Does anyone here use a Battery Powered Gravel Cleaner?

I have eyed a couple of them. One by EHEIM. I guess I want to most powerful one I can get to suck out all the gunk. Oscars are in deed messy, and I have two The siphoning of the gravel + water doesn't seem to be doing the trick.

Also, I know Oscar's are sensitive to environment changes, I have been siphoning around the accessories in the tank, will that suffice?

Cheers,

Joshua

I tried one a very long time ago. It was to short for my 24" hight tank so I made it a little longer. this killed its power so didn't work very well. I put it back to its short lenght and then flooded it (((

going around items is fine its all I do. I perfer the vac that fits to a hose, this way I drain water along with the crap. i only vac when I change water.

I bought one a few years ago but it really was only meant for very small community tanks, not big things, even medium tanks. Personally I think a lot of these products are just gimmicks. A normal siphon is enough to suck in the crap out of the fish tank, you don't need batteries to do the job for you

just my two cents

Do I need it? Probably not

But not matter how good I think I do, I don't ever get it all it seems

Tiny tanks will work but i gave my Eheim away, for it cost SO MUCH batteries.
Now i use a soda bottle with the bottom cut off, attached to a hose.
Let gravity do the work.
Cleans very good during wc's.

jcannonb wrote:


That is why I prefer sand over gravel. All the crap tends to lie on top of sand whereas it gets embedded into gravel

do you need it during power outage or when power is normal? during power outage,
i'd rather have a battery operated pump.... but i doubt how long it will run.

if you have normal power, i'd rather use a modified power head...very powerful
suction works and you can divert the dirt everywhere you may wish....

PAUL wrote:


I think these battery operated gravel vacs are really intended for gravel and not sand. The one I had had a little bag attached that would collect all the debris. I think the biggest advantage with some of these devices is that they actually remove debris and crap without actually removing the water. so if a water change isn't necessary but you want to remove crap, there are quite handy.

you can have that with this idea. using a box that goes with the powerhead,
you can do it.

I have gravel, have considered the switch to sand, but I have live plants (at least until they are eaten up ). I have noticed that Snow is starting to actually dig in the gravel. He goes looking for food etc...

Greedy Pig

actually, he/she is not looking for food, he/she is just bulldozing the substrate
and will try to rearrange the entire tank sooner.

Should I just take the plants out now? I have been warned they won't last much longer.