Gravel vac is to powerful for my substrate.

Hi all, i have a 4x2x2 aquarium aprox 450-500ltr.
Its substrate is sand. I have 2 aquariums the other is only 145ltr and fine oyster shell/sand combo substrate. My small gravel vac for this tank lets mw suck up the muck from the substrate really easily. Slower rate of flow being a smaller vac of course.
Since i upgraded my tank i brought a bigger gravel vac. Its really good at takeing water out at decent speed. However it sucks up so much sand. Every time its near the substrate. I was thinking i could use this to do my water changes as it is quick. But i was wondering if theres a big gravel vac with less suction out there. So it can finely clean my substrate? Without looseing to much sand? Now my tank is really deep to the point even on a stool i cant reach the surface by hand. So the vac will have too. And i want a VAC not a python system pictures below. Cheers all x

 

Is the vacuum the kind of ones where you manually have to pump something so the water comes out? If so, then I would hold the vacuum farther from the substrate (gravel needs the vacuum on the substrate) so the sand isn't touching the vacuum. Try pumping and see if any sand gets sucked up. Only the waste should, you just need to keep it at a distance.

 

Big gravel vac=more suction=more sand taken out. You cant really have a big gravel vac with little suction unless you crimp your hose while cleaning sand.

 

I kink the hose and over the sand then unkink when I'm up away from the sand to take out more water

 

Is the vacuum the kind of ones where you manually have to pump something so the water comes out? If so, then I would hold the vacuum farther from the substrate (gravel needs the vacuum on the substrate) so the sand isn't touching the vacuum. Try pumping and see if any sand gets sucked up. Only the waste should, you just need to keep it at a distance.

Its one of the vacs you must shake to get a syphon, i think where i may be doing wrong is. In my small tank with my small vac i can stick the vac right into the substrate & then ill see a dust cloud go into the vac. (Dirt) but with my new tank with my bigger vac i guess i have too not touch the substrate as such but have it like 1" away. Skim the surface vacing. Stop the syphon. Disturb the substrate an give the disturbed substrate a quick go over? As we all know fish muck sometimes gets buried due our fish's activitys. That was my thought process of sticking the vac into the substrate

 

I think another reason why your sands getting sucked up is because its really fine sand and small. You can hover vac if you want, when you aggressively clean the sand(imo thats not really necessary), just crimp the hose in time so sand doesn't get sucked up.

 

If you want to keep using the wider nozzle, either kink the hose outside of the tank or DIY adapt a smaller-diameter hose to fit onto the nozzle. Either of those will reduce the flowrate and cause weaker suction. You'll probably still not be able to shove the vac into the sand like you would for gravel (very satisfying to watch the muck get sucked away, I know).

I'd expect with very fine sand, there's less room for stuff to get down into it, so you don't need to get into the deeper layers during normal cleaning.

 

To slow the vacuum down have the bucket up closer to the height of the tank sitting on a chair for example. As well as the kink with the other hand.

 

I'm a sand substrate fan. I'm also a fan of a gravel vac that can drain a 29 in 3-5 minutes wide open depending on height. I think my largest one is the same diameter tubing as what you have. I don't use a flat nozzle like that though.

The key is to surface skim and sweep while pinching the hose to the right speed. This pulls the debris off the surface pretty well.

Alternatively, I plunge it into the sand full power and as the bell (fat part) gets about half full I quickly pinch the hose and raise the bell out of the sand. With the right motion this can tumble your sand down to the glass and get the tank looking new. I don't do this often, but with a good filter system capable of carrying the load on its own it doesn't hurt anything.


The most important part is that you got a siphon with a polyvinyl hose and you can pinch it. I haven't figured out how people use the hard plastic ones on sand but they must love self punishment.

In addition, if you have arthritis or other mobility problems, you can fit a ball valve on the end of the hose to reduce flow for you. That option has seemingly made it harder for me in practice but could be worth a try. My siphon came with one, and I know you can probably get them at the hardware store if you need one.

 

u can put a mesh over the end that is in the water and that will help a little bit

 

I'm a sand substrate fan. I'm also a fan of a gravel vac that can drain a 29 in 3-5 minutes wide open depending on height. I think my largest one is the same diameter tubing as what you have. I don't use a flat nozzle like that though.

The key is to surface skim and sweep while pinching the hose to the right speed. This pulls the debris off the surface pretty well.

Alternatively, I plunge it into the sand full power and as the bell (fat part) gets about half full I quickly pinch the hose and raise the bell out of the sand. With the right motion this can tumble your sand down to the glass and get the tank looking new. I don't do this often, but with a good filter system capable of carrying the load on its own it doesn't hurt anything.


The most important part is that you got a siphon with a polyvinyl hose and you can pinch it. I haven't figured out how people use the hard plastic ones on sand but they must love self punishment.

In addition, if you have arthritis or other mobility problems, you can fit a ball valve on the end of the hose to reduce flow for you. That option has seemingly made it harder for me in practice but could be worth a try. My siphon came with one, and I know you can probably get them at the hardware store if you need one.

Thank you very much ill take in your advice