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vikaspell
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Location: Mumbai, Goregaon
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 Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2015 8:56 pm Post subject: Cleaning sand type gravel |
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I have a fresh water tank with top filter.
The tank size is 4' x 18" X 2'
The gravel in the tank is very small white and brown stone almost as if they were sand.
I use the ehiem gravel cleaner to clean the gravel,
But the dust that gets caught up in the sand type gravel is very small and cannot be blocked by the filter media in the ehiem gravel clean and end up going back into the tank.
After gravel cleaning the water starts to look muddy which clears away in 15 -20 min.
What is the best way to clean the gravel when the dust caught in the gravel is ultra small.
Vikas |
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netherwinterknights
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| Posted: Fri Apr 24, 2015 12:25 am Post subject: Re: Cleaning sand type gravel |
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| Use a flexible pipe attached to the outflow of your vacuum cleaner, and remove the water completely from the tank, maybe into a bucket. This gives more suction power to the gravel vacuum, as well as keeps the gunk out of your tank water. |
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vikaspell
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Joined: Apr 20, 2009
Posts: 185
Location: Mumbai, Goregaon
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| Posted: Fri Apr 24, 2015 3:44 am Post subject: Re: Cleaning sand type gravel |
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Ugggh,
Removing all the water from a tank my size i will need 20-30 buckets(or even more) which is not so practicle.
My problem is not that the gravel cleaner does not have suction power. It is able to suck out the dust but the problem is the dust is so tiny that they are thrown back into the tank.
I guess instead of using a gravel vacuum that throw it back into the tank i will have to use a vacuum that just throws out the water and consider it as water change.
Any more ideas?
Vikas |
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netherwinterknights
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| Posted: Fri Apr 24, 2015 11:05 am Post subject: Re: Cleaning sand type gravel |
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You misunderstood. Not all water needs to be removed. It wouldn't be a "Partial Water Change", then would it?
A lot of us use gravel siphons to do this, vacuum operated or battery operated. It results in a gravel cleaning and partial water change at the same time.
In case you are facing the issue that the gunk gets back into the tank water, then the obvious solution is to remove it outside the tank, isn't it?
This is a battery operated one:
Ebay - Haqos Battery Operated Gravel Vacuum
This is a siphon or vacuum operated one:
Ebay - Gravel Vacuum Siphon |
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vikaspell
Frequent Visitor to IAH
Joined: Apr 20, 2009
Posts: 185
Location: Mumbai, Goregaon
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| Posted: Fri Apr 24, 2015 11:16 am Post subject: Re: Cleaning sand type gravel |
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I am using something on the lines of haqoa battery operated one but mine is from ehiem.
this one http://www.ebay.in/itm/like/191211858807?aff_source=Sok-Goog
The problem is it sucks the dust and throws the water back into the tank. small dust particles are not filters by the media they have provided.
I guess i will have to use some indian jugaad intead of these tech stuff.
Gravel cleaning is more like a hobby thing and is done by my mom at times. I can't expect her to initiate the water change.... Is there a better way so as to separate the gravel cleaning and water change situation. As of now i just told my mom to not go deep into the gravel and just pickup the dirty on top of the gravel.
if she digs into the gravel is where there are ultra small dust come out and gets distributed into the tank.
Vikas |
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vikaspell
Frequent Visitor to IAH
Joined: Apr 20, 2009
Posts: 185
Location: Mumbai, Goregaon
Status: Offline
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| Posted: Fri Apr 24, 2015 11:34 am Post subject: Re: Cleaning sand type gravel |
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Haqos battery operated gravel vacuum.... how is the filter media in this will it be able to filter out ultra small dust particles ?
I was thinking if i could tie and addition thin fabric around the filter of the hagos gravel vacuum would it help?
In the ehiem one i have there is no way to tie any additional fabric for additional filtration
Please advice
Vikas |
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