Marina Easy Clean Gravel Cleaner

I bought this locally to clean my 125 gallon community tank and it performs every bit as well as I could have expected. Despite my thinking it was hokey, the self priming feature works quite well and I definitely enjoy it. I was previously used to various cleaners that employed a round final tube but I've found the oval shape on the Hagen to be quite handy especially in a heavily (silk) planted tank like mine. The oval shape allows me to get into nooks and crannies the the standard round tubes wouldn't. The gravel/fish guard employed at the junction of the final tube to flexible tube is both reassuring and handy. The materials seem to be quality and I feel they will go the distance which leads me to say I'd definitely buy this again and won't hesitate to recommend it to friends. Highly recommended.

I bought this to clean out a one gallon tank that has 2 snails in it. I found it very hard to get started, as the instructions say to move the tube up and down rapidly, and that the water will start to siphon. I tried this for a long time, and could not get it to do more than a few seconds of dribble. But I went on youtube and found instructional videos from other people who are familiar with these siphons. I tried the same technique again after watching them do it, and I moved a tank decoration out of the way to give myself some more space. I got it to work within 30 seconds! With such a small tank, the water level was draining low quickly (snails don't mind too much, but don't do this with fish). It vacuumed up a lot of debris, but I did not have enough time to get all of it, before I was dealing with too low of a water level. All that moving it up and down stirred up a lot of mess, but I think now that I have the idea, I can do this every couple weeks until I am satisfied that I have gotten most of the mess out of there. I added in some fresh water to replace what was removed, and all done. Overall, I was pleased with how it worked, once I got it going. If you are not getting a rapid flow, and not picking up gravel (which falls back down into the tank), then you don't have it working right. Keep trying, and watch a video or two.

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Works well for my 10 gallon. I just place a bucket on one end and place the tube in the tank. By suctioning some sand, you'll be able to clean the 'gravel' or sand in my case.

Sometimes it doesn't always work that well but for the most part, its great for water changes and mild seafloor cleaning.

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I should have listened to the other reviews complaining about the lack of power.

What it really boils down to (IMO) is that the valve is poorly designed. It relies on the grate to be perfectly tight in order to prevent backflow. Gotta check that grate before every water change!! Even when the valve is working, it is very difficult to start via any of the three common methods.

Another major flaw is the lack of an angle at the input end. I find there is no effective suction until the entire oval is pressed against the gravel surface, which is difficult when there is no angle.

Lastly, the large diameter hose pulls water way too quickly. The combination of no angle with large hose turns this is a rapid siphon. This leaves me rushing to clean what I can before the bucket is full.

Perhaps I got spoiled with my old Fluval vac, but its smaller hose gave me plenty of time to dig around and loosen detris. Too bad they don't make a longer one. My hunt for a good 24" gravel vac continues.

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It was my first time using a gravel cleaner and due to some boy, I was not given the packaging or instructions. Of course said boy could not get it to work properly, blaming improper instructions. ANYWAY, a simple YouTube search yield a variety of results and after a few minutes, I got the technique down and water was flowing. There is a small learning curve for first-time siphon users. To get most of the crap (and I do mean crap) out from the gravel, giving the gravel a nice stir is helpful to release all the nasty things that have sink in over the course of the week(s). Right after you're done (or as done as you want to be), the water is going to be quite murky until everything is settle again. Do keep in mind, this is to help vacuum stuff out from the gravelit will never be 100% clean (unless you start fresh but that is not necessarily good for your aquarium & its inhabitants). Its able to suck up a lot of particles and poo. It does not do so well with bits of fish parts (I have turtles. They eat fishes. Turtles can be messy eaters). My aquarium is cleaner, water cleaner, and turtles are probably happier. yay.

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