Years ago, I used something like this to spot clean my discus tanks. Now my 19 Congo Tetras leave some feces on the top of the blasting sand. Part of my daily routine is to suck up some of the waste to aid in keeping the water quality better…..less poop sitting on the substrate adding to higher nitrates until the next WC.
This device works great to spot collect pockets of settled waste and it works way better than a turkey baster does. It consists of a section of regular air tubing, a slightly bigger section of tubing, a fiberglass rod for strength, a syringe (mine is 60mL/2oz), and a few zip ties. The unit is sucking up pieces when you pull out the push rod of the syringe, the collected material and water remains in the tube. Suck up about 5-8 pieces and then empty out the tubing by pressing down the push rod of the syringe with the tip into a discard container.
If I have failed to explain this adequately, let me know and I could make a Video.
This is the tip where being positioned just above the feces allows the feces to be sucked up leaving the substrate.
Here the tip is just to the left of two waste pieces.
Here the hand end is above the water and is both holding the upper half and, when done carefully, pushing up the plunger with the thumb and finger creates the needed suction.
The entire unit is about 32” allowing me to clean my larger tanks as well. There are 3 larger sized zip ties to hold the syringe and about 4or5 smaller zip ties to hold the larger diameter tubing to the fiberglass rod. One could use a wood dowel if desired.
Just wanted to share something that works real well for me. With black blasting for substrate, the need to keep it looking clean/good is important. The same held true when I had nearly white coarse sand/fine gravel substrate in my discus days.
This device works great to spot collect pockets of settled waste and it works way better than a turkey baster does. It consists of a section of regular air tubing, a slightly bigger section of tubing, a fiberglass rod for strength, a syringe (mine is 60mL/2oz), and a few zip ties. The unit is sucking up pieces when you pull out the push rod of the syringe, the collected material and water remains in the tube. Suck up about 5-8 pieces and then empty out the tubing by pressing down the push rod of the syringe with the tip into a discard container.
If I have failed to explain this adequately, let me know and I could make a Video.
This is the tip where being positioned just above the feces allows the feces to be sucked up leaving the substrate.
Here the tip is just to the left of two waste pieces.
Here the hand end is above the water and is both holding the upper half and, when done carefully, pushing up the plunger with the thumb and finger creates the needed suction.
The entire unit is about 32” allowing me to clean my larger tanks as well. There are 3 larger sized zip ties to hold the syringe and about 4or5 smaller zip ties to hold the larger diameter tubing to the fiberglass rod. One could use a wood dowel if desired.
Just wanted to share something that works real well for me. With black blasting for substrate, the need to keep it looking clean/good is important. The same held true when I had nearly white coarse sand/fine gravel substrate in my discus days.
