DIY siphon-less gravel vac!

[andrewtwice]

how'd you like to do your gravel vacuuming without having to remove water? i usually do my vaccing when i do water changes, but sometimes its nice to be able to do a good deep cleaning without having to drain most of your water. here's how:

materials:
1 powerhead
2 lengths of plastic tubing, one longer for the vacuum one shorter for the filterbottle (the same diameter as your powerhead inlet/outlet)
1 plastic bottle/similar container
filter media

cut your bottle and fill with filter media. use a hot poker to make several holes at the bottom of the bottle large enough to let water out but not your media. fit one end of the short tube to the lid of the bottle and seal it so its watertight around the edges. now you can screw it on/off the bottle. attach the other end to the outlet of the powerhead. attach one end of the gravel vac tube to the inlet of the powerhead. make sure you get all the air out of the tubing and plug in your powerhead. voilla!

the idea is to use the suction of the powerhead instead of the siphon action that normally makes a gravel vac work. now you can collect all the debris in the bottle and have clean gravel without having to remove water from the tank!
the hardest part is getting all the air out of the tubing so that the powerhead will work. this is cheap and easy and if you already have a powerhead and a gravelvac you can make this for the price of a bottle of coke
(and maybe some scour pads/batting for media). i also used gravel in between the layers of filter.

 

[Nic]

ill stick with removing water and take advantage of the water change...

 

[T]

this is really confusing... got any pictures to help your explanation?

 

[johncl]

I'm confused why would you want to do a gravel vac without removing water from the tank?

Oh and NIC I just got to say that avatar is really disturbing.

 

[rnocera]

I'm confused why would you want to do a gravel vac without removing water from the tank?

Sometimes, especially with big/carnivorous fish, you finish your water change and there's still crud in the gravel.

I'd switch to sand- by the time I'm 1/4 done with my water change, the crud is gone.

 

[andrewtwice]

it's kind of like this, but with the gravel vac attached to the inlet of the powerhead. *not my video*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkgkNbWesGg

 

[bgcoop8784]

i had a similar setup but have an inline mag drive pond pump(it was free) with two long hoses attached and a piece of pvc inline full of filter floss with a gravel vac attached to the end, i leave it under my aquarium, i have black gravel(yes sand may be easier, but i like the look of gravel for some reason) and with sa/ca cichlids they make a mess and when i have company over i just don't want to see their "mess" laying on the gravel, so i just pull out both hoses insert them into the tank and use the intake hose to vac the gravel and leave the water, it also makes my weekly water changes much faster.

 

[jack frost]

they sell a power vac that doesn't remove water. I saw it pet smart and that fish place it was like 50$ seems allot simpler and cheaper than this but good idea if you already have the parts laying around.