My Python Sucks At Cleaning Sand

[CatLover]

My Python syphon was great when I had gravel, but I don't know what's up with it cleaning sand.
I know in order to vaccuum sand, you need to swirl it a bit over the debris so you won't suck up a bunch of sand. My problem is that the syphon seems to not have enough sucking power to get anything up. I have the faucet on full blast, with as much suction as possible happening, but when I swirl around the debris, it goes up about 1/4 inside the tube, and falls back down to the sand.
I have to get it to that 1/4 point and then turn the tube upside down so the debris will fall toward the hose end so it can be sucked down the hose. It's annoying!

Am I doing something wrong?

Haha! I just noticed the pun in the title. That was not intented, I swear

 

[vancouver]

sand it just hard to clean with pythons.. it's not really cleanable at all. one reason i hate sand!

 

[Torrean]

two things you can try. First try to remove the gravel vaccum section. The smaller diameter tube should give you more suction power.

Second. Is your faucet much lower than your tank? If not I don't think you'll get as much power because the syphon is entirely powered by your faucet rather than gravity. try running the hose out a window or something. Then suck on the end of the hose to get the syphon going...

My python broke so now I just use a regular gravel vac tube to remove detritus and then use the python to refill.

 

[CatLover]

Yes, my faucet is much lower than my tank by at least 18 inches.

I have thought about taking the tube off of it and using the hose, but I just haven't got around to it yet. I will try that out.
Thanks!