts the water into a 'sock' type bag and the clean water runs back into the tank. I've never seen one in the shops or on line but it's great for between water change vacs.

Has anyone seen one? They have no moving parts and runs off a piece of equipment most of us probably have already, so shoud be really cheap.

 

[voo]

That's the one that i've got. I used to have a battery one but this is a lot more powerful and i dont have to keep buying new batteries.
I clean the gravel first then do a water change. The syphon takes water out before i have finished cleaning the gravel that's why it's good to have one of these. Plus like someone said, it's good if you dont want to do a water change at the same time.

They are expensive though and mine does leak a bit.

 

[Bex]

Wow, is this it ?? It looks ultra sophisticated. Mine was a much simpler battery operated one.

This one looks like you plug it in and it's electronically driven with some sort of filtration system thingy ?

Perhaps worth it if you have some messy plecs and just want a mid-week clean.

Hi Bloo

Yes, that's the one! It's really easy to use as well, just fill up the bucket thingy, plug it in and off you go. Plus, where it hangs on the side you can move it along with you as you go. I emptied 5 bags of poop when we tested it doing a full gravel vac!

*edit* the filtration cartridge is the sock bag thing, but it's quite thick and hardly anything gets through, in fact, I'm not sure if the cloudiness was just from stirring up the gravel, the same as you get from doing a normal gravel vac?

Voo: mine doesn't leak but it is brand new. Has yours leaked from the start?

 

[voo]

A bit that holds the motor broke when i got it so it leaks from there. But i have to place something under it to make it lean forward more, as when the sock gets full water can start to come over the back edge.

I prefer it to the battery powered ones though, although it is a bit pricey and i'm sure someone could make it from a powerhead.

 

[Bloo]

Hi Bloo

Yes, that's the one! It's really easy to use as well, just fill up the bucket thingy, plug it in and off you go. Plus, where it hangs on the side you can move it along with you as you go. I emptied 5 bags of poop when we tested it doing a full gravel vac!

*edit* the filtration cartridge is the sock bag thing, but it's quite thick and hardly anything gets through, in fact, I'm not sure if the cloudiness was just from stirring up the gravel, the same as you get from doing a normal gravel vac?

Quite a nifty looking gadget and sounds like it's doing an amazing job. Perhaps one day if I have lots of plecs causing havoc I'll get one For now I have such massive over filtration, my sand hardly needs a weekly vac ! Though of course it still gets it weekly w/c.

The cloudiness I got from the unit before was the sock thing that obviously wasn't good enough. The unit you use looks like it has a little cartridge thingy

 

[Bex]

well, that's slightly misleading - I think they call it a cartridge beacause of the thing that the sock is attached to, and it slides in and out. For some reason they've advertised it as a foam cartridge? The sock thing is quite thick though, so really hardly anything comes through. Unless I'm missing a bit! Don't think I am though! LOL!

Yeah, seems like I managed to get the messiest fish possible! lol

 

[voo]

I kept thinking of a way to try add filter wool to the water output to clean it a bit more, but then thought would it be possible to use an external filter to do the gravel cleaning?

 

[Bex]

I kept thinking of a way to try add filter wool to the water output to clean it a bit more, but then thought would it be possible to use an external filter to do the gravel cleaning?

Hi voo

That's quite a good idea actually. Perhaps instead of filter wool, try cutting one of the filter wool pads to size to slot into it?

To be honest, I don't think it churns out enough to bother as I think it would probably affect the water output, maybe to a point where it spills over. Might give it a try though!