Who uses a diatom filter?

Talking about a Dinosaur, I used one in the 1990's. They where known as water polishers, I felt like they cleaned the water too well. They are excellent for swimming pools.
 
I use mine on occasion also. Very effective filter. It will filter out even the smallest particle. If I encounter an outbreak of ich in my QT tank, I use it to help remove the free swimming stage. It also comes in handy when you need to do big time cleaning and don`t what to go through large amounts of water. It is perfect to clean out the dust storm caused in a new tank setup.
 
used mine on sat! i didn't use the powder, just wanted to remove some cyano algae...
 
i used a magnum 350 with a micron filter when i setup my 40g long. i did not use the powder, i was lazy and did not feel like going to the pool store lol

but it worked well.
 
The powder is what actually does the filtering and the powered is composed of diatoms. You coat the filter bag with diatom powder and the shells have tiny holes which end up filtering down to around ~1 micron. When used with a filter, like the magnum micron, you coat the magnum filter element in diatoms and they filter the water of smaller particles than the filter cartridge can, when using filters with diatom powder the filter is only used to hold the diatoms so water can pass through their shells.
 
I have 4 or 5 of them in various stages of rust and out of that I have one that works pretty good and the other one that runs but I have to run it in a bucket. They are constant maintenance nightmares when used in saltwater even though I have some of mine since my freshwater days over 40 years ago. I love the things and don't know how some people run a tank without one. When I get a chance I will completely re design one because I use it a couple of times a year to stir up my gravel. They are extremely efficient but are also extremely badly designed.
It will remove some bacteria and all free swimming parasites that go in it.



 
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It would be nice if someone did a video on how to use them, mine always loses suction can be very frustrating and a PITA but when they work WOW. Mine has the flat gasket model with mason jar.
 
Reefvet said:
Actually they use Diatomaceous earth.
Click to expand...

Sorry I forgot to add fossilized in front of the diatoms comment. I was hoping that would be clear from "diatom powder" as most use the term interchangeably but I guess it wasn't clear.


I ran one years ago and picked up another to use with my reef few months ago, they work pretty slick - clunky and not refined but can't argue with results, I am keeping it well oiled to keep rust at bay - will see how long that lasts. The recharge isn't bad once you have done it a few times.
 
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laga77 said:
I use mine on occasion also. Very effective filter. It will filter out even the smallest particle. If I encounter an outbreak of ich in my QT tank, I use it to help remove the free swimming stage. It also comes in handy when you need to do big time cleaning and don`t what to go through large amounts of water. It is perfect to clean out the dust storm caused in a new tank setup.
Click to expand...
+1... Same here
 
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