High Tide Aquatics

Recommendation for gravel vacuum

Krustykrab

Supporting Member
Good morning. Does anyone have a recommendation for a gravel vacuum that works well. I just need to clean the silt out of my sump and it is too low to use suction hose.
 
Thanks for the recommendation. I was thinking more of something that would just remove primarily the silt, not partially drain the sump. But I could use it and that would just be my water change.
 
For total sump cleaning with larger debris I use HD bucket vac…
For silt and light stuff I use Maxijet 1200 with vacuum attachment attached to clear tubing going into a sock if no water change or bucket if doing change

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Thanks for the recommendation. I was thinking more of something that would just remove primarily the silt, not partially drain the sump. But I could use it and that would just be my water change.
How big is your sump? I bought one of these on clearance and it has done a decent job at sucking up and filtering out debris in my smaller frag tank. Not a water polisher but it gets the crud out. It does require 12" of water depth to operate so depends on your sump size and water level when turning off the return pump.

For my main sump, which is much larger, when I want to get the detritus out without vacuuming out water, I hang a filter sock in there and have a pump recirculate water through it while another powerhead kicks up all the detritus. I clean the sock as it gets clogged and repeat until the water is decently clear.
 
I recently purchased the Ryobi 18v wet/dry bucket vacuum. It's fantastic! It made quick work of cleaning a sump. Also, the hose is compatible with micro cleaning attachments if you want to target specific areas without taking out large volumes of water.
 
Thanks for the recommendation. I was thinking more of something that would just remove primarily the silt, not partially drain the sump. But I could use it and that would just be my water change.
If you don't want to actually remove water, you can pump the water through a filter sock into a different chamber of the sump.
 
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