How to remove large particle detritus from tank???

[hairyfil]

Hey all,

I have a 240ltr tank with a sandy bottom.

I do regular water changes and manage to keep all parameters nice and low.

I am getting a growing amount of large particle detritus which my syphoning will not pickup. Likely from the drift wood after the plec has munched off pieces.

Against the golden sand it looks terrible :-(

I'm using a syphon that is connected to a tap so that it draws dirty water straight into the sink. It provides quite a lot of suction, certainly more than a gravity syphon but it just isn't pulling out the larger particles. It does get pulled into the tube but just not all the way through to the tubing and out.

I've tried various techniques but to no avail.

I've considered something like the Eheim quick-vac but at $140 that's a large outlay for me - especially if I don't know that it will do the job.

Checking Amazon I see that Hagen/Marina do a cheaper one - but can't find it locally in NZ.

Any thoughts/suggestions?

thanks

Phil

[rabid]

small powerhead with appropriately sized intake nozzle and diy filtersock made of any small netting on the output? isnt that basically one of those 40$ contraptions, only wired?