Right- I do use the tubing only for water retrieval.. mostly for setting up siphons to fill containers from a stream or spring that may be no more than a trickle. For that use, the longer the better- sometimes there's not much slope, and the lower down the container is below the mouth of the tube, the faster it fills.

Also, though I tried the new, more flexible typpe of aquarium tubing and it does work and packs a little smaller, I found that it was more difficult to anchor the top end in the trickle- I usually just put a small rock on top of it to hold it down into the water stream, but with the flexible tubing, the rock pinches the tubing closed. A minor thing, but annoying.