Aquarium cleaner
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Basic knowledge
Aquarium cleaner is a simple and cheap tool with price about $3. It is designed for pumping the
water out/into the
tank while the
water is moved from one container to another container. From time to time you should
pump out some
water from the
aquarium and replace it with some new
water (you shouldn’t use any
water taken from the duct without leaving it 1-2 days in some bucket).
Water changes
I recommend you to change from about 10% up to 20% of entire
water. Depending on your
tank’s capacity, this number might vary from 5% (for very large
aquariums) up to 40% (small
fish bowls).
Water changes are necessary when there are too many excrements at the bottom of the
tank or if you want to simulate tropical rain for
fish which originate from tropical forests. However, this process sometimes happens for no apparent reason; just because you want to
clean the environment. There applies a simple principle saying “less is more” in this case because you shouldn’t do
water changes everyday. Do it and your
fish will be stressed. General suggestions and experiences say that 1
maintenance per week is adequate. All in all, you are not asked to do this action on a regular basis. Everything depends on conditions within your
aquarium, on
fish amount,
plants,
substrate’s capability to decompose the waste, on aeration, on
driftwood presence, etc. Especially the
driftwood decoration colours entire
water and it becomes yellow or brown as time goes by. Please, bear in mind that brown or yellow
water colour is not dangerous for any
fish specimen!
Fish are beings which live in the
tank, so don’t try to simulate “clean and perfect human house” there! But I agree that man should change
water from time to time no matter if there is any
driftwood or other
decoration which causes coloured
water.
In addition, changing 20% of
water will not result in crystal-clear and transparent
water. It will work for about 2-3 days and then colours usually come to their previous state.
Basically, you may notice that I am talking about
water changes all the time. How to change
water in an
aquarium? Simple... Use an
aquarium cleaner.
Video
Feel free to download our video which shows how to
pump the
water with
aquarium cleaner
right here. It's a mpg file, type MPEG-1, 640x480, approximately 22.5 MB.
The principle
A
fish tank cleaner works on the principle that two
water entities at two different altitudes interconnected by a tube achieve their equilibrium point after both
water levels reached the same altitude or if the
water mass in both
tanks was moved to the lowest available point without being connected together through the tube. If the
water has to move into lower point, it might pass through higher point than it is actually at.
This is the reason why an
aquarium has to be placed at a higher position than a “destination” container (a
tank for used
water). Of course, if you are about to move new
water to the
fish tank, you must place it somewhere above your
aquarium. The head should be 50 cm at least.
The device
An
aquarium cleaner is a long, flexible plastic tube which has a hard and enlarged tube at it’s end. Moreover, there are several variants available on the market:
A manual
pump. A plastic bubble which contains air and if you press the bubble it starts to
pump. However, if the enlarged end of the cleaner is present in the
water, then it will
pump the
water out from the
aquarium.
Another solutions are are cleaners powered by „mouth“. You put the flexible end into your mouth and then you “suck” (not really, but it happens sometimes) the
water until it starts to flow from the source
tank to the destination point automatically. This happens once there is enough under pressure in the tube.
Warning
You have to be careful if you use a cleaner, because it may suck small
fish as well. Some cleaners have nets at the enlarged part, but the pressure might harm the
fish anyway. And I did not mention the
stress which
fish could go through once they are, or nearly are, sucked out from their
aquarium. They can easily die because of such
stress.
You should pay great attention when cleaning the
substrate. If there is enough under pressure, small
gravel will move from your
aquarium into the bucket. This happens especially when the
substrate consists of sand or little
rocks. If you don´t want this situation to happen you have to choke the flexible end of the cleaner, so that the pressure at the other end will be smaller and it will not suck the
substrate.
Naturally, I think that there is no reason to say that the
aquarium cleaner should be cleaned when the work is finished.
Picture
Feel free to visit
The Gravel Vacuum at firsttankguide.net too!
sponsored links
Aquarium cleaner
has been viewed times since June 30, 2009.
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