# Topfin mini gravel vac



## Punki (Apr 30, 2011)

Does anyone have and use one of these successfully? I was hoping for some good suction but it was barely pulling anything out of the gravel, it mostely just stirred things around. The blue connecter piece that connects the plastic tube with the airline hose seems like it doesnt allow enough water to flow to actually pick anything up, it was so weak that once the airline tubing was covered in water in the bucket the flow would literally stop. My tank was high and the bucket was on the ground with no kinks or anything so im not sure what im doing wrong, but a fish poo shouldnt be clogging the blue connecter, im sure of that, its just so weak. =/


----------



## Kisa (Apr 16, 2011)

I bought that one a few weeks ago and I use it on my 3 gallon. There's not much room with my decoration to get it going so I have to kinda of shake it for about 15-20 seconds before it starts siphoning. I have very little gravel, maybe a fourth of an inch, and it picks up all the gravel fine for me.

I freaked once because it almost sucked up my betta.

What size is your tank?


----------



## Punki (Apr 30, 2011)

My tank is three gallons, a live floating plant i remove and a fake plant i also remove, i just suck to get a siphon going so i dont freak out the fish stabbing at his water its just so weak. I only have about 1/4 inch of gravel in my tank also and it doesn't pull it up at all, i can put my hand on it and feel no suction and watch little poops just float in the vacuum hose. Maybe the blue connecter thing is broken, i know it is siphoning because the bucket does slowly fill up, very slowly.


----------



## GalvatronX99 (May 7, 2011)

I have that gravel vac, and I had the same problem when followed the directions on the back of the cardboard the topfin vac comes with. 

Check this video out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa_440OaQxE&feature=related

You can use the same technique with the mini vac. Doing it this way gets much better suction. My mini vac gets half filled with gravel before it stops if I go too quickly


----------



## Punki (Apr 30, 2011)

Well after checking the blue connecter and poking at it with a skewer a little blue flap slid open, after that i tried blowing into the blue connecter and it was much better airflow, when i tried sucking the little blue thing inside the blue connecter would slide shut. I guess when you loose suction that closes off to prevent water from going back into the tank and mine was stuck slid shut. No wonder it was so weak!


----------



## Littlebittyfish (Jan 5, 2011)

Punki said:


> Well after checking the blue connecter and poking at it with a skewer a little blue flap slid open, after that i tried blowing into the blue connecter and it was much better airflow, when i tried sucking the little blue thing inside the blue connecter would slide shut. I guess when you loose suction that closes off to prevent water from going back into the tank and mine was stuck slid shut. No wonder it was so weak!



That little slide closed on mine the other day too...I was about to make a post here and see if it happened to anyone else and ask why it does that! :lol: 
I have had mine for a few months now and I do love it...It is nice for getting around plants and decorations.


----------



## Punki (Apr 30, 2011)

I vacuumed a bit just to test it and it did pull the gravel up a bit, not nearly as much as in that video above but enough to clean the poo out  After trying three different times to make my own gravel vac im glad to have bought one. Looking forward to the next water change )


----------

