Question:i brought a siphon gravel cleaner and it was only removing the water not the waste or the leftover food. so can you tell me what is the best siphon company for a 10 gallon tank. that actually cleans the waste and the food.
Answers:
What I do is I shake the pump up and down creating a suction flow. Once I have water flowing into the bucket, I then insert the head of the pump into the gravel. Gravel will begin to move up the tube, but won't go to the top and into the bucket. What this is doing is dislodging accumulations in the substrate and sucking up all the filth that's accumulated there. I then move the gravel head into areas nearby and gradually move around the entire substrate. Most of the time, because I have bigger set ups, 20, 75 and 180 gallons, this takes more time because it's a larger area, and more then just one bucket.
With yours, you have a 10 gallon tank, so once you get a flow of water going out, get that gravel head deep into the substrate and move to as many spots as you can. Doing this during your water changes is basically the same as doing your water change, but cleaning the gravel at the same time. Move to as many of the spots as you can get, but don't take out more then 4-5 gallons of the water.
JV
Your siphon gravel cleaner should work. Stir up the gravel with the tube and let the dirt get sucked into the cleaner.
well any siphon works fine even just the tube will do the job
the thing is you actually have to move the siphon around in the tank and threw the gravel to suck up all the waste and if its not sucking quick enough then just face it vertical and the mouth piece that sucks up the stuff touch the glass bottom
or you can be lazy and get a battery operated siphon
Your siphon cleaner may not be strong enough to suck up the heavier stuff. You might want a bigger sized unit... It acts on a gravity principle with the water wanting to go to the lowest point, so if it is sucking water, it's working, just not as well as you'd like. A larger tube will let more water out faster, dragging the debris up with it. It should have a narrow opening in a "housing" that goes over the tube so gravel can't jam the tubing, this also strengthens the sucking action. I like to push the siphon into the gravel and stir it up a bit, then the junk goes up the tube as it is pretty light compared to the water, and you don't want to suck out all your water before the gravel's clean. Another option is an under gravel filter for your small tank. It sucks the bits up as they float down into the gravel and filters the gunk out, helping to keep the tank clean. I "cheat" now when I clean as I have a huge tank and I got a Magnum H.O.T. filter with siphon attachment and I use it on the 10 gallon, too. It gets the gravel really clean in a jiffy!
They all clean the same way. Put the bell end in the water, and suck the air out of the other end and the water will flow. Put the bell down into the rocks and it will suck up uneaten food and poop out. I went to Home Depot and got a very long tube so I drain my tank out into the garden. Plants love fish water! You may need a bucket.
The Python is an expensive unit that fits onto the sink nozzle and fills and drains from the sink. But I would not recommend filling the tank with the same tube that water drained from it, simply because bacteria cling to the walls of the tubing and you could be putting disease into the tank. You can use it to fill the tank with the right temp water from the tap. But I think the thing is a waste of money. Do if you use tap water get a brand new garden hose, one that sits in the yard all year most likely has bacteria build up on the inside, and can make the fish sick.
I would just scoop out about 1/2 the water and the fish and put them in an ice chest or something, then just pick the tank up and run in under the facet of the tub til it is clean. To me that seems like such a small tank to be siphoning the water out. My way seems alot faster.
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