Ancient Mariner Gravel Vacuum

[Frankr409]

I have been waiting a month to use this vacuum, but man was I impressed with how effective this is at cleaning the gravel.

After greasing up all the o-rings, and assuring a proper tight seal everywhere, I was off to the races.

Except for one fish, who showed his dissaproval for the intervention, the other discus could have cared less. Some of them picked at the siphon tube.

The unit is very quiet in operation as well, you hardly know it is on.

I put the tank back together, and left the lights off for a little while, and afterwards fed them black worms and some blood worms and everybody is happy again.

Here is the unit: http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=15484

I can highly recommend this product.

[csarkar001]

have been looking at this for a while but was waiting for a review. thanks much! a few questions:

1> how bad do you expect maintenance to be? do you have to clean it after every use?

2> do the instructions say to grease the seals before first use or did you just not want to take any chances?

3> did you need any accessories? exactly what do i need to order?

4> what kind of power does it have? do you think it could handle a 6 ft tank?

thanks,
chandan

[Frankr409]

have been looking at this for a while but was waiting for a review. thanks much! a few questions:

1> how bad do you expect maintenance to be? do you have to clean it after every use?

2> do the instructions say to grease the seals before first use or did you just not want to take any chances?

3> did you need any accessories? exactly what do i need to order?

4> what kind of power does it have? do you think it could handle a 6 ft tank?

thanks,
chandan

1. The unit looks complicated, but is EXTREMELY easy to maintain after each use, and you will want to maintain it after each use.
2. I think I will grease the seals each time, but in reality all the gaskets are set into place, and you do not need to take them out. Just grease around them. I have a nice grease from home depot, or petro-jelly, etc.
3. You only really need the unit itself, they list a lot of extra stuff, but you will not need it to get cleaning.
4. My tank is also 6 feet long 3 feet deep, the suction power is amazing.

I should add also that ZERO junk returns to the tank, the pleated filter traps it all. Incredibly enough, about 3 minutes rinsing the filter and it was whiter than snow. I doubt you will be dissapointed if you purchase one.

I would recommend watching the video that they provide on CD with the unit once, and then once, step by step as you are preparing to clean the tank. These guys did this thing first class.

[csarkar001]

much appreciated. the unit is on back order but as soon as they have them in, i'm going to get one.