shopvac to vacuum aquarium?

[breakspirit]

Shopvac makes a wet/dry vacuum that has a hose outlet on it so you can vacuum up large quantities of water and drain straight to a hose. Here it is:

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=195953-20097-9341611&lpage=none

I want to know if you guys have thoughts on using this to clean an aquarium. Obviously, I'd have to put some kind of filter on the sucker part to avoid eating up the fish, but do you think it would be an acceptable amount of suction? The thing says it can be used to drain swimming pools, so I've no doubt it can handle the load. I just don't want it to murder everything in my tank when I use it. I googled this idea and apparently no one has ever tried it as far as I can tell. The tank in question in 125 gallons, if that makes any difference. Thanks.

 

[tcarswell]

Why not just drain with a big hose ? 1"-2" ? You can make a good siphon cup for the end of it and have plenty of pressure to pull out debris. You would save over a hundred bucks...

 

[breakspirit]

I'm buying the shopvac anyway because I need one for other things, but if I have it already, might as well use it, right?

 

[tcarswell]

Absolutely! And as far as I can read you should be fine using it for your intended purposes.

 

[breakspirit]

Thanks =)

 

[krichardson]

Why not just drain with a big hose ? 1"-2" ? You can make a good siphon cup for the end of it and have plenty of pressure to pull out debris. You would save over a hundred bucks...

I agree,I have a Shopvac but have never thought of this application.It seems like the vac might have too strong a suction force and you would quickly empty your tank of your gravel as well as your water.

 

[Thalan]

I agree,I have a Shopvac but have never thought of this application.It seems like the vac might have too strong a suction force and you would quickly empty your tank of your gravel as well as your water.

That would be my fear. My sand would get destroyed.

 

[MonsterMinis]

I'de buy an extra hose, just for use on your fishtank. I'de be to worried about cross contamination from chemicals from useing the same hose for cleaning up other things.

 

[glenngreen]

I have never tried cleaning the substrate with it, but I have used one to remove the substrate from a running tank. It works perfectly for that! Easiest way to remove sand or gravel by far!

 

[FSM]

It's basically no different than pumping water into a big bucket on wheels. You're still going to have to dump it a few times per waterchange, and it will be a massive PITA to move once full of water.
Get a water pump and enough tubing to pump water directly to wherever you normally put it (outside, sink, whatever). less work, less noise