Cleaning gravel

[Toaster11]

Hi all,
I have a siphon that i use for water changes. I try to stick it in the gravel to clean but the rocks just get sucked up. I can't seem to figure it out. Am I that dumb? Any tips for cleaning the gravel better?

[Otterfun]

Originally Posted by Toaster11

Hi all,
I have a siphon that i use for water changes. I try to stick it in the gravel to clean but the rocks just get sucked up. I can't seem to figure it out. Am I that dumb? Any tips for cleaning the gravel better?

I think the pressure of the suction is proportional to the amount of time you dig into the gravel: longer time, more gravel sucked by the siphon.

i saw the staff at Petco just dig in for about 3 secs, get the siphon off the gravel, gravel drops back to the bottom of the tank, and then he moves to the next spot.

[Bombalurina]

It also depends on the size of the gravel/depth of the gravel.

[shellieca]

It will suck it up but usually if you just lift the tube up out of the gravel, the gravel will fall back down. It sucks up more gravel with my smaller sized gravel. Just stick the tube in until its shifting the gravel & then lift it up so the gravel falls back down. It takes a little getting used to.

[Toaster11]

Maybe my siphon is too small? I checked out some videos online and they were all bigger. I have to pull the siphon out of the water and lose the suction to make the gravel fall out. I am sure I just need to practice more. Thanks for the help.

[InfiniteGlory]

My tank has sand it is a nitmare sometimes to clean. What I do is pinch the tube going when I see sand is rising up and just let it fall back out. Then I resume as normal. Also this keeps me from having to restart the siphon

[Bombalurina]

I think you'd have more problems with a larger siphon, as they are generally more powerful and suck up a lot more stuff at once.

[Toaster11]

Originally Posted by InfiniteGlory

My tank has sand it is a nitmare sometimes to clean. What I do is pinch the tube going when I see sand is rising up and just let it fall back out. Then I resume as normal. Also this keeps me from having to restart the siphon

Wow, didn't even think of that. I will give that a try next time.