Aqueon Aquarium Fish Tank Water Changer With 25 Foot Hose

UPDATED May 2015- STILL GOING STRONG- This unit is still working as well as it did to begin with. I expected it to break well before now! -------------------------------------- UPDATED JAN 2014- I have used this for a year now and it is still working great- I have done water changes up to four times a week with this unit and all is working. It is not made to last for YEARS but it sure has held up well for me so far! For deep cleaning I use hand siphon pumps once a month or so, or if a tank gets infected with anything. ================================================================= I was not sure what to expect when I read the conflicting reviews of this water changer. I was afraid it would never work, so I put off buying it. When I hurt my back badly from lifting water, I had to do something, so I finally caved and purchased it. WHY didn't I do this SOONER? I have used this unit daily for several weeks. I had a tank that demanded daily water changes due to sudden spikes after it had been balanced for a while. Here are my observations: 1. Measure the distance from your sink to the farthest point on the farthest tank before you buy. I should have purchased the 50ft hose instead of the 25 which is just a hair too short. The extra hose will not affect the vacuum pressure that much if you have way too much. 2. If your sink is rather new, it will most likely fit. Older fixtures might need an adapter 3. The plastic screw in part which hooks up the sink to the hose is plastic. If you go slowly and carefully screw it in, it should work. If you are in a hurry, you could easily cause the threads to smash and make it unusable. 4. If you allow plenty of hose, the suction and water will still work if you have decent water pressure. MAke sure not to let the hose bend at the vacuum end or it will weaken the hose. 5. The suction is almost perfect- a bit weaker than using a hand pump, but it does allow the fish time to escape if necessary and will take up food and waste if you are patient. If you really need to get some stuff out fast, use a hand pump for that. It isn't that big of a problem for me. 6. When you are done vacuuming, coil the hose up around your arm as you approach the sink and it will empty out perfectly. Then when you turn on the water with the vacuum switch off, then you can simply walk back into the tank area and start over. When you are done there, walk over to the sink, reverse back to vacuum, and coil the hose again and it will empty as you coil it and then tie it and put away. 7. When changing from vacuum to water depositing, hold the tube up out of the water, or you will eject a sudden loud burst of air and freak out the fish and stir the tank way up. 8. If you need brass fittings, I found one on ebay and I think you can get them at Aqueon itself too. It is worth the extra money to have it as a backup. 9. I don't view it as wasting water to run the vacuum- it allows the warmer water to come up all while providing suction. Then when I am ready to deposit water, it is about the right temp and I don't have to wait. 10. This is one of the best things I ever invested in. If you take the time to work out a rhythm it works beautifully. 11. You can also use a 2nd hose at the bottom of the unit at the sink to drain out the water into plants in the summer, or gardens close to the house. You just unscrew the bottom and can put another hose on there too if you decide to try it. You will need another adapter to do this, however. That way you are not wasting water in summer time, which if you have a well or live in an area with limited water some years can be a concern. I can not recommend this highly enough. It could be made a little bit better or sturdier, but Aqueon has been good on other products to replace things if they break too early, so I would not hesitate to contact them. They just need a receipt as proof of purchase.

Okay, I really needed help with my endless task of tank cleaning. I have a 44 deep gallon tank with 3 large fish (1 is a large goldfish cross, and produces lots of waste). I have a Marineland 200 carbon filter with a long tube to clean the water, but the filter gets plugged about every 2 days. I also have a Diatom system(which i highly recommend to clean the water effortlessly; hook up and use once per month or so, but it does not clean the gravel). For 8 years I used the manual gravel cleaner with the large buckets of splashing water and still the gravel was excessively dirty. Huge pain so it did not get done that often. I saw one like this at Petsmart, and decided that i just need to spend the money and finally get this. I really liked it! It really does work! Yes, the siphon is not that strong, but the flip side is that if it was stronger, maybe the sink would overflow (I used the bathroom sink, and did have to watch for overflowing, especially if you have a slow draining sink). But it did not overflow. Yes, lots of water does come down out of the valve and goes down the drain, but you only clean the tank this way maybe 3-4 times per year, so what is several gallons extra each time. You turn on the water to the right temperature, turn on the valve, and it starts to suck up gunk and swirls the gravel around. Then when the tank is getting too low, you switch the valve (i did find it useful to have a second person, in my case my 6 yr. old son helped me) so that i did not have to dry my hands every time to flip the valve. I also made sure to add the water decloronizing drops as i filled up the tank just in case, rather than waiting till the very end, which i guess you can do to, depending on the length of cleaning time. I went back and forth, removing and adding till it was done. The tank came out sparkling clear! I removed tons of yuck! I added conditioning salt and more decloronizing drops and walla! Took about 30 minutes. And hopefully my filter wont plug every couple of days anymore, those filters are not cheap! Oh, It does come with a sink adapter, which did work on my kitchen sink (Moen, just remove the strainer). But the 25' was not long enough so I used my bathroom sink instead. Those are always smaller around, so you will have to buy a $6 adaptor, which I got at Home Depot (faucet adaptor, in my case a 3/4" female adapter. Just take your faucet strainer and the sink adapter part to Home Depot and they should have the part in stock). I know everyone says this, and so am I because I really do mean it.."I wish I had spent the money before and done it this way". You really need to try this type of vacuum system! ( I think Lee's Ultimate Gravel Vac is identical to this too).

Cumple muy bien, y pude cambiar la anterior la cual se quebró, cuidaré más el manejo de esta pieza pues es frágil.

Good quality

What a great product! No mess, no carrying buckets! Works just like its suppose to, the faster you run the tap the more suction to clean the gravel etc... Wish I had found this years ago. Works awesome.

Best thing I've ever bought for my aquarium. I would recommend this as it makes the water changing so easy. Tips: After you start the syphon process release the water changer from your sink and put it somewhere else to drain (a.e. shower , outside...) so you save water. If not you'll take the water from the tank but in the same time you'll consume a lot of water from the sink that goes down the drain. Per total I'm a very happy chappy with my new water changer.

I knew I wanted the Aqueon version, not some rubbish, but I also knew from past experience that my mixer taps are never compatible. So I bought a cheap 3/4" adapter for the Universal tap adapter I already had. (Yellow bits in photo) Works like a dream. On full blast, this empties my 135l in minutes! Fills just as fast, and my mixer taps mean I can control the temperature of the water.