DIY Air Powered Gravel Cleaner

[Dark Jester]

Hi All. Not sure if this might belong in the DIY filter section or not. If so, please feel free to move it.

So, we hijacked a thread the last couple days and I figured this was cool enough to have it's own thread. I'll quote all of the related posts from the other thread.

Wasn't aware, thats a lot better.

You should get one of THESE for in between your WC's. Just needs an airpump to run, no water leaves the tank.


If you do sand, I'd say don't give yourself more than an inch or so average depth. It'll keep these a little bit less complicated.

That's pretty cool, thanks for the link. I hadn't seen those before, just the battery powered ones that most users end up complaining about sand destroying the motors. An air powered one would rock.

Could probably even DIY one with a filter sock and some PVC pipe.

i dont know who put this on youtube but heres a video off the kleen sweep

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gE8MQafHaNE

Nice, I'm definately getting or building one in the next week or two.

EXCEEDINGLY easy to build.

One section of 1/2" PVC (came in 5ft lengths for like 1$)
One T connector 1/2"-3/4" (3/4" on the side of course...1/2" straight through)
One of the small filter media bags you can buy at petsmart. Much like a small filter sock with a drawstring, fits just about perfectly over the 3/4" side of the T.

Cut the PVC to a length you desire...you want the T connector to always be submerged, but not right at the bottom (all the crap will flow straight past it and out the end of the tube).

Drill a hole at the bottom & top, about an inch down on each end. Shove your airline tubing into the bottom hole and bend it back towards the top of the tube so air is blowing back towards the surface. Run the airline from there out the top end of the tube.

I like to cut the tubing an inch or so out of the top and put a valve on it (the type you can screw shut & adjust the airflow). This way I can leave a long hose attached to my airpump, leave that valve on the long hose and close it off when not in use and then hook it up and open the valve when I want to use it.


Another thing I did was get a huge piece of surgical tube (1-1/2" or 2" i think) and cut a ~4" section, it fits real snug over the 3/4" of the T and the bag fits tightly around it, made it easier to deal with the bag (no more figuring out how to tie it & untie from the PVC every time I want to use it)

Overall it works pretty well. Sometimes it can be a pain to get larger pieces into the bag (they seem to either go past it or not go far enough and just fall back out when you pull it out of the water) but I'm still thinking of how to perfect it.

My idea with the surgical tubing was to drill tiny holes in it (using a thumbtack to poke holes didn't work, nor did a small nail) so that water can escape but debris would not. And I have a PVC end cap that slides over the end of the surgical tube. This way I could just use the vac, all the crud collects in the end cap, pull the endcap off and rinse it out. No more nasty bag to deal with

Sounds good. I think I have the PVC parts at my house already from other projects. Will just need to pick up another filter bag. Probably get it running this weekend.

Thanks for the details.

I wonder if expanding the pipe to 3/4" or 1" just before the "T" would help with the debris flowing past. Bigger exit and less pressure on the debris, probably wouldn't be as likely to zip past.

No worries, if for some reason its not clear in the explanation I can snap a pic for you.

The only differences are the little end piece that the branded one has, and that their bag is angled downward. Not sure why that is. I use mine with the back rotated up and the water very clearly flows through it (bubbles and it sticks straight up in the aquarium) so I'm not sure if thats an issue or not.

You could probably heat the inlet end of the 1/2" pipe and flatten it a bit. Would increase the suction a little. That looks like what they are doing with the end attachment on the prefab one. Might help with stirring up the gravel too. Dunno, I'll play around with it. Could probably just put a 1/2" male adapter on the end to restrict flow (increase suction) too. if I remember right, the inner diameter of the male adapter is smaller than the pipe itself.

Could probably accomplish the downard angle on the T by adding a 45* adapter too. Maybe it helps keep some of the air out of the bag?
Edit: And thus, we have successfully hijacked this thread.

Omg I so want to make one. Moloch could you take a pic of yours?

yes do plz take a pic!

Got the filter bag and a couple PVC adapters. Will probably put it together tonight and test it out. Gonna try the expansion idea, 1/2" tube for the intake, expanded to 3/4" about 10 inches up and immediately after that a 3/4" Tee to attach the bag.

Was wrong on the male adapter idea to increase suction. Inner diameter is the same as the pipe. Gonna have to heat/flatten the end, or come up with some sort of attachment that will get the intake down to a 3/8" or something. Might be a CPVC piece with a 3/8" barbed hose fitting or something that could screw on the end of the 1/2" intake.

Will see how it works as-is tonight, might go MacGyver or Tim Taylor on it if it's not good enough and I want to beef it up. I have an air compressor out in my shed...

I bet water shooting out of the pipe from a 100 psi air line could peel paint off my ceiling... My wife might not appreciate that, but it would be sweet to see it once.

Edit: Actually, is there any reason for the T and the length of pipe sticking up out of the tank? If it's just so you don't have to get your hands wet, I think it would be more efficient to just use a single 1 foot length of 1/2" pipe with the bag around the top. Air and water can exit the bag, debris cant.

I don't care if my hands get wet.

Oh let us know if you got it to work...

Didn't do the expansion from 1/2 to 3/4 or anything. After I got to thinking about the above, that seemed like the simplest solution.

Basically what I did was:

• I took the 1/2" pipe and cut a 12" piece.
• I looked through all my spare PVC parts and found a female 1/2" adapter, and a male 3/8" barbed hose connector to screw into it.
  • That went on 1 end of the pipe.
• About an inch from that end I drilled a small hole.
• I found an airline splice (plastic piece to join 2 airlines together). I inserted 1 end into the small hole in the PVC and connected an airline to the other. Could also do one of the little airflow regulators that Moloch mentioned instead.
• A small rubber band keeps the hose attached to the PVC pipe at the other end. Hose is pulled tight, but loose enough to prevent kinking at the splice.
• Only remaining piece was attaching the bag, so I got the idea to just cut the end off of one of my PVC connectors and use that small piece as a sleeve around the end of the 1/2" pipe. Can tie the bag snug around the pipe, and it won't slide off the end with the sleeve there.

Worked pretty well when I tried it out. Great suction, picks up sand and small pieces of gravel. Will push a decent flow of water out of the pipe about 6" above the water line. Everything ends up in the bag, and nothing makes it out except water and air.


Only adjustment I'll make is to shorten the pipe a little bit. The 12" pipe in my 55g made it difficult to grab anything that wasn't sitting on the bottom. If the pipe is angled too much, or the top comes out of the water too much, you lose water flow. With a shorter pipe (maybe 8 or 9 inches) I can also grab anything that I stir up into the water column without losing suction.

Some pics:

Overall, without bag attached

Female 1/2" thread connector slipped onto the 1/2" pipe. 3/8" barbed hose connector screwed into that. Hole for the airline drilled into the side, with an airline splice pushed into it for the connection.

Back end with the hose rubber banded to the tube and side shot of the Bag Stop I fashioned

Can see the piece of the PVC connector that I cut off and slipped over the end to keep the bag from sliding off

With bag attached

Everyone feel free to add any mods you might make or if you've done something like this yourselves. Nice to be able to do frequent substrate cleanings without having to siphon anything and make it a water change.

 

[livebearerfreak]

deff take a vid of it in action! if it works i may have to steal your idea!

 

[champz]

yeah can you take a vid so that we can see it in action

 

[Dark Jester]

Will see if I can get one up for you guys tonight or tomorrow.