battery gravel vacs

[Kuhlifan]

Anyone have experience with a battery-powered gravel vac/siphon. The three I know of are the Ehiem sludge extractor, the Penn Plax Super Battery Vac and the hagen marina gravel vac.

It would be nice to really thoroughly suck out the gunk without taking my water levels too low. A good gravel vac followed with a water change would be preferable to a hurried vac during a water change, in my opinion.

Yes, I know you can get a Magnum HOT and the hookups, but I already have a good filter. I was thinking of buying one of these to supplement. The good on the penn plax and hagen is they are $20 or less. The eheim is about $50. If price is an indication, then we can all guess the winner. But I'd still like to know if anyone has used these with any success before.

[SubRosa]

Garbage

[clgkag]

I have the eheim and it is great for a quick surface cleanup of the sand I have. I don't have any idea if it is any good for gravel.

[rainbowcharmer]

I can't see how they'd be much better than a standard gravel vac... but they'll certainly cost you more. JMO of course.

[krytan]

I put mine in the bin after the first time i used it, they're a complete waste of money.

[Kuhlifan]

What one did you have Krytan?

[Kuhlifan]

Maybe if I explained the situation better.

My wife is a kindergarten teacher. When we were either first married or shortly before, she wanted to get a tank for her room. She bought a just under a gallon little betta bowl with an undergravel filter for her class.

I couldn't take it. At the first opportunity she upgraded to a 10 gallon.

At the time, we lived a block from her classroom. Now, her classroom is a longer distance and totally out of my way and ability to get to on a regular basis. Before, it was hard to maintain it. Now we have a baby and it's nearly impossible to maintain properly.

My goal is weekly water changes of about 20-30 percent. More realistically, it gets a water change once a month or so.

My wife is very, very stressed right now. She's too much of a perfectionist to put anything more than 110 percent into her class. She always wanted to stay home with the kids when we had 'em, but can't financially, so she's in a bit of a bind. Because of the shared duties, I have trouble finding the time to make a trip to spend a few mintues cleaning the tank. For her, finding the time to work it in herself just causes resentment and frustration.

Ideally? I'd bring the tank home, but the kindergarteners love it. The problem boils down to cleaning. If they even worked sort of well, it might be worth getting one so we could suck out the excess sludge in between good cleanings. If it doesn't work, even $20 is a waste.

I'm not hoping for a replacement for regular water changes. What I would like though is something that I can spend an extended amount of time using to get extra junk out without emptying the tank completely each time.

[krytan]

What one did you have Krytan?
I had the hagen one.

[fishorama]

I use a bulb syphon I bought years ago for ~$1 for fast water changes. I think it;s for kerosene heater filling. It can sort of clean the top of gravel but also suck sand right out so you have to learn how it works in your tank.
We used it with gallon milk jugs but it's pretty fast for those. A kitty litter jug is about the right size for a 10g & easier to lug than a bucket. Rinse & refill, maybe 5 minutes.
Is there just the betta?

[Kuhlifan]

That betta has long since passed on :)

I haven't had a chance to survey it lately, but there should be a betta, two albino cories, a golden algae eater, four zebra danios and a very small turtle in it now, along with some assorted snails.

We're planning to upgrade to a 20 long in about a month to give the turtle more space. He's about an inch across now. To be honest, the tank stays fairly clean, but it's set up with an undergravel filter with a powerhead. I have an overpowered HOB for the tank, which really helps, but you still get a buildup of gunk working its way into the gravel, with the extra "help" of the under gravel filter and powerhead.

I hope to set up the 20 long with a shallow layer of gravel so I can suck it clean easier. Our old gravel vac has stopped working...I think there is a plug in the hose but it's so stained that I can't see where. I bought a new one, but I can't find any as small as the old, so the new one is bigger and really sucks water out fast. It will fill a gallon jug in just over a minute. That makes getting all the gunk out harder, because I can literally drain the tank before I can get all of the gravel.

[SubRosa]

Partially pinch the hose to slow the flow.

[Somervell]

Subrosa said it best: "garbage."

[Rbishop]

Try a turkey baster for those spot clean ups...

[Fishy_Fun]

You can use a piece of airline tubing and create a syphon.It won't take very much water away from the tank but very effective at spot cleaning.

[Kuhlifan]

Ha, I had to use a turkey baster once. That brings back bad memories. I got into the hobby with a five gallon tank. I figured a couple of guppies would work well in it. A few weeks later I had almost 200 guppies in it. A few weeks later I was pushing 400 guppies. I couldn't vacuum for all of the fry, so I did water changes with a turkey baster. That took FOREVER!

Of course, the good side is I think I may have personally given away enough guppies to take care of the midwest's supply/demand issue for a few months.

[SubRosa]

You can use a piece of airline tubing and create a syphon.It won't take very much water away from the tank but very effective at spot cleaning.
And if you attach a piece of rigid airline tubing you can get much better control of the business end.