TOM Aquarium Maintenance Mr. Cleaner Battery Operated Gravel Siphon

I originally had my heart set on the Eheim Quick Vac Pro, which was over $60. I saw this priced at less than a third of the cost and decided to give it a shot. I had to search online for instructions on how to assemble but was surprised that it went together just how I thought that I should have kept tinkering with it and I would have had it.

This was tested out on a 20 gallon long bare-bottom tank with tons of detritus that my siphon never seemed to remove. At first, the thing takes a little help to get suction. I had to tilt it over into the water right up to the "Water Line" indication. Once I had the water level to where it had suction, I began to move the gravel washer head around. It seemed to pick up better when the detritus was already afloat not laying on the bottom of the tank.

I was not too terribly impressed with the suction UNTIL I removed the gravel washer head. It is totally unnecessary and decreases the efficiency of this vacuum. I had to stop to rinse the net out twice, and to fiddle with the impeller to remove dead snail shells. (puffer tank) To avoid pulling things into the impeller I placed a brine shrimp net over the intake pipe. This also helped me "steer" the intake pipe around the tank because the vacuum is a little oddly balanced.

Be aware that this does not put the water back into the tank internally. Water is pulled up through the pipe, towards the impeller, and into the waste collection net, then back into the tank on the OUTSIDE of the pipe it just went up. You will have to pay attention so that you don't move the vacuum too close to the edge of your tank thus holding the collection net over the edge of your tank and siphoning sediment free water onto your floor.

****mine came with an algae scraper head, which I have yet to use

****mine came with a hose adapter, for use in siphoning water, which I have not used

In summary for $16 this product did great (without the gravel washer head)

This vacuum is the best thing since sliced bread. It goes together easily, has great pick-up suction, the tubing is long enough to reach the back corners of a 20 inch tall tank and does not lose power. The on/off switch at the top if convenent and easy to get to. I have dropped the entire vaccum in the tank, dried off the batteries and continued cleaning.

The only issue this vacuum has is the "sock" for catching debris. I replaced that with a knee-high nylon, you know the womens sock for pants and dress shoes, held it on with a rubber band and clean without debris that someone else complained of.

This vacuum makes tank maintenance so easy and I tend to "tidy up" almost daily. Thank you Tom Aquarium Supply and give a raise to whoever came up with this idea.

Kathryn

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This device actually has decent suction. It had no problem picking up all the debris off the bottom of my fish tank and depositing them in to the 'sock'. But unfortunately the fine particles of debris blew right through the cloth sock and back into the water. After a minute of vacuuming, my whole fish tank was clouded. The debris in my tank consisted of mostly goldfish poo, which tends to break apart easily. If you are picking up courser debris, it might work better, but I feel that the 'sock' filter bag really does not provide adequate filtration. Not recommended.

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The company that I purchased this from, Strictly Pet Supplies, sent the item very quickly and it was packaged well as well.

The siphon works great and is easy to use. When it touches the bottom it won't pick up the aquatic soil or rocks, but it will pick up all the crap and fish excriment that has accumulated there. The tube has an adjustable length so I can use it in my tall and short aquariums. You can also purchase replacement filter bags.

Some other reviewers on other sites complained that the item is fragile and can break. This is true. Some parts looks like they're made from thin plastic and can break if you drop it. But its not the manufacturers fault, you just have to be careful when using it.

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Hi Guys,

I created a video review of this vacuum, which also addresses its low suction problem. Amazon has pretty useless rules for video reviews, like only 10 mins, only 100mb etc. My video could not fit in those requirements, so I have uploaded it at [youtube . com /watch? v=lDpJ-RBGMQc] (copy paste the link in your browser address bar and delete all the spaces) Or if amazon replaced this link with [..] then just do a google search for "TOM Mr. Cleaner Battery Powered Gravel Vacuum Video Review". The video will hopefully be the first link.

I took off one star from the review because I had to do a little quick trick to make it work better and its on/off button cap is faulty. Other than that, with the trick I have shown in the video, this would do really perfect job of cleaning your aquarium.

For all those buyers, who are confused about the mixed reviews, I would request them to watch this video, you can actually see the vacuum in action and see how much suction it has got. You can then easily decide whether to buy or not.

Nice purchase for my aquarium, I am happy with it.

Update 18 Jan 2012: I use AA batteries like I've shown in the video. And one full charge of these 2000mAh batteries goes for more than 8 to 10 vacuums of over 10 min each, which I think is really great. And I have upgraded it from 4 star to 5 star as its a great device and I am not bothered by its button as I am used to it now.