NICREW Electric Aquarium Gravel Cleaner - Automatically Remove Debris from Your Tank

Steve P.: New to aquariums, and I bought a used one already with gravel and fish. Tried a suction vacuum, and just didn’t work for me. This thing worked great. Gravel was very very dirty, and I rinsed the filter out three times. I really like this, and since it’s so easy to use compared to the non electric units, I will use it often. I recommend.

United States on Oct 04, 2023

Dave: Trying to clean the sludge in the rocks has always been difficult. By the time a small area is clean it's time to refill the water. I gave this a try. It works okay, but it took several hours to get to the whole tank, because I kept waiting for the fine sediment to settle/filter through my canister. What does settle coats everything, requiring another pass. It works, but takes patience. The suction is okay, but honestly any greater suction and more of the finer gravel will get sucked into the motor.

The bad: As expected, you have to stop and clean the filter a lot. I don't think there is a way around it. Worse, though, the unit just hums sometimes when you turn it on. You have to remove the plastic collar and manually spin the rotating fin, reassemble then try again. This is clearly a quality issue, and I'm sure in the near future it just won't spin anymore. For that reason, the price is a bit high.

Bottom line is it does what I need it to do, but the poor build quality will result in it not lasting long.

United States on Jan 30, 2023

Sarah Fraley: Works well. It is a little messy when using the vacuum option, as the water comes out of the filter area and just kind of rolled down and got all over my arms and hands. But it works well for what it is supposed to do. My only regret is that I got it for a 5 gallon square tank, and this is a little large. It does the job for partial water changes and keeping the gravel clean, but a smaller one would have sufficed. I would say that for larger aquariums, this product would be great.

United States on Jan 12, 2023

Wendy J. Goodman: It's always frustrated me that I could never seem to really vacuum the gravel in my aquariums well because the water level would drop too much before I could do a thorough job. I never felt like I was really able to get all of the muck out that I could, even with weekly water changes. And while I was intrigued by the Fluval, I just couldn't bring myself to cough up $70+ for one. When I saw the NICREW, it seemed like a good option. I took my time and checked out a few reviews and figured that I could always return it if it didn't work.

Out of the box, the device was easy to put together and I immediately set out to test it and do a quick cleaning of my gravel in the two tanks. While the suction wasn't enough to eat up my gravel, the amount of muck that came up in just a few minutes was amazing. And as expected, the water got a little cloudy afterwards, but I had been warned that this would happen. Cleaning the filters was pretty easy and it looks like using the device for water changes will be equally simple. Will probably add a bit of filter floss to see if that can help with the post-vacuum cloudiness but it's not that big a deal. It might not be the very best vacuum, but...

United States on Oct 04, 2022

Flute Teacher: Just received mine tonight and used it right away. Easy to put together and take apart. Great suction for the first two minutes, then the screens were clogged and water sprayed everywhere! The wall, the floor, me. I had to stop and clean it every five minutes. I only have a 15 gallon tank and got it about half done. I'm a bit disappointed it only goes for 3-4 minutes at a time. Be sure to keep a bowl or bucket close at hand and a big towel. I'm going to leave it for now and see how the new filter works at cleaning up what was stirred up but I couldn't get at tonight. It is easier than running hose all across the room to the tap and having the end pop off the tap. I guess we have to get used to getting wet if we enjoy our fish. On the third try I did get the hang of covering the top of the screen with my hands to stop the worst of the spraying. Good value for the money

Canada on Nov 23, 2020

MelanieMelanie: I couldn't wait to get my vacuum cleaner, thinking I was going to save a lot of time cleaning my aquarium. When I received it, I was eager to try it out: I had such a bad time!

First of all, the device is really too long for a 15 gallon aquarium! Secondly, I have very fine sand and even with extra care, a phenomenal amount of it got caught in the filter. Another worry is the water that comes out of the filter to fall back into the tank. It splashes a lot and I didn't like it. Finally, the hose that can be used as an extension, got stuck in the other hose... impossible to unblock it.

After all that, it was as much a mess in my aquarium as it was on my floor. In the end it didn't save me any time, quite the opposite. I returned the article.

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J'avais hâte de recevoir mon aspirateur en pensant que j'allais sauver un temps fou pour le nettoyage de mon aquarium. Lorsque je l'ai reçu, je me suis donc empressée de l'essayer: comme j'ai eu de la misère!

