Jayba Posted November 22, 2010 Report Share Posted November 22, 2010 I have been looking at the Eheim battery operated gravel vac. I thought it would be pretty handy to suck up junk that accumulates in a couple of my 20 gallon tanks between water changes. Anyone have one? If so do you like it? Just looking for feedback. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreenDrake Posted November 23, 2010 Report Share Posted November 23, 2010 I just bought one the other other day but have not used it yet. I'll let you know over the next couple days as soon as I have the time to unpack it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jet_ran Posted November 25, 2010 Report Share Posted November 25, 2010 Hi. I used one of those devices on a 30 gal. In my opinion, the vac is more suited for a bigger tank as the rate of suction (if there is such a word, lol) is too great for a small tank. Use the extra money for something else . Hope this helps...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreenDrake Posted November 27, 2010 Report Share Posted November 27, 2010 I finally got a chance to use mine and I do like it although its not perfect for a smaller tank. I have a 20gal shelldweller tank with a sand bottom that gets a few small patches of algae growing on top of the sand. I thought this gravel vac would be a good way to skim over top of those patches as soon as I notice them forming, but like jet_ran said, the rate of suction is very high. This gravel vac is quite powerful and I could'nt get just the algae alone to lift without bringing up some sand as well, and I found out very quickly that even the smallest amount of sand will clog it and stop the impeller. So if you have a sand or fine gravel substrate you can probably not use this vac in the same way as a conventional gravel vac. Having said that, I did find out that if I kept it a couple inches off the bottom and gently waved it around to create some wave action, I could get alot of the detritus to lift up off the sand and into the water column where I could quickly suck it up before it had a chance to resettle. I also really liked the fact that after I used my standard gravel vac for the water change and refilled the tank I was able to suck out any detritus floating in the water before it could settle on the bottom or get sucked into the filter intake. All in all its not perfect for a smaller tank (unless your gravel is quite large), but you can make it work, and I really liked how quickly it can polish off anything suspended in the water. I would highly recommend it for bigger tanks with larger substrate though, which is its original intended use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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