I know it’s good to dust of your rock work from time to time but I find using a turkey baster extremely tedious. I’m also planning to upgrade to a tank three times the size of my current setup so I’m looking for ways to make maintenance easier.
This morning I had the bright idea to turn an $11 submersible pump into a detritus blaster. I needed to be able to keep the pump submerged, the power cords clear of the water, and preferable my hand out of the tank. Here is what I rigged up:
It worked surprisingly well. I used 1/2" PVC pipe, dry fit a few elbows and a T, and added a couple of zip ties. I held onto the PVC handle, had a nice drip loop outside of tank the cord, and was able to blast all the rocks in just a few minutes. (Public service announcement: be smart about the cord, saltwater water, and only use a GFCI outlet)
Using the Pulaco 95 GPH pump with a few extra pieces of PVC and zip ties it is probably less than $15 to make. If you wanted to get fancy you could spray paint it with Krylon fusion.