>I was wondering how many of you (especially those with
>several tanks) use a shop vac for cleaning? I'm
>getting one pretty soon simply to make clean-ups
>easier. It's not fun wrangling with the tank to dump
>the bedding into a trashbag.. and it still ends up on
>the floor. :p Do they work ok? A shop vac *can* handle
>the aspen, correct? I've never used one before.
For your money for the versatility, get a QSP-20.
Walmart sells them for about 100-120$. It's a BIG
vacuum, but will hold a lot. Get one of the extra filters
that is 'no change' (a reusable tyvek fiber or something
like that) and tap it out often.
I don't use it around my animals as the noise seems
to scare them. I do use it during the rare mucking
when I have to clean up everywhere as it sucks up
everything with a 2" hose.... (the few times a year
I have 'flooding' because of one reason or another)
I originally bought it for my fish....as it will help suck
up floods, and can even help vacuum out the bottom
of my ponds.
The room the animals use is a concrete floor (painted)
cinderblock walled (painted) basement room that is
partly finished off. A hand whisk broom, a whisk broom
on long handle, and a regular broom (those red and black
angle cut artificial fiber ones) used like religion as I go
help keep the place clean. Plus a weekly start at the
top and sweep everything down to the floor and sweep
that three times to get all the stickie-ons. Monthly it is
take a cotton mop head on a half-handle and do the
walls, and a regular mop and do the floor with bleach
water. All the cage racks are about four inches from
any wall, so I can get in there with the mop or broom.
The thing about a shop vac, is that you can accidentally
suck things you don't want up the thing just like that, and
it would make you feel really bad if you sucked a gerbil.
I have sucked small goldfish into the tank of my QSP-20,
during pond cleans, despite my efforts not to. Gerbils
I don't think would make the trip in very good shape.
You might try a rechargable, cordless, dustbuster, just
for the little bits after changing out all your cages, for
the tidyup.
Get one of those feed tubs with handles that are about
knee high and just as wide. You can put a large garbage
bag OVER that easily, and position it to dump your tank
wherever you want. It has a huge 'mouth' and is easy to
dump into and transport. I have two for trash, they are
very easy to lug up the stairs too. I buy the 39-gallon
bags for them and it works fine. Plus the lip is quite wide
aqnd rolled over, allowing you to rest that tank on it
easier while manipulating.
I have two, and invested in the black rubbery ones from
the feed store as mine get heavy abuse. The more
plastic-y ones would work fine, I used those for awhile.
The black ones are very price-y, but built to take horses
kicking them around and are resistant to something like
that chewing on them.
They aren't as stiff as the plastic-y ones and it's a little
harder to perch something on the the edge though.
How many tanks are you wrangling?
Deb
Rebel's Rodent Ranch
