Seaman
Shrimp gumbo, shrimp salad etc...
I went ghetto, I just hooked up the hose from the gravel vac to the intake on my HOB filter and it works like a charm. Voila clean substrate no water change, very easy!
Gravel cleaning without removing water
- Thread starter Plan-B
- Start date
Seaman said:
LoL! I'd do that with my tanks except i dont have any HOB filters and my filters are all "gravity flow" setups.
Swimfins
This is as good as it gets.
Ok so with my aquaclear 200 filter....I can just attatch the hose of the gravel cleaner and suck up the stuff right into it? Duh? 
I think the best investment i've ever made (especially since i got it dirt cheap) was a "system 1" diatomatious earth type filter. If I have people comming over, but dont have time for a full water change i can run that thing for 15-20 minutes and any discoloration in the water is gone, it takes the yellow tinge right out. So it definately cleans up gravel debris and mulm, i just take my hand and stir the gravel like crazy, the tank could be almost completely opaque (it never is, of course) and that filter would have it clear in 20 minutes.
They run around $100 i think, but then you also have to find a sourse of DE. good thing i work in a fish department with a 50 gallon tub full of the stuff
ryan
They run around $100 i think, but then you also have to find a sourse of DE. good thing i work in a fish department with a 50 gallon tub full of the stuff
ryan
Wow, I'd like to see some pictures...
and more detail on how to set up a gravel washer to an external filter
(of course I just ordered a Magnum HOT to do the job before I read this post :sad . I have an XP3 and a penguin 330 on my main discus tank and I just put an aquaclear on my 20 gallon tank along with the sponge filters (this one gets pretty dirty with juv. bristlenoses and livebearers, boy do they poop!).
*sigh* I have a sponge prefilter on my canister, if I put the gravel washer idea on that, I'd have to tear down the filter to clean it right after, right? (same if I use my Penguin to wash the gravel).
Of course I also got the Magnum to polish my water too, so I guess it's worth it. I have to see when it comes in
.
and more detail on how to set up a gravel washer to an external filter
(of course I just ordered a Magnum HOT to do the job before I read this post :sad . I have an XP3 and a penguin 330 on my main discus tank and I just put an aquaclear on my 20 gallon tank along with the sponge filters (this one gets pretty dirty with juv. bristlenoses and livebearers, boy do they poop!). *sigh* I have a sponge prefilter on my canister, if I put the gravel washer idea on that, I'd have to tear down the filter to clean it right after, right? (same if I use my Penguin to wash the gravel).
Of course I also got the Magnum to polish my water too, so I guess it's worth it. I have to see when it comes in
.BTW, I've used the air powered gravel washer
and I've had mixed feelings about it. You have to hold the thing a certain way so the bubbles carry the junk to the bag. Trying to get the air hose to stay on the thing can be a hassle, and it won't vacuum up larger particles (or poop) that it can't carry up with bubbles. Of course the bigger the air pump and probably you'd get better vacuuming. I've also noticed that the bag must also be under the water line, tough to do in my 20 long. Hopefully when my Magnum HOT gets here I'll be happy with that. I'm getting it for tank maintance for now, and will also use it to filter any future tanks too .
and I've had mixed feelings about it. You have to hold the thing a certain way so the bubbles carry the junk to the bag. Trying to get the air hose to stay on the thing can be a hassle, and it won't vacuum up larger particles (or poop) that it can't carry up with bubbles. Of course the bigger the air pump and probably you'd get better vacuuming. I've also noticed that the bag must also be under the water line, tough to do in my 20 long. Hopefully when my Magnum HOT gets here I'll be happy with that
. I'm getting it for tank maintance for now, and will also use it to filter any future tanks too .Just purchased an Eheim Quick Pro gravel vacuum cleaner from Petco. Works with 4 AA batteries. Did a great job of cleaning the gravel. Couldn't believe all the sludge it picked up. It was expensive ($60), but I liked the idea of having a fine mesh canister that the sludge goes into and the clean water comes through back into the tank instead of separate little filter bags to clean and reuse or throw away. I was able to clean my 29G tank in about 15 minutes. So easy I can do this several times a week between water changes.
ummm this thread has been dead for the past 8.5 years. I think they solved there problem by now.
