anyone ever used a diatom filter?

[Borderjumper]

I have a vortex one. I bought it on ebay. It does one hella job of polishing the water. They can be a bear to get started, but after a few times you get the hang of it. LOL first time it pumped my tank full of diatom powder.
The powder starts off sparkling white, and after running it for an hour its totally gungy brown-yellow.

And ya if you get one use the pool filter diatom powder. I happen to have a 50lb bag of it stored in my boiler room.. bring some jars next time and I will give you some.. but be careful with it.. microscopic little jagged sharpies that get in your lungs.

[Snaz]

When I worked at an LFS we had a diatom filter and that thing was AWESOME! It would clear a cloudy tank it minutes. It takes a little practice to not shoot diatomaceous earth all over your tank, probably REALLY bad for coral, but once you get the hang of it it rocks for a quick polish.

The Trick to NOT spewing earth all over your tank is start the pump in a full bucket first then after 30 secs hump the hoses quickly into the tank, opposite ends of course.

[Leah]

Years ago my dad had one and he swears by them. And keeps asking why I don't get one
it really did a hell of a good job. At least on fresh, I vaguely remember it but we had tons
of tanks and cleaning them all was super amazing with the crap it pulled. That I do remember. Good luck with the search!

[BlueAbyss]

I used one a couple times in the old freshwater days... amazing machines, diatom filters. Sparkling water in minutes. I do remember reading somewhere that it can increase silicates though, which can produce a diatom bloom.

[Lance]

I use mine all the time. Got it from mops.ca

[Snaz]

Originally Posted by Lance

I use mine all the time. Got it from mops.ca

Looking at that site I see description that is wrong. You don't want to run these filters full time or it probably will collapse on itself and end the universe in a blink. Seriously these are for polishing only and not meant to be run "full time".

http://www.mops.ca/cgi-bin/SoftCart....8e5+1248803155

[Lance]

Originally Posted by Snaz

Looking at that site I see description that is wrong. You don't want to run these filters full time or it probably will collapse on itself and end the universe in a blink. Seriously these are for polishing only and not meant to be run "full time".

http://www.mops.ca/cgi-bin/SoftCart....8e5+1248803155

When I say I use it all the time I didn't literally mean continuously When I do a water change and siphon off the detritus I stir up the gravel and use the Diatom to clean the water column. Run it for a couple hours after every water change.

[Aquattro]

Christy, check any local stores to see if they have one you can rent. We used to have a store here that would rent it or loan it out as needed, although I thought I heard diatomaceous earth could no longer be bought. Health reasons. I've used one though, and I'd love to have one for emergencies.

[sharuq1]

Try Pisces in Calgary. I think they are on sale right now. Maybe they could ship one to you?

[PoonTang]

Christy. what about using a filter sock in your sump. I used to do that whenever i was going to do some mucking about in the tank or when i was blowing all the crap off my rocks.