I have a Phython to clean and do water changes. I got it on sale before I even had the aquarium and hadn't decided where the aquarium would be located so I bought the 50 ft hose one so it could reach any sink in the house. And remarkably it can work with all three faucets. But it was a big mistake - way too much hose to manipulate and it's very difficult to get it to suck all the water out of the hose once your done. I'm also on Oxygen 24/7 and my oxygen hose gets rolled up/tangled with the Phython. My biggest problem is that I have to keep stopping the water change process because to get enough suction I have to turn my bathroom sink water high enough that I barely get any water removed from the tank or any cleaning done before my bathroom sink fills up from the suction water. I'm totally exhausted running back and forth between sink and tank and I'm dangerously tripping on my O2 cord or pulling the end off the concentrator (I don't want to die cleaning an aquarium) If I slow the water rate down everything just stops working due to lack of suction power. I've run draino through the sink and there is no blockage. I may have to run it to my sink, but given how fast it fills up my bathroom sink I'm afraid it will do that to my kitchen sink, just less often - and I'll be running an even greater distance to check on each end - once I ended up doing about an 80% water change because it sucked too fast and I was so busy at the sink I didn't notice.
So, I just bought an electric filter and hose that works similar to the Phython but the options are to just sift through the substrate and remove the dirt into a bag (just like a regular vacuum cleaner) OR you can turn a switch and use it to remove water but it only goes into a bucket. It's only a 29 gallon tank and with my illness I can only lift 2 gallons of water at a time but I'm used getting things done - but at a slower pace than "normal people". The nice thing about this is that I can declorinate each bucket of water I refill my tank with and add any other solutions in very small quantities. Once I figure out exactly how many drops of Ph down I need per 2 gallons to keep my Ph at 7.0 I can do that quickly ahead of time too - it may work out to be something like 1/4 teaspoon per 2 gallons or something rather than counting all the damn drops- so I can do it faster. Our water here is Ph10-10.5. I had to look it up on our City's website because my test kit only goes to 9.9. It took about 300 drops of PHdown to get the whole tank to 7. I had to buy a bigger bottle of PHdown. So the bucket method may work out the best, the fish will get their water at exactly the same PH, and temperature as their tank. Tedious but I am disabled and don't have a job so what else do I have to do but keep a few fish happy.
What my question is and what I really want is a vacuum like I just purchased but where the sucking end of it is very long, and slender so I can really get into those crevices and even dig with it when necessary- I think I looked at every one of them on Amazon and they all use these great big hose size suction ends some of the hose ends are very short and some longer but all were similar in diameter - I have no idea why because it is SO cumbersome to use something that wide, and you can't really get rid of all the dirt and debris - Aquarium people are KNOWN to be picky - why doesn't this exist or if it does exist where can I buy it or how can I make it?
Also just in case you have an opinion. I have 4 Corydora's, 5 Red Barbs and 5 Zebra Danios all still quite small with the Cory's being the largest right now. They all get along beautifully but they do not like what I'm feeding them - they barely eat - or eat a very little and then when they try it again they spit it out (I assume they are full - although I was under the impression that fish will easily overeat until it kills them - well, not mine). I know newbies overfeed so may 1 little bite of flake is enough but that just seems too small. With the micropellets I would guess 5-10 would fill each of them up the pellets are very tiny. I need some food to go to the bottom anyway for they CoryCats who ONLY eat at the bottom. I bought them a few wafers that ended up looking huge and hard - so I threw 4 in - looks like they've tried to nibble on the 4 pellets for days but that wafer is too big and hard to just swallow. Besides the sinking wafers I'm feeding generic fish flake food and micro shrimp pellets. I've tried dried blood worms and tuberworms and they won't touch them - they just make a mess in the tank (in little crevices which is why I need the vacuum LOL). From what I saw at the pet stores they seem to use only flake food.
Jan
So, I just bought an electric filter and hose that works similar to the Phython but the options are to just sift through the substrate and remove the dirt into a bag (just like a regular vacuum cleaner) OR you can turn a switch and use it to remove water but it only goes into a bucket. It's only a 29 gallon tank and with my illness I can only lift 2 gallons of water at a time but I'm used getting things done - but at a slower pace than "normal people". The nice thing about this is that I can declorinate each bucket of water I refill my tank with and add any other solutions in very small quantities. Once I figure out exactly how many drops of Ph down I need per 2 gallons to keep my Ph at 7.0 I can do that quickly ahead of time too - it may work out to be something like 1/4 teaspoon per 2 gallons or something rather than counting all the damn drops- so I can do it faster. Our water here is Ph10-10.5. I had to look it up on our City's website because my test kit only goes to 9.9. It took about 300 drops of PHdown to get the whole tank to 7. I had to buy a bigger bottle of PHdown. So the bucket method may work out the best, the fish will get their water at exactly the same PH, and temperature as their tank. Tedious but I am disabled and don't have a job so what else do I have to do but keep a few fish happy.
What my question is and what I really want is a vacuum like I just purchased but where the sucking end of it is very long, and slender so I can really get into those crevices and even dig with it when necessary- I think I looked at every one of them on Amazon and they all use these great big hose size suction ends some of the hose ends are very short and some longer but all were similar in diameter - I have no idea why because it is SO cumbersome to use something that wide, and you can't really get rid of all the dirt and debris - Aquarium people are KNOWN to be picky - why doesn't this exist or if it does exist where can I buy it or how can I make it?
Also just in case you have an opinion. I have 4 Corydora's, 5 Red Barbs and 5 Zebra Danios all still quite small with the Cory's being the largest right now. They all get along beautifully but they do not like what I'm feeding them - they barely eat - or eat a very little and then when they try it again they spit it out (I assume they are full - although I was under the impression that fish will easily overeat until it kills them - well, not mine). I know newbies overfeed so may 1 little bite of flake is enough but that just seems too small. With the micropellets I would guess 5-10 would fill each of them up the pellets are very tiny. I need some food to go to the bottom anyway for they CoryCats who ONLY eat at the bottom. I bought them a few wafers that ended up looking huge and hard - so I threw 4 in - looks like they've tried to nibble on the 4 pellets for days but that wafer is too big and hard to just swallow. Besides the sinking wafers I'm feeding generic fish flake food and micro shrimp pellets. I've tried dried blood worms and tuberworms and they won't touch them - they just make a mess in the tank (in little crevices which is why I need the vacuum LOL). From what I saw at the pet stores they seem to use only flake food.
Jan
