TERA PUMP TRFTCLN Aquarium Gravel Cleaner, 10-20 Gallon Tank

I've used this a number of times to do partial water changes in my fish tank. My biggest warning for users of this product is to make sure you use a drain bucket that's bigger than the amount you intend to take out because it can be hard to stop the water flow quickly. Make sure the flow control is adjusted properly, it can drain very fast once it gets going. Was hard to get going at first until i realized you need to quickly squeeze the pump for a little bit befote you get a consistent flow, and then you can let it go. I'd recommend looking up a couple of youtube videos on how to vacuum a tank, there are plenty of videos and the procedure is generally the same with different gravel vacuums. If you have a very active and resonsive fish like I do, keep an eye on him. When the vacuum is in the gravel it wont hurt him but he may swim up to check it out and it's best to just be cautious. I have a betta who is always curious of what's happening. Also, if you plan to remove over half the water I'd recommend temporarily moving your fish to a different tank, just make sure the water in that tank is a similar temperature and ph. Best to just get a small bowl and put some of the old tank water in there, then put him in it while you clean the tank. Overall, good product, best paired with a bucket that's slightly larger than the volume of your tank. When I first used it I drained it into an empty gallon jug and kept having it overflow. I have a 4 gallon tank so I use a 5 gallon bucket just to be safe and leave space for sloshes as I carry it to the sink. If you can't find a bucket big, try a plastic storage bin, that's actually what my bucket is. This product makes water changes and cleaning gravel very easy. I would NOT reccomend this for anyone with a fish in a small bowl, don't use if your tank is less than 4 gallons because it drains water quickly. Overall, it's a good product and fairly easy to use. It might be more difficult if you have lots of fish in a tank, but as a betta owner with a 4 gallon tank, I found this did what I needed it to do.

I purchased this because my other gravel cleaner/water changer, doesn't have a hand pump to start the siphon, that one tends to get pieces of plant matter stuck where the device is narrow at the joining of the tubing and hard plastic piece, and it has low flow/suction power. This vacuums the mulm from my bare bottom breeder tanks quickly, doesn't get clogged with plant matter, and works very well in gravel too. Great for large water changes as it moves a lot of water fast, and has been a huge time saver for me. Since some of my tanks are up high on a rack, I attached a few feet of clear vinyl tubing to the exit end of this so that it reaches the bucket (and I always clamp hoses to the bucket so I don't accidentally pull the end out, that's never fun!). The filter attachment is handy to keep nosy little fish from getting sucked up; but if I clean a fry tank I always make sure to check the bucket before dumping, the filter won't stop tiny fry from being sucked up. You can rubber band a piece of something like nylon pantyhose over the suction end to prevent that, but that's only a useful trick for straight water changes, not vacuuming mulm. Glad I got this, no more sucking on a hose to get the suction started (not all my tanks have enough top clearance to be able to do the fill the nozzle trick), and has significantly shortened the time I spend vacuuming and/or doing water changes. Simple, but very helpful device for aquarium upkeep!

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.

I'm very happy I decided to purchase this pump. My prior cleaner had gotten clogged and mysteriously stopped working after I unclogged it - must have been an issue with the vacuum when I unsealed it to get at the pump mechanism. This one is superior in nearly every way. It works with little effort and the suction mechanism seems less complex (e.g. no small attachments or parts where debris can get stuck). The suction and flow are quite powerful; it fills up a 5 gallon bucket fast. Water changes are a breeze now. My only qualm is that it's a little short for my setup - it probably needs to be 6 inches longer for me to attach it by the suction cup to the inside of my 36 gallon bowfront on a stand to my bucket on the floor. Regardless, it's not difficult to hold on to until I need to get closer to the substrate - I'd probably have to put the bucket on a stool to do that. The upside to it's relatively short length is that it's very easy to empty.

I’m a newbie here. It’s been years since I’ve had a tank, and I just got one a couple weeks ago. I wanted to love this gravel vacuum since it was very well thought out. I loved everything about it, but I struggled to use it. The stiff neck of it was too long for my tank, and the actual hose was too short to reach the tall bucket on the ground. Since my tank is on the kitchen counter, I had a difficult time trying to maneuver my way while holding both ends of the tubing. The pump bulb is down in the bucket, and I couldn’t seem to get the flow to go consistently with my awkwardness of trying to stretch between the bucket and tank. I did love the pictures of instructions (visual learner), and I did love that there were two attachments for a more customizable experience. I liked the flow control slide, but I just couldn’t get it going as it should have. Operator error I’m sure. Maybe this would be more suited for a large tank instead of my small one. I feel like if the bulb was more centralized then I would have had more success with my small tank.

