DIY "Tiny Tank" Gravel Vaccuum

By: Jubs
 
Well I wanted something to get a good cleaning on my smaller tanks without just using the usual airline to suck out water I wanted a way to get gunk out of the substrate as well. If you have ever tried doing that with just a piece of hose you know things just get sucked up there is no swirling around and actual cleaning just straight down the hose! So I came up with this idea...

What you need:

4-5 feet section of standard airline hose

1 plastic 3 ml pipette/eyedropper (whatever size you can get would work but I wouldn't go any smaller)

A pair of scissors

And finally about 45 seconds

Here's the supplies...



Make a cut on each end like so... (note I would cut less off the big end next time)



Put the airline on the small end of the hose and you're ready to go !



I used this on my 2.5g with sand and it works great! If you get too much suction and have something like sand you can just pinch the hose a bit to restrict the flow and keep the sand in your tank. It works like a regular gravel vac as in it will let the gravel circulate in the tube and fall back down to the bottom, this was the main purpose for making it as you can't do that with a plain hose! It also gives you enough time to actually clean the tank with the slower flow. I have the smallest commerically made gravel vac I can find designed for small tanks and it's too fast to get a good cleaning in before the water level is too low.