Pennplax Aquarium Air-Vac Gravel Cleaner

The way this works is, you hook it up to an air pump, and when you hold it just right in the water, the air bubbles go up the tube and draw some water with it. The water spills into a filter, collecting the debris.

I bought this hoping I could replace a messy weekly water change with a slow drip, daily water top-offs and regular gravel vacuuming (sort of a poor man's continuous water change system). Unfortunately, this vacuum doesn't provide much suction, so you have to dig the end down into the gravel and try to catch any bits floating away to make this work.

The filter really does catch dirt and debris, but compared to my regular water change kit (the one with a hose that you screw onto a faucet), the process is very slow and not as effective. With the water change kit, the suction is so powerful that it knocks up a cloud of dusty water inside the "vacuum tube". You will get no such satisfaction with this Penn-Plax.

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