Review on Fluval 11081 Medium Gravel Cleaner by Tracy Clark

This is the first and only gravel vacuum I own, but if he dies tomorrow I'll probably buy another one. I've had this for about 4 months and have used it probably 5 times. It takes a few blows with the fan to start the flow, but it always starts and the flow is relatively strong. The flow regulator is very handy because when I'm sucking in the sand I don't really want to pull the sand out of the tank, I just want to break it up so some algae get into the sand and down the pipe. When I'm done sand vacuuming and just want to pump the water quickly, I open the flow control all the way and the process goes pretty quickly. There is a strainer at the top of the vacuum tube just before the flow regulator which I assume is what keeps you from sucking the fish out of the tank but I would prefer it wasn't there as you may be sucking in large chunks of it Algae will get stuck in this strainer and will usually fall back into the tank if you break the siphon. You can disassemble the pump and remove the filter, but I haven't tried. The reason I docked it to the star is that the tubing quickly becomes relatively inflexible. My girlfriend and I always do water changes together so it makes the task easy with four hands, but I think when doing the water changes alone it can be difficult to get the hose into the right shape. If you're expecting to be helped with a water change, then that's no problem. The little red clip at the end of the hose can be useful, but it's pretty flimsy. I'm not sure I would rely on it. All in all a great vacuum cleaner at a great price! I think you will be satisfied!