I recently purchased on of these gravel vacs to help me deal with solid wastes in my gravel substrate.
Figure 1 – Eheim Vac in proportion with my tank
I went for an Eheim Vac, as they seemed to be the most robust, and easiest to use of all the different brands available. If you go to your local fish shop/pet store, you’re likely to pay up-to £60 for this particular vac, however, if you look on eBay, there are a few sellers selling these for around the £36 mark.
Figure 2 – the main components
The vac is very simple to put together, and all moving parts are cleanable. The impeller is linked to the motor via magnet (small circular item in Figure 2 at the bottom left of the picture), which allows you to clean absolutely everything after each use. The two plastic sucking ends fit together to give 60cms in length.
Figure 3 – sheet of kitchen towel wrapped around the filter, and then fitted improves the particle collection performance vastly
The supplied filter is excellent for large algae and debris, but not much good for the small particles. I discovered that use of kitchen towel helps this vastly. If you wrap it around the filter, ensuring the inlet is not obscured, it is possible to fit it back into the housing and off you go!
Happy vacuuming!
Martin