Premièrement, l'appareil est vraiment trop long pour un aquarium de 15 gallons! Deuxièmement, j'ai un sable très fin et même en faisant mega attention,...

Canada on Nov 05, 2020

Glenn P.: Using this cleaner on my Axolotl tank which is a bare bottom tank. Suction is ok at the start of cleaning and picks up large and medium size waste quickly but smaller stuff takes awhile. Have not used it with a gravel or sand substrate tank so can't comment on if suction is better or worse. I know compared to using my Python water change system for weekly water change and cleaning, this device does not compare . The biggest issue I have is once the screen starts to plug up with waste the water coming out of it now starts to "shoot out" instead of dribbling back down into the tank. If you aren't paying attention you can spray water all over the outside of the tank. This requires you to stop , clean the filter and start over (if you haven't cleaned enough before it plugs up). Another issue is when you are done cleaning and lift it out of the tank it continues to drain water for quite some time. Move it a bit and more water comes out and on your floor. So a bucket near where you are working as well as a power outlet nearby are required. The power cord is a nice long length on the plus side. I would but this item again for spot cleaning but it's not likely to replace siphon cleaning...

Canada on Sep 06, 2019

Mr Ross: Excellent product. Mostly use on an overstocked, underplanted fluval spec 5 gallon. It is too big for this tank, but it gets the crap out. Excellent suction power. Filter is washable and reusable infinetly as it is just a super fine nylon (I think) screen, not foam or carbon etc. They provide 2 replacement screens if needed, but I do not imagine ever needing this.

Since it is just recycling the water back into the tank, and the filter is a simple screen, not a fuggin brita, yes your tank may get a little cloudy immediately after use, but 20 minutes later mine was as clear as before once the dust settled, minus the considerable pile of crap it managed to filter out. Id say the filter captures 85% of the sediment filtered through, only the finest pieces making it back into the tank.

Really an impressive tool for the price. I had a battery powered fluval vac prior to this, it was soooo weak, the fact it is corded clearly adds to the strength and consistency of the suction. Way better than expected. Able to do the cleaning in 1/5 the time it took with the fluval.. wow..

Only issue with this thing is linked to the messyness while using. Since my tank is quite...

Canada on Aug 26, 2019

gardenhogardenho: This is one handy little unit, so glad I purchased for turtle tank maintenance. I cannot speak for gravel filtering ability as I don't use it for that but it is excellent for sucking dung & chunks of shed turtle shell at the bottom and using to empty/refill for water changes. I put a tall flower vase on the floor next to the tank to store this in, works great and keeps it handy for use whenever I need it!

At first I was disappointed thought it didn't have all that great a suction power but the problem was the water level. It needs to cover the vents at the base of the unit or it cannot suck like it should and will gurgle with too much air. Get it under the water and wow, picks right up! Can't recall if description says gph on its suction ability but it hums right along with plenty of power for the job during water changes. I added photos, the one showing the black section above the suction tube with holes mid-way...those are the holes that need to be under water level for good suction.

It is a tall unit, not meant for small tanks, best with deeper tanks. Mine is 21 inches deep, filled to about 14 or 15 inches and I think that is about as shallow as I can get away...

Canada on May 01, 2019

LegoDad: The media could not be loaded.  I've got a betta tank I've had for a few years. I have used up to this point a small squeeze suction thing for water changes, that can pull some stuff off the surface of the stones, but doesn't do much for under the stones. I wanted to finally get a good cleaning. Since this is just an 8.8 gallon tank, even a normal gravel cleaner, I'd run out of water before I got almost anything done.

I didn't know there were ones like this that recirculated the water back in, allowing you to clean fully without dropping the water level, so I got this and tried it this morning.

And LOVED it. Totally and completely.

First, my advice - start at the back edge of the tank, since as the water clouds, it'll be harder to see. I started at the front so before I hit the half way point it was already too cloudy to finish easily that far. Had I started at the back, the cloudy water wouldn't have mattered.

Cord is more than long enough, and it has an extension for even deeper tanks. I was worried the water would come out under pressure, since this wouldn't submerge in my shallow tank, but it doesn't, it just trickles out as you can see in my...

United States on Apr 14, 2019