What's the deal with gravel cleaners?

The ones in the shops cost a fortune - sometimes £16 or more - for something that is just essentially a plastic tube.

Here's how to make your own, and with whatever length hose you want.

Take a plastic bottle and cut it in half, or just a little bit closer to the mouth end (so slightly less than half).


Cut a length of garden hose to a desired length. Use duct tape and tape the bottle to the hose, and tape the cut end of the bottle. Taping the cut end of the bottle is so that the sharp edges don't hurt the fish when you use the wider end to clean out the gravel.

If you want to, you can buy a pump to start off the pumping process. This is available from any large fish shop.

This pump is not strictly necessary - this rubber one I got cost about £3. You could just get around it by filling the hose with water then closing off both ends. When you bring the gravel cleaner to the Biorb put the bottle end in the Biorb (this needs to be higher), and the other end in a bucket (this needs to be lower), and the water should automatically start flowing out of the Biorb into the bucket.

If you had the pump, you won't need to play around with filling the hose with water so it just makes it a bit more convenient.

Here we go, the finished product....

....and should you switch to a larger aquarium in future or need a longer hose, you just cut a longer piece of hose and attach the bottle and pump to that longer hose.

A much more environmentally friendly approach.