Power Gravel Cleaner 30-125

I am so excited to finally get my Power Gravel Cleaner for 30 125 gallon aquariums! Amazon.com had the best price of anyone else that I could find. Plus with Free shipping offered by Amazon Prime I couldn't go wrong. This Power gravel cleaner works great, it has very good suction and was easy to put together. I did discover 2 issues with this unit, the suction hose needs to be at least 3 feet long and the suction hose should have a shut-off ball valve to have more control of the suction power. However, I found these issues easy to fix by replacing the short hose that was provided with the unit with an old 5 foot gravel vac hose that I had laying around to give the unit a longer reach around the tank and I was able to make it easier to control the water flow by pinching the hose with my fingers. I have to say all in all, I am very happy with this product and would recommend it to my friends and my LFS. I had to give this unit a 4 star rating because of these 2 issues. If Colbalt Aquatics would update their design with these 2 modifications they would get a 5 star rating from me.

This is an excellent idea with a few draw backs some of which are significant. I ordered the 30 125, found setup a breeze despite the near non existent instructions. At first I tried it out on a 55 it did a good job and did it quickly. The unit was defective but I ordered a replacement and Amazon had it here the very next day.

The unit is basically an HOB (Hang On Back) filter but it's a clever idea and easy to see how it helps keep your tank substrate clean in between serious break down cleanings and water changes.

1) The suction is more than adequate I use Terrazona glass as a substrate in many of my tanks, these are quite large and heavy and the suction from this unit had no problem sucking those up, a simple shake released them. it's comparable to Python water exchanger. But for a unit price of $100 Cobalt could certainly have provided extra socks and a stronger pump. Not to mention a flow control much like the simple switch on the Python

2) The filtration socks are flimsy open mesh nylon and allow for some debris to re-enter the tankfor $100 for the cleaner Cobalt should really include more than one.

An alternative is to buy some 80 Mil filter pad (I use this stuff in all my filters) it removes debris down to 5 microns in size and will polish your water as you use clean the gravel. The cost for a package of three replacement socks retails for an outrageous , p. You can buy an 18" X 30" piece of "Pure Flow" 80 micron padding for under $10 it's a no brainer. Simply wrap a piece around the plastic frame instead of the sock or better yet use both.

3) For a machine meant to clean up to a 125 aquarium and provide the consumer with a mere 24" of vinyl tubing is short sighted and cheap. Rather than move the unit along the rim of the tank as you work. An easy fix is to grab some 5/8 tubing I pulled 5 feet off a siphon gravel cleaner and it works great and solved the problem.

However there are reasons to like this product.

1) The extension tube is excellent and the rubber dividers provide an air tite seal. Plus you can adjust the size to fit the depth of most any tank.

2) It's fast and it's convenient, despite it's flaws. This is a real time saver especially if you have multiple tanks.

I've used an eheim sludge remover for years and it's effective but time consuming. Like all eheim products it's exceptionally well made and the micro screen compartment for capturing debris never needs replacing. However it's limited in size to tanks 24" in depth and tube extensions are not available.

A few years ago I paid $79 apiece for two of them but see Amazon sells them for $39 that's a steal. They're a wonderful addition to any aquarists arsenal of cleaning and maintenance products. In fairness the Cobalt is stronger and more versatile especially for larger jobs.

Over the past 40 years of keeping fish I've seen both products and companies come and go with rapid frequency. Cobalt would be serving both itself and their customers better by offering more value for the dollar and up grading the overall quality of this product.

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The good: The cleaner looks nice and is easy to use. Not being up to my armpit to reach the bottom was nice. It really does cycle a lot through.

The bad: It's not filtering that much out. Even when I doubled up the screen on the flow to try and filter out more, it was still pushing through all the food and poop right back into the tank. It only took me 3 attempts at cleaning the tank before I put a cup into the waterfall and dumped it into a bucket so I could look at the water that was going back into the tank. Very large uneaten food flakes and plenty of poop were right there in front of me.

Realistically great idea, I was sold on it (and I'm a cheapskate), but SORELY disappointed.

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Was glad to find a product to clean the gravel and not lose a lot of water.Product was better than described and arrived

sooner than estimated delivery date.

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Great item for anyone with an aquarium. We have a 5 gallon and 30 gallon and doing water changes are always a hassle. This gravel cleaner is so easy my kids love to do the work for me. Really helps to conserve water also! After we finish the gravel wash we let it run for over night and it pulls out all kinds of dirt. We love it!

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