Gravel Cleaner

[lganderson1313]

I have a 360 gallon freshwater tank, stingray and arowana and I’m looking for a good gravel cleaner currently I use a siphon large siphon. I believe it’s half inch hose and it’s not enough suction. I wonder if you guys can recommend perhaps a powered gravel cleaner or something stronger that will clean the gravel my current set up bills right into the sink in the basement thanks

 

[skjl47]

Hello; too many unknowns in the initial post to know if a method i have used will work well. One thing to know is do you wish to have the gravel remain in the tank?
If so there are some cleaning devices which can be used. I can describe one later.
One way to get a good cleaning in to have some extra clean gravel on hand. I have used a siphon tube to siphon out the gravel with the tank water during a water change (WC). This pulls the detritus out along with the gravel. Much depends on the size of the gravel. If your half inch won't let the gravel thru, then get a bigger hose. Siphon the normal WC amount of water at one time. Replace the removed dirty gravel with the clean gravel. Then clean the dirty gravel for use later.
Do this over a span of several WC's to get the gravel in other areas.
This can be an issue in heavy planted tanks as removing gravel can affect the plants. But I have done the method in planted tanks by being careful.

 

[lganderson1313]

I have a 360 gallon freshwater tank, stingray and arowana and I’m looking for a good gravel cleaner currently I use a siphon large siphon. I believe it’s half inch hose and it’s not enough suction. I wonder if you guys can recommend perhaps a powered gravel cleaner or something stronger that will clean the gravel my current set up bills right into the sink in the basement thanks

I don’t mind building my own gravel cleaner, thought about putting a power head in line in the hose of the gravel cleaner? I have a fine to medium size gravel and it is very loose. Any help is appreciated!