Reef nutrition

Diatom Filter

Bruce Spiegelman

Sponsorship, Public Relations
BOD
Again after the talk with Rich Ross last Saturday I started researching a number of things. One of them was the idea of a diatom filter (although he didn't specifically discuss one) to filter out among other things the ich trophozoite. He indicated that proper sized UV sterilizers are effective and that a filter that has a small enough micron size.

Enter the Diatom filter which is something I used on Discus tanks back in the 70s. While they are finicky and a bit of a pain to clean Marineland does seem to make a canister that works as a Diatom filter for around $50.00.

Anyone have any experience with any Diatom filter? Of course the side effect would be the clearest water ever....
 
That would be Geppetto.

The last diatom filter that I used were the Vortex line from back in the days when I had my altums. Great for polishing out the water when needed.
 
Having used a diatom filter on a pool long ago -- I would advise against this for ich!!
It is very hard to get perfect coverage and distribution of the media.
For normal filtration, it is good enough. But you can easily get small holes/regions where water tunnels through.
So for ich, I would not risk it.
 
Having used a diatom filter on a pool long ago -- I would advise against this for ich!!
It is very hard to get perfect coverage and distribution of the media.
For normal filtration, it is good enough. But you can easily get small holes/regions where water tunnels through.
So for ich, I would not risk it.

Curious why. They were used for years with freshwater aquariums. Even if you get small regions where water tunnels through you're still filtering most of the water down to one micron and it seems you'd flter out the bulk of the free-swimming ich and lessen an outbreak. Basically the same way a UV sterilizer lessens an outbreak? Or am I wrong on this?
 
Well UV filters can be plumbed as permanent fixtures or hang on tank, and you get continuous zapping if you want to run it all the time... diatom filters clog and have to be back flushed, and during the low-flow times when it is clogging and you are taking it offline for manual back flushing you lose some of the effectiveness. In my experience all that back pressure and flushing create an unstable, messy plumbing situation. However your water will be clear you won’t know there is water in the aquarium. I would think the UV would be much lower maintenance and better long term solution overall.


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Curious why. They were used for years with freshwater aquariums. Even if you get small regions where water tunnels through you're still filtering most of the water down to one micron and it seems you'd flter out the bulk of the free-swimming ich and lessen an outbreak. Basically the same way a UV sterilizer lessens an outbreak? Or am I wrong on this?

I misunderstood the intent. If it is to get some percentage of the ich trophonts, and reduce outbreak, it would be fine.
If it is to get 100%, then I say it is a problem.

The issue:
Water likes to go through the path of least resistance. So if you get an area with little DE coverage, the water likes to go through there, and not
through the DE. So a disproportionate amount is not being filtered, and "some" ich would get through.
But it is not like filter is completely ineffective.
 
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