I need to clean my gravel and have read a bunch of reveiws on the gravel cleaning syphons and I don't want to waste my money on a cleaner that doesnt work. I might not be using the correct term for the product, it is one of those tubes that you shake to create a syphon. Thanks for all your help
I use the Python no-spill siphon. It works very well.
The company Gravel Vac makes nice ones. They also have an auto-siphon start on them.
The easiest way is to suck on the end of the tube to draw up water and kink the tube or use your finger to cover the end .to keep the water near to the end. Then lower the end to the container and let off your finger. The weight of water in the tube and gravity will do the rest. As long as you have the end of the tube above the level of water in the tank while you are drawing water into the tube, you will NOT get a mouthful as you can see to stop just before the water gets to the end. I am sure you are smart enough to stop before you get a mouthful of water. As long as the end is above the level in the tank the siphon will NOT start and you will have to apply suction to hold the water in the tube until you kink it or use your finger to seal the end. The only way to get a mouthful is if your mouth is lower then the level in the tank so the siphon starts once the water crosses the threshold, Be careful not to suck up the fish...
Tubes that you shake? Now I'm confused. Anyway, most gravel cleaners have very similar designs. They have a rigid plastic tube that you stick into the gravel, and a smaller-diameter hose attached to the small end of the gravel tube. To create a siphon, you put the whole thing in your tank so it fills with water, then hold your thumb over the free end of the hose while you put that end in a bucket that is lower than the tank. The siphon will start by itself, and continue as long as the gravel tube is in water and is higher than the other end of the hose. You don't need to shake any part of it at any time. Nor do you need to suck on it with your mouth, as some people do. Most gravel-cleaning siphons are, as I said, very similar to each other, and as such they are also similar in quality. So go for the one with the lowest cost, unless it looks really shoddy. I have a couple of those siphons, but I rarely use them any more. Instead, I use a Python water changer. This is a water-driven hose system that attaches to your sink faucet, and it can both suck old water out of the tank (cleaning the gravel at the same time, or not, as you choose) and pump new water to the tank. If you have only one or two tanks, it may not be worth the expense, but if you have over 50 tanks, as I have, it's essential. Other companies now have copies of the Python on the market, some of them for slightly lower prices, but I don't know much about the quality of those imitation Pythons. Python was the originator of the product, and still sets the industry standard, in my view.
