TERA PUMP TRFTCLN Aquarium Gravel Cleaner (BPA Free) Aquarium Sand Cleaner/Water Siphon with Long Nozzle & Water Flow Controller (10-20 Gallon Tank)

This gravel vacuum and tank draining tool is great. It is well made and works well for such an inexpensive product ($13.99 at the time of this review). I’m glad that it is BPA free and safe for my fish. Even though it is made of plastic, it is solid and of good quality. The bulb is easy to hand-pump and gets the water flowing with no further pumping needed after just 3-5 pumps. The suction power is much better than I expected for a product that doesn’t plug in or use batteries. The longer nozzle works very well at getting the “gunk” out of the gravel and rock substrate of my aquariums without removing the fine gravel. It’s pretty cool to see the gravel get sucked up in there a bit and stop well before the strainer area while the “gunk” keeps going through the tube and into the waste bucket. I always use the longer nozzle as I vacuum the gravel every time I do water changes, and I always close the flow controller as far as it can go to allow time to do this. On my larger aquariums, if I finish vacuuming the gravel before enough water has drained, I like that the suction cup can be stuck on the inside of the aquarium to keep draining the water down to the desired level. Once the crimper has been opened up (for draining vs vacuuming), it drains really fast! I have three aquariums of different sizes (6.5 gallon, 60 gallon, and 75 gallon) and it works very well for all of them, minus a few things that would make it even better. I do wish there was a smaller “mini” version of this same tool for my smallest tank, just because this one is kind of large in scale for that tank which makes it harder to maneuver around. Also in my smallest tank, even with the crimper as tight as it will go on the water flow area, it only takes a moment to empty it down to half capacity while vacuuming the rocks. For my 60 and 75 gallon tanks which are 18-21” deep, I could use a bit more length in the longer straight part of the “gravel/sand” nozzle. I have to wear my rubber gloves because I end up with about 3-6 inches of my hand in the water to reach the gravel. In addition, I would love to purchase a longer hose to hook to the waste end of this product under the hand pumper bulb. For my larger aquariums, I have to put my dirty water bucket on top of a high stool to make sure the end reaches into the bucket, otherwise the hose is too short and will get water all over the floor. If someone knows of an extender hose that fits this, I would love to purchase it! It would be amazing to have a 40-50 foot drain hose that reaches all the way outside or to the sink.