I purchased this to make clean up easier. It’s easy to start but I find it’s too much flow and gravel gets easily sucked up and into the full bucket below. I have to pinch the hose while picking up the gravel. Besides that it was worth the cost and alleviates me from doing a whole tank clean out as often.4 star only because it’s a good siphon, just not for my size tank. The tube and siphon cleans okay but I would not recommend for a 5gallon tank. The tube sucks up gravel every time I do a water change and is just too powerful. I’m always scared it’s going to suck up my betta. If I find a smaller siphon in the future I will probably replace it due to its suction power. Definitely designed for a 10gal or maybe tanks without gravel.Very easy to use, I haven't used a siphon before, and this was really easy to get started. This product says mini, but it takes a lot of water out really quickly, and for a 10 gallon tank, I would prefer if the flow was actually slower (like a thinner hose) because now my water changes end up taking about 30% of my tank before I have to stop vacuuming because that's too much to change at once. (I only have 2 shrimp, but they make a big mess.)Still, it's a good product, I would just recommend it only if you have a tank bigger than 10 gallons, or if your tank is bare/simple floorplan.After asking the local fish store how to use this properly it is mega easy. One hand to hold the vacuum and the other on the hose. Pinch the hose and control the flow and not suck up all your gravel or sand. It works very well and highly recommend! I'm trashing my electric stuff for this!Does it's job so far, easy enough to get the hang of and I was really pleased with the hook it came with! It keeps the loose end in the bucket your draining into which is really helpful and I hadn't even realized how great that kind of thing would be.It sucks all the water out too fastWatch Aquarium Co-op’s video on how to properly use a gravel vacuum if you are confused like I was at first. Now I’ve got the hang of it & love it. I also enjoy the clip that holds the hose in the bucket! Just wish it had a knob/primer that you squeeze for easy start up like some do but I enjoy that these are cheap.I have a 45 gallon tank. I had the large size of a similar brand. For me, the flow was perfect. It didn't suck up too much that it filled the bucket too much too fast.It came 2 weeks early, its amazing, iv got a 5 gallon tank and its perff for it, you can get it in bigger sizes too if you got a bigger tank, its so easy to use aswellI am using this to clean the gravel in my tanks. This is very small so the water flow is slow, which I dont mind, because it gives me more precision and I won't have to worry about the water level getting too low too fast. It's good at sucking up debris. The only problem I have with this is that it is challenging to get the pump started at first. The instructions were unclear but I eventually figured it out. I'm not sure if it is the right way but I fill the entire tube and siphon full of water and then put it into the tank to start the siphoning process. Overall, I like this siphon and will continue to use it, maybe I'll get a bigger one for my larger tank so its less time consuming.Perfect for my 7.5 gallon tank and my first aquarium. I had originally bought a regular sized vacuum but couldn’t figure out how to get it going. Finally decided it’s size wasn’t very practical for my 12x12” tank so I got this 5” vacuum instead and figured out how it worked the first try.I was not prepared for how fast it removed the water from my tank! Only meant to clean up a little debris from my substrate and ended up doing a 25% water change along with it hahah. Still some getting used to. Next time I’ll pay more mind to the flow and make sure to kink the hose a bit for more control.The bucket clip is extremely helpful and I’m glad I didn’t spend any more money on getting some pump to go with it. Once I figured it out, it’s simplicity was enough for me and did what I needed it to.Very easy to use. Don't follow the instructions on the online video. Youtube up Aquarium Co-op who describes perfectly how to use siphons without sucking or any of that nonsense up-down-up-down motion in the instructional video.This works like a charm once used correctly. Out of all my recent aquarium purchases, I think this one was the most surprising on how well it went and how it suited my purposes. Very pleased with it.I bought the mini version. I've had many of these (from various brands) but I've always had larger ones, this is the first mini one I've bought. The larger ones have worked well, but with the mini one it's very hard to not suck up the gravel along with the waste. I'm guessing it's due to the bottom wider part that goes into the gravel being so narrow. You can avoid it a bit by just skimming over the gravel surface, rather than pushing it into the gravel, but then you don't get as much of the waste out. Buying the next size up might have been a better option.