the best way to vaccum a tank

Question
Hi, i was wondering if u could give me some tips on how to best vaccum my fishtank. i bought a vaccum yesterday (is a hose with a plastic nozzle on one end) and the lady at the store said you just suck on one end and get the flow going. well i dont know why but i assumed for some reason that the water wouldnt go with it since it didnt show the water reduction on the illustrations that were on the box.. my main focus while trying the vaccum is getting the dirt and stuff to come out and then when i look in the bucket to notice my progress i see that there is a BUNCH of water there too so i look back in the tank which is now half emtpy..(being pesimistic there). anyway i just thoguth that was a big shock since it went so fast! im never gonna be able to vaccum the tank and get all the dirt before the water runs out.. what do i do? please help me! the tank that i have is about 10 gallons and it ran out fast!

Answer
Dear Camillia,
I wouldn't suck on one end to get siphon started.  Sometimes you risk getting bacteria in your mouth from the aquarium, and sometimes even mold from the hose! The lady at the petstore should have known better. All siphons can be started by sinking the vacummn tube into the water until all the air is out, then rapidly shake the tube up and down without spooking all the fish, as long as the tube is still filled with water the siphoning effect will start--no sucking at all.

Your problem may be that you have too large a siphon. Of course, large hoses will siphon water very quickly. Sometimes too fast as you have seen. You'll have to be quick but quiet in not to spook the fish too much with any siphon, but with small aquariums you're better off getting a very small one which has a slower but good flow and is best suited to small aquariums that could be drained too fast by medium size/larger siphons.

A smaller siphon is definately much better and you'll have better luck I'm sure.

I really hope this helps!
Best wishes and happy aquarium cleaning!
Karen~