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Re: Battery Powered Gravel Cleaners



>I was checking out bigalsonline and noticed two
>different battery powered gravel cleaners (removal of
>detritus without taking out water).  As you may know,
>my tank has a ton of gunk.  One is by Hagen and the
>other by Penn Plax.  Both are under $10.  I would

I had one of these once. Don't remember what brand. Piece of junk, although
real junk might actually do a better job. The pump works *only* when
*fully* submerged, so if you have a nice, sloping, hilly substrate and at
times have to vacuum where you can't keep the whole unit submerged, you get
about zero suction. Not that there's a whole lot of pumping action going on
when the thing IS submerged though. Save your money. The things aren't
worth 10 cents IMHO.

A much better route is to either use the very nice but unfortunatly very
expensive Rainbow/Lifeguard tank maintence cart that recirculates water
through a few filters using a real pump. I have a cheapo DIY version that
is a 5 gallon bucket with a tight lid and a powerhead inside along with
some filter floss. It's tricky to get going, but once started it makes
cleaning easier. A canister filter could probably do the same thing if you
have a spare one lying around.

     -Bill

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Waveform Technology
UNIX Systems Administrator