Each aquarium owner, both experienced, with experience, and a beginner, must have in his arsenal the necessary set to care for it.
The bottom is the most polluted surface, where the products of vital activity of the fish themselves, dead leaves of plants, the remains of uneaten food accumulate, and much more can be found at the bottom of the tank.
All this must be removed so that the inhabitants of the aquarium feel healthy and the water has normal values.
Application benefits
To do this, a vacuum cleaner for the aquarium, or, as it is also called, a siphon, will help us. This is a kind of device with which you can easily get rid of unnecessary particles under stones and driftwood, get to any other hard-to-reach place by sucking garbage into the cavity of the vacuum cleaner along with part of the water. And not much while disturbing the inhabitants of the aquarium.
Thus, we obtain two results at the same time: we pump out part of the water for a change and clean the soil.
Types of aquarium vacuum cleaners
Currently, the market offers us two types of vacuum cleaners for cleaning the aquarium: mechanical and electric.
The most primitive mechanical model consists of a flexible hose, at the end of which is a glass or a wide cavity of the pipe. She is immersed in the soil itself.
But it often happens that a vacuum cleaner can capture not only dirt particles with a stream of water, but also small pebbles or decorative elements (small shells, stars and other light objects). Therefore, some manufacturers modified simple models and added auxiliary parts to regulate and manage the cleaning process.
For example, the flow of draining water can be controlled using a faucet. Or added fasteners - holders for fixing the hose in the bucket and the vacuum cleaner itself near the walls of the aquarium.
In electric models with a motor, the principle is slightly different. The hose is missing. They do not work on mains, but on batteries.
Water is swallowed into the siphon itself, particles of dirt fall into the trap compartment, and the water, already purified, is returned to the aquarium.
This way you do not lose part of the water. This is convenient if you do not want to frequently change and add water.
It seems that a vacuum cleaner for a battery-powered aquarium is much more successful and more practical to use, but there is one thing: it is not suitable for all types of aquariums. Only for those whose height is not more than 50 cm, otherwise water will fall into the compartment where the batteries are located, which is unacceptable.
Selection recommendations
When purchasing or choosing a vacuum cleaner for an aquarium, several important points to consider:
1. Choose models with a tall glass, from 15 cm and above, for tightening the ground. So with a stream of water, small pebbles cannot rise higher than 10-12 cm, and will return back under their own weight.
2. You should also consider which edges the glass itself has. Ideally, it should be either oval or with torn edges. This will allow you to penetrate the most inaccessible places and not damage the root system of aquatic plants.
Special siphons are also available for certain types of soil: for sandy, with dense vegetation, coarse pebbles or shallow, for a mixed type of soil.
3. The hose should be long enough. Consider the height of the aquarium and the length to the floor, or at least to a chair on which you can put a bucket or basin for draining water. If you hold the hose over the bucket, and it is short, which is already inconvenient, water will spray.
4. The hose and the design of the cup itself must be transparent and smooth in order to see the clogs and take measures to eliminate them.
5. The thicker the hose pipe, the stronger the water pressure. You need to consider the volume of the aquarium.
Do it yourself
You can also make a vacuum cleaner for the aquarium with your own hands. This will require straightforward equipment: a cropped part from a plastic bottle and a hose. But, in our opinion, it’s easier to still get a similar design, because the price of the issue is not so high, for the simplest siphon of about 150 rubles.
Use procedure
The wide cavity of the tube vertically plunges as much as possible into the soil itself and, by vibrating the air in the tube, causes small particles of dirt to rise upward along it. Since they are the lightest, they merge with a stream of water through a hose into a special container: a bucket or a basin. You can force the water to flow through the tube using the bulb on the hose.
Open ground surfaces are cleaned without much effort, but the corners of the aquarium or the place where driftwood is located and plants are planted require accuracy.
If the decorations are small and easy to move, always push them back, there you will find many interesting things that need to be removed. So site after site you vacuum all the bottom.
This procedure should be carried out if necessary and depending on the number of inhabitants in the tank, on average 1 time per week.
note
If you use a simple vacuum cleaner for the aquarium, then make sure that the drained water is not more than 30% of the total volume.
If the pressure is strong and the water leaves too quickly, you can pinch the hose tube with your finger, thereby adjusting the water pressure.
Do not forget that such cleaning should not be ideal, since the sludge and mucus that are at the bottom also have their useful function and are saturated with bacteria that participate in the life of the aquarium.
This device should certainly be with every lover of the aquatic world in order to keep it clean. You can buy a vacuum cleaner for the soil of the aquarium in any water store.
If you carry out such a cleaning regularly, then such a procedure will not take you much time.