Make Your Own Gravel Vacuum for Your Aquarium

A very handy piece of aquarium equipment is a gravel vac. They are useful for getting debris out of the gravel at the bottom of your tank. But they can be expensive, so I'm going to show you how to make a gravel vac for a very little sum!

What you will need:

-Some plastic tubing, not to long, about a metre or so.
-A Coca-Cola bottle or something like it.

Step 1: Get Some Plastic Tubing

Get some plastic tubing. My local aquarium shop had some that I presume was for filters. He gave me some for free. It needs to be about a metre long, or about 3 feet.

Step 2: Find a Coke Bottle

Find a coke bottle and cut it around the part near the bottom of the label, or a little lower or higher depending on the size of your aquarium. Don't discard the bottle lid, It is useful for the next step!

Step 3: The Dangerous Part. Cutting a Hole in the Bottle Lid.

Warning. I take NO responsibility if you hurt yourself while doing this step.

You will need to mark the size of the tubing on the top of the lid, and make a hole with a sharp knife. Kids, ask your parents to do this for you. Maybe, you have a drill bit that can do the work for you. I cant stress this enough, be careful when performing this step!

Step 4: Screw the Cap Onto the Bottle.

Its nearly done. Screw the cap onto the bottle, and you will have something that closely resembles a Gravel Vac that you would buy from the shops, for a few dollars!

Step 5: Try It Out.

Go to your aquarium and put a bucket on the floor in front of the aquarium, place the Gravel Vac into the aquarium, and try to get all the air bubbles out of the inside, I suggest putting it in horizontally and tilting it up to remove them. Then, go to the opposite end, place it over the bucket, and suck until water flows out. There! You now have a functioning gravel vac!