The Puffer Forum

I never seen or herd or seen of a air powered vaccum. Maybe its just a UK thing? I still don't get now it works. I would think it would mess up the air pump itself? or is it a special one? Do you guys have the EHEIM Vacs over there?

Yes, we do have the Eheim vacs, and they are VERY expensive. I can't say I've tried the Eheim one, but I've tried 3 others and I've had to return them all very quickly after buying them because they stopped working. The one that's powered by an air pump is easy to explain really. Have you ever seen anyone vacuum their pool? It works just like that.... the air that's pumped into the unit creates a vacuum that sucks up whatever it's moved over. It doesn't hurt the air pump as the air pump is only pumping air into it as it would anything else (airstone, bubbler, etc.). Thing is, there's no batteries to worry about and it really does work better than those battery ones, has more suction in my opinion. I have an air pump that I use exclusively for vacuuming the tanks with, and I just move from tank to tank with it and I usually unplug the heater so I can plug the air pump in and do the vacuuming and then move to the next one. Obviously not everyone will agree with me, and that's why there's different items available, and that's cool too.

schismy007 wrote:I got mine off eBay, do a search for "vacuum tank cleaner" -- that should bring some up for you. The one I use is an 'Algarde' it's all one piece. There's another out there that's 2 pieces and I've tried that one, but it doesn't work too well.

That sounds like this. Only £5 here in the UK if that's the one, and sounds excellent.

Malabar Front wrote:That sounds like this. Only £5 here in the UK if that's the one, and sounds excellent.

Well, I went ahead and ordered one. It arrived yesterday, and I gave it a quick whirl this morning for cleaning up the remains of an algae tablet. Sand isn't an ideal substrate for this product, for obvious reasons, but the device does its job and no water is lost. Everything it sucks up is deposited neatly into a little bag, so you can filter out anything you accidentally sucked up, which included a couple of small snails for me.

For only £5, it's miles ahead of having to dig out the syphon, the net or even a turkey baster.

I've been using mine for about 9 months or more and I do it every morning, that way I know that uneaten food and some fish waste is being taken out of the tank and I'm sure that helps with water quality. I think it's an excellent little device, very simple, but very effective. Much better than those expensive battery-powered ones. I wouldn't be without one, in fact, I own two and the reason I have two is that if one of my tanks should become ill with something contagious, then I will use only one vacuum for just that tank, helps to keep any chance of contamination down.