I had been using the other style of siphon for my fish tank for years. You know the one you dip into the water and use your thumb on the other end of the hose and play the game of getting it going? I had actually gotten really good on getting the suction to go on the first try. Anyway, I saw the bulb action on this as well as water flow control and decided to give it a go. Initially it took me about 12 or so squeezes to finally get a sustainable flow going. I thought it looked kind of weak, but water was coming out of my tank and I was able to run over and through my sandy bottom without getting any stuck. I had the valve control off (so wide open) and wondered if this was all the suction I was going to get, if so that's fine because I was able to go over the sand. Then I broke suction, emptied my bucket and started all over. This second time I had full suction and it was very noticeable as the sand clogged it. Oops lol. I tried pinching off the line to get it to drop the sand, but it was stuck in there pretty good, so I ended up breaking suction to finally get it to drop. When I re-established suction I was sure to not stick it directly into the sand without restricting it's flow. Okay, the bucket clip thing....handy kind of. I used it only once and it was weird for me as I haven't had one of those before, so I didn't really like using it but maybe it's an adjustment I need to get used to. I really like the control of getting a siphon going with the bulb. I have a 125 gallon tank and if I want to do a large water change this will make it way easier to establish a stream to run through a garden hose going outside. My other one had to be established and then quickly, yet carefully put into the hose. Odds are water was going somewhere other than in the intended receptacles lol. All around a nice, functional siphon =)

Piece of utter garbage. A gimmicky item that may work well on micro aquaria but is extremely limited in capability for larger tanks. Prior to this, I had been using an Aqueon 10" siphon with bulb. This worked well, though occasionally would clog with plant debris in the one-way valves. This was my setup for about 3 years. Unfortunately one of the one-way valves broke, so I took a chance on this Terapump. Holy smokes, not sure how this has such a high rating. Where to begin? It's tiny. Minuscule. Being so short, I have to get really deep into the 30+ gallon aquaria for cleaning. The plastic feel likes rubbish recycled polyethylene rather than decent polycarbonate. The siphon portion easily flexes and does not filter well on substrate with larger gravel sizes. The gravel pellets get sucked into the mesh housing inside the siphon and block the flow easily. One can adjust the flow rate with a borderline ingenious / hokey device that pinches the tubing, but it doesn't work well in practice. The tubing is also entirely too short for draining a larger aquarium from a stand down to floor level but that's my fault my not taking accurate measurements before ordering. I'm not sure on the quality of the tubing either - it seems like it may break from continued use as it is made of a more brittle (rather than flexible) plastic. All in all? Throwing it in the trash. Not even useful as a gravity drain for performing water changes. I would rather do that with some large diameter tubing which would be faster, cheaper, and store more nicely. This vacuum is cute - but largely impractical. Back to an Aqueon bulb siphon I guess.

This is the best aquarium cleaner I have ever used. Over the last several years I have lost or damaged these before, and I have not hesitated to replace it with the same exact one. I have never had one go bad on me just from normal use. I love the simplicity of the design and how seldom it clogs or stops working. When it does get clogged, I just put some water from my garden hose nozzle through it for about 5 seconds and it is back to new again. I use this to clean my 125gal planted cichlid tank with sand substrate. One thing to note is that I have never really had much success using the large intake attachment to suck up the sand halfway up, cleaning it without removing it. It sort of works for me, but my sand is a mix of coral also and I find either too much is removed or if I turn the flow down it doesn't get the big pieces of poop. But I have found this to be the case with every aquarium cleaner I have ever used, including the Aqueon one I have that attaches to the sink for large water changes. So I just use the small diameter intake tube and regulate the flow with the included "valve". It works awesome. It takes about 10 minutes and 10-15 gallons of water to thoroughly clean the substrate of my 6 foot long tank. I find myself using this small one almost every time, reserving the long sink one for the rare occasions I need to do a water change above about 25 gallons. One negative to me, the outlet hose below the bulb is a little short for my setup. It often would come out of the bucket since my tank is fairly high off the ground. I extended the length with a piece of tubing and now it is perfect.

Awesome

Calidad y funcionamiento

So easy to use. Directuons very clear. Nice suction power that you can adjust with the clamp!

I didn't like that the tube was split and therefore product would not work. Check photo and compare to what I received with product that was being sold not the same. The length of tube was 60 inches not 120 as advertised.

Great upgrade from my cheap chinese one but the lenght of it all is very SHORT! It's hard to do a simple water change on my 40 gallons because the hose is not long enough to reach the floor... I really wish that it was longer so I could use the clamp accessory; now I have to hold the hose until it's done... I'm a bit disappointed.