Diatom filters really do work!

[JT101]

Hello,

I am the proud owner of a 4 month old AquaPod 24. I have heard both very good as well as quite bad reports about using diatomaceous earth filters on a reef tank. The good reports ranged from water clarity approaching “invisibility” to inadvertent introduction of DE into tanks causing apparent distress to certain corals.

I figured that as long as I prevented the latter from happening that there really couldn’t be anything BAD about a diatom filter. Well, am I glad I tried one!!!

I picked up a Vortex D1 (the old-fashioned “jar” type) this Saturday. I followed the set-up instructions religiously and to the letter (it actually was a lot more work reading the instructions than actually doing them) and set it up. I put the I/O tubes into a vessel that was sitting inside the tank and poured the DE into the container, swishing it around until all the dust was gone from the holding vessel and the water was crystal clear. I then introduced the I/O tubes into my tank and it was all systems go…

I used a turkey baster and a much longer SeaSquirt to blow off all detritus from my LR and man was there a lot of crap on them! The water started off super-yucky, but as the filter churned away I started to see the water clear up. I kept blowing off all the LR and even the very surface of the DSB. Although the filter claims to “polish” the water of a 12 gallon tank in 10 minutes I knew it would take a lot longer for me as I was constantly introducing new colloids into the tank as I kept the blow-off in progress.

Well, after about an hour of this I found that the rock was completely clear of all surface detritus and the water was sparkling clear! As far as the filter canister goes, it started out pure white but by now the filter bag and the DE was covered with this disgusting brown crud! My tank was getting cleaner and cleaner by the minute.

Since I started doing this around 10:30PM on Saturday and was just wrapping things up by around 1AM Sunday I was too tired to break it all down so I decided to leave it on overnight. When we got up on Sunday the tank looked like it had no water in it and the fish were suspended on invisible threads – the water was really that clean! I shut it off, then back-flushed it with hot tap water as the instructions called-out. The crud and “used” DE all came out, and when I took the filter apart it smelled clean with no visible noxious odors. I left everything open to air-dry.

Late yesterday afternoon I did a 40% NSW change with clean ocean seawater I took from an ocean jetty on Fire Island NY at high incoming tide. All my corals are open and full of life, my fish look great and I am very happy with the results.

I highly recommend a diatom filter for the occasional “water polish”. It certainly does exactly what Vortex says it will do.

[AQTCJAK]

Thatis great. Funny that you mention DTE 20+ years ago that was what our filtration systems were on SW tanks. There were very few other viable options to use. The do work very well & as you said the water is really clear. We attually ran the 24/7 back then.

[JT101]

Originally Posted by AQTCJAK

Thatis great. Funny that you mention DTE 20+ years ago that was what our filtration systems were on SW tanks. There were very few other viable options to use. The do work very well & as you said the water is really clear. We attually ran the 24/7 back then.

WOW! !!

24/7??

I wonder if it's OK to do that now? I mean, now that my tank is clean the DE would last a lot longer....

[AQTCJAK]

Does you system have a pressure gauge on it if so thatis how we knew when it was time to back flush.

[ScubaDrew]

Couple Items:

Diatom filters filter down to .08 micron. Small enough to catch the free swimming stage of the ICH parasite! I haven't seen anyone using this in the ICH threads I'm following but certainly catching the parasite in the stage which causes the white spots seems like it would be a great thing to do!

That said this filter will suck up a lot of other good things from your tank! Especially if you are stirring them up into the water column off the rocks. I'm not saying its a bad idea, just playing devils advocate.

Drew

[Frankie]

I think there great clean up filters! 24/7 on a fish only would not trouble me. Reef water on the other hand has a ton of stuff that is needed by corals and inverts. This type of filtration would strip the water column fast starving out the corals and inverts.
But i do like the idea of useing it once and a while for just the reason you used it for.
When i first set up my tank with 200 lbs of live rock it was a mess. The Diatom filter had it spotless in a matter of hours.

[AQTCJAK]

Originally Posted by ScubaDrew

Couple Items:

Diatom filters filter down to .08 micron. Small enough to catch the free swimming stage of the ICH parasite! I haven't seen anyone using this in the ICH threads I'm following but certainly catching the parasite in the stage which causes the white spots seems like it would be a great thing to do!

That said this filter will suck up a lot of other good things from your tank! Especially if you are stirring them up into the water column off the rocks. I'm not saying its a bad idea, just playing devils advocate.

Drew

I never thought about that but you are 100% correct .

[vdituri]

Interesting.....

1 Invivisible water. I like it. When I do my next upgrade I'm lookking for this.
2 Scubadrew is the devil? Huh, who would have known.
It's always the quiet ones.

[AQTCJAK]

Kinda defeats the need for starfire glass

[Frankie]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My Eyes! My Eyes! Lol!