Vacuum substrate without water change.

tava716 · May 6, 2005

Hello all!!

Anyone have any good DIY plans for some sort of contraption that will vacuum the substrate, and pump the water back into the tank (thus avoiding having to do a water change when vacuuming the substrate? I have seen the guys at my LFS use a simple gravel vacuum running through a canister filter and then emptying back into the aquarium (but I am cheap and do not want to buy a canister filter just for cleaning my substrate).

wrightme43 · May 6, 2005

Pm Don W. He has a thing with a 5 gallon bucket, a bulkhead, a hose, and filter sock. You just sit the bucket on a chair, siphon into the filter sock and bucket, and it runs straight back into the sump. Steve

NaH2O · May 7, 2005

Welcome to Reef Frontiers!!!

I stick the filter sock in my sump and run the siphon hose into the sock, but I have the room to do that.

DonW's design is really great. Here are a couple of pics of it:

sryder · May 7, 2005

is that an octopus on the floor?. ...

tava716 · May 7, 2005

That looks like it would do the trick! Where do you get the filter sock? What should I use for one?

NaH2O · May 7, 2005

Here is a link to Aquatic Ecosystems. The felt kind, which I have, are really long, and I'd say that's the only drawback (32" long) - I'm sure you can find them elsewhere in the shorter sizes (I have 1 - 50 micron, and 4 - 5 micron....also a 1 micron I purchased at a store here in Indiana). The felt ones are under $6.00, and are listed in the section Filter Bags with Poly Ring mouths. I also looked under Filter Bags Mesh, and they have the shorter sizes...I may reorder a couple. Be sure when you get your filter socks, that you wash them in hot water (no soap) to remove the sizing. I made that mistake and ended up blowing the lid off my skimmer because the foam shot up so fast. Lucky for me I didn't have any livestock at the time, so no problems.
Aquatic Ecosystems - Filter Bags
Filterbags.com - sizes....there are different sizes available here, although I have not ordered from them. I thought this would help when looking at what sizes are available.

Hope you find this helpful!