water polishing

[CoralKing]

There are always suspended particles in my display tank that seem to keep recirculating. The overflow does not seem to trap these. Has anyone used Marineland's HOT Magnum filter (to polish their water)? It comes with a micron cartridge and I'm wondering if this will help remove the suspended particulates.

Thanks

 

[Ti]

I use it, it's pretty good.

 

[Fishbulb2]

You could use a filter sock also on your return. For micron powerfilters I would highly recommend the Vortex filter line. They are designed as true diatom filters and are much better than the marineland in that regards. The marineland micron cartridges are expensive and have a very finite lifespan. Vortex filters use diatamaceous earth which is about $10 for 50lbs or so at HD. It's a lifetimes worth. Vortex filters are also as cheap as Magnums so you should really consider them. Typically they are just not recommended for continuous use but I would just use it for a few hours a week anyways. You will be very pleased with one if you try it.
FB

 

[CoralKing]

Thanks for the info thus far. Would running a diatamaceous filter (or any micron filter) reduce any beneficial populations of bacteria, etc?

Thanks

 

[glparr]

I use the Magnum HOT and like it. It's very easy to set up and clean and quite versatile. You can use the micron filter (easily cleaned by soaking in a bleach solution per instructions) or the foam filter and carbon or some other filtration media. I've had mine for several years without performance issues. The small/thin O rings will get brittle and break but that's the only problem I've had and that's expected, especially with salt water. I now coat them with vaseline which seems to help. Though it's not recommended, I have used diatomaceous earth with my Magnum and it worked beautifully. Cleanup was a pain, but that's the case with any DE filter.
Gary

 

[Fishbulb2]

Probably some extent. People sometimes say the same thing about filter socks. It's pretty much just opinion at this point though since there's never really and "research" to speak of. It you have a lot of filter feeders for example you may not want to do it. I wouldn't worry about it personally. Just do it only when you feel you can't take the sight of all the sediment anymore. I just think the if water polishing is your goal, the the Vortex filters are just much better at it. My guess would be that if you only did it occasionally, any populations of plankton and bacteria would just proliferate and restock.
FB

 

[CoralKing]

Did the micron filter (alone) produce a noticable difference compared to when you used it with DE powder?

Thanks

 

[Ti]

magnum is easier to set up

 

[Fishbulb2]

There is no doubt at all that the magnum is going to get far more votes than the Vortex DE filter because it is about 100X more popular. It's designed for continous use and so it's far more appealing as a standard canister filter. I like magnums enough and have owned a few. They're decent canister filters. But they aren't in the same league as a true diatom filter for water polishing. The Vortex is trivial to set up for DE and you don't even have to disassemble it to clean it. You just back flush out the powder. The magnum is a pain in the A$$ with DE. It depends what you want to do with this thing. If it's just to have a cannister filter, definitely get the magnum. If you are going to use it intermintenly anyways and want a real micron filter, DE is the way to go. And Vortex makes the cheapest, longest lasting units around. They great to have on hand no matter what kind of tanks you own. I use them on fresh and saltwater.

FB