python gravel cleaner

[Arowana King]

I was wondering when I hook the hose up to the sink and I'm draining the tank, does the sink have to be on the whole time? or only when Im filling up the tank?

 

[sterling_mcdaniel]

the whole time.

 

[Bud8Fan]

When vacuuming drop the hose out a window or door instead to save water.

 

[Camshaft Ramrod]

Yeah, dont bother using the sink to drain unless your in a hurry. I just drain it into the bathtub.

 

[Petrella88]

I never even bothered with that green 3 way price bc it's easy to get the suction going but I think if your tank is below what your draining into you might have problems my fish room is downstairs and I'd prefur to run water out to the alley so the sump/injector pump won't end up pumping it back out (I bought all the connector replacemnt peices from python and got hose at harware store and used my 14 tear old vaccum tube and only spend 25 or so dollars on DIY python syphon genuine python parts with 100' of tubing)

 

[vicdeedee]

having the sink on is good when ur vaccuming the gravel but u can shut the taps off after that and let it drain itself if ur tanks higher than your sink. but it does take longer. thats what i do with my python

 

[polish]

If the tank is below the sink in terms of height the sink will have to be on the entire time to create vacuum to pull the water out.

If the tank is above the sink you can use the sink to start the vacuum then shut it off once the water if flowing. However this is for water change only, if you want maximum suction to clean the gravel leave the sink on full blast. It will pull a lot harder than just letting it drain via gravity.

 

[ProblEmZ]

Depends where the tank is relative to the sink height. I have one tank that is lower than the sink so i usually keep the sink on the whole time, but it's only a 10g so sometimes i just use a 5gallon bucket heh.

 

[tcarswell]

Depends where the tank is relative to the sink height. I have one tank that is lower than the sink so i usually keep the sink on the whole time, but it's only a 10g so sometimes i just use a 5gallon bucket heh.

Dont you love tens lol . Compared to my other tanks my tens get two 50% water changes a week. lol the others get 35% twice a week.

 

[LowCel]

I sort of cheat. I have a 25' line on my python and another 40 foot line coming straight from the sink. This way I can start cleaning the gravel, syphoning water out and then when I get about 15% drained I turn on the water coming from the sink while I continue to remove water with the python. This allows me to do the water change much faster but it also makes it so I don't have to worry about turning off any of the filters.