Battery Operated Gravel Vacuums

[Houseslave]

Hi,

Eheim and a few other companies make battery operated vacuums that suck
dirty water into a sock of filter chamber. I was wondering if anyone has
tried any of these vacuums and what you think?

Thanks

[Geezer From Freezer]

Houseslave wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> Eheim and a few other companies make battery operated vacuums that suck
> dirty water into a sock of filter chamber. I was wondering if anyone has
> tried any of these vacuums and what you think?
>
> Thanks

I have a water powered Vacuum (Python) - damn good invention!!!

[Dinky]

"Houseslave" > wrote in message
et...
> Hi,
>
> Eheim and a few other companies make battery operated vacuums that suck
> dirty water into a sock of filter chamber. I was wondering if anyone has
> tried any of these vacuums and what you think?
>


I tried one and found it to be much more of a PITA than it was worth. I
always go back to the vac\tube\bucket combo for most cleaning chores. Sorry,
don't recall the brand I tried.

b

[lisacush]

"Houseslave" > wrote in message
et...
> Hi,
>
> Eheim and a few other companies make battery operated vacuums that suck
> dirty water into a sock of filter chamber. I was wondering if anyone has
> tried any of these vacuums and what you think?
>
> Thanks
>

I tried an Aquarium Systems power gravel cleaner, which is mains powered but
a similar idea. I didn't think it much good, a lot of the debris just sat
in the tube and fell back into the tank as soon as I turned the power off.
The gravel would rise in the tube if I put it under the surface of the
gravel, but it didn't seem to really do the job of separating out the
debris. Then I did a silly thing and removed the grill on the top of the
tube (there to prevent large bits of debris getting in) and, of course, I
sucked up a load of gravel into the pump. So now it /really/ doesn't work.

I'm still finding it tricky to really get the gravel clean during my weekly
water changes, but maybe that's just because I'm such a beginner and I'll
get better at it with experience. I'm considering trying the Eheim vac too,
but it's a bit pricey for the moment. For now I'm going to stick with doing
as much gravel cleaning as I can in the time the bucket takes to fill.

-- Lisa

[bannor]

On Mon, 08 Mar 2004 20:55:43 GMT, "Houseslave"
> wrote:

>I just received this vacuum today and it works good. I wish it had more
>power but it does get the debris out.
>http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=19091;category_id=2937
>
>I'm still interested in the Ehiem too.
<snip>

Well, I have one of those battery vacs as listed on that link... it
sort of works... not very powerful, and that darned bag allows a large
amount of anything that it picks up to pass right through... thus
clouding the water..

It works, but actually not as well as actually just cleaning the
gravel when doing water changes. Personally, I switched to a homemade
python arrangement and just vacum out the water and waste, then top it
back off with well water that has been aged in buckets with peat moss
to soften and acidify.

[Morten]

"Houseslave" > wrote in message
et...
> Hi,
>
> Eheim and a few other companies make battery operated vacuums that suck
> dirty water into a sock of filter chamber. I was wondering if anyone has
> tried any of these vacuums and what you think?

Don't go there.

I did that mistake once, bought one of the battery powered gravel vacs fro
my lfs, came home plugged a few batteries in, tried to vacuum the gravel
with the thingy and very quickly discovered that it wasn't worth the £20 or
so i paid for it.

I returned it to the store a few days later and bough a mains povered gravel
vac from aon online store and have necer regretted it.

The battery powered one simply doesn't have umph do do anymore than lift
what's on the surface, the second you dig into the gravel it gives up. The
mains powered one is much better and can easyli fill the tube with gravel if
you are not carefull enough when using it :-)


Dump the battery one and get a mains povered one...


/Morten



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[Geezer From Freezer]

Morten wrote:
> Dump the battery one and get a mains povered one...
>

Or a python - its neither battery nor mains powered. Connect it to your tap
and turn on the water full blast. Sucks water out and can add water to tank

[Johng]

I have not found any of these gravel cleaners to be powerfull enough. Get a
Python gravel cleaner or use the old syphon type. I use an extra long 1/2"
Dia., tube with a plastic coke bottle attached and the bottom cut out. An
inline tap is added about four foot from the bottle this allows you to move
from one tank to the next without losing the syphon and adjust the flowrate.
You can run the pipe to the outside drain or whatever.

Regards John
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[Morten]

"Geezer From Freezer" > wrote in message
...
>
>
> Morten wrote:
> > Dump the battery one and get a mains povered one...
> >
>
> Or a python - its neither battery nor mains powered. Connect it to your
tap
> and turn on the water full blast. Sucks water out and can add water to
tank

And waste a hell of lot of water in the process, but then again we are into
high water usage with fish tanks left, right and center.

How lon does it take you to do a full vacuum of your tanks, the last one I
did took me 45 min, 45 min of dumping 10-15 l of water to suck the dirty
water out of the tank which adds up to 45min * 10 l/min = 450 l in total for
one tank, and then you have to add another 150 l back in to the fish tank to
replace the water you just removed. Total 600 l of which you are only really
using 150 l.

That's called waste of ressources...


But you may not be on a meter I guess...

/Morten





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[Geezer From Freezer]

Morten wrote:
<snip>
>
> And waste a hell of lot of water in the process, but then again we are into
> high water usage with fish tanks left, right and center.
>
> How lon does it take you to do a full vacuum of your tanks, the last one I
> did took me 45 min, 45 min of dumping 10-15 l of water to suck the dirty
> water out of the tank which adds up to 45min * 10 l/min = 450 l in total for
> one tank, and then you have to add another 150 l back in to the fish tank to
> replace the water you just removed. Total 600 l of which you are only really
> using 150 l.
>
> That's called waste of ressources...
>
> But you may not be on a meter I guess...

Morten,

No I'm not on a meter. Hell the water goes back into the reservoirs :D

Takes me approx 20 minutes to vacuum (and empty half a tank) from my 240Litre
tank
and to refill. Kinda shame that the bottom of the python can't connect to
another
hose, could get girlfriend to water the plants - be good for the plants with a
mixture
of clean and dirty fish water, instead of clean all the time ;)