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In another thread, it has been postulated that a diatom filter can be effectively used to filter out the free swimming stage of ich, velvet, etc. The poster provided the two links below as evidence to support his theory:
http://aquarticles.com/articles/management/Lawler_Diatomfilters.html
Excerpt:
https://www.lsuagcenter.com/NR/rdon...F6-280F1BA996E2/393/LA_redfish_production.pdf
Excerpt:
I'm taking the opposing view. While a diatom filter may be useful for managing the presence of ich, akin to a UV sterilizer; I don't see how it can possibly remove all of the free swimming parasites from the water before at least one attaches to a fish and the parasite's life cycle begins anew. I also don't see how it can be used to control velvet, due to the sheer number of dinospores (free swimmers) active in the water when velvet is present.
But hey, maybe I'm wrong! With this is mind, I'd like to test a diatom filter's effectiveness out on Marine Velvet Disease. I regularly acquire fish with velvet for experimentation purposes. However, I am lacking in knowledge on how to properly setup & use a diatom for disease control, what size diatom filter to get, how long to treat for, etc. etc. So I am reaching out to anyone who has experience using a diatom filter. I would like to know:
Is a diatom capable of completely eradicating parasites from an aquarium, especially velvet? Or is it just an indefinite maintenance tool (like a UV sterilizer)?
What size diatom filter would I need to treat a test subject with velvet in a 29 gal QT? How long would I need to treat for before the fish could be considered parasite free?
What other diseases is a diatom filter supposedly capable of managing or eradicating? Ich, velvet, brook, uronema, gill flukes, internal parasites, bacterial infections???
Please discuss below!
http://aquarticles.com/articles/management/Lawler_Diatomfilters.html
Excerpt:
In the early l980's I found that diatom filters easily filtered out free-swimming dinospores of Amyloodinium ocellatum, and in my outreach advisory program passed this knowledge on to various aquariums and aquaculture ventures around the country, enabling various facilities to exhibit dinoflagellate-free fish, and to raise redfish, cobia, red snapper, speckled trout, pompano, and other species without worry about deaths from A. ocellatum.
At the Scott Aquarium I used large diatom (swimming pool) filters to effectively control, or eliminate, some bacteria, dinoflagellates, monogenea, copepods, etc. Such filters remove many free-swimming infective stages of various parasites from the tank water before they can attach to their hosts, and when the attached adult parasites on the fish die, the fish are eventually left parasite-free; those parasites that have no free-swimming infective stage, i.e., those parasites that reproduce on, and stay on, the same host are not normally in the water column (off their host) and thus not removed by diatom filtration.
https://www.lsuagcenter.com/NR/rdon...F6-280F1BA996E2/393/LA_redfish_production.pdf
Excerpt:
I'm taking the opposing view. While a diatom filter may be useful for managing the presence of ich, akin to a UV sterilizer; I don't see how it can possibly remove all of the free swimming parasites from the water before at least one attaches to a fish and the parasite's life cycle begins anew. I also don't see how it can be used to control velvet, due to the sheer number of dinospores (free swimmers) active in the water when velvet is present.
But hey, maybe I'm wrong! With this is mind, I'd like to test a diatom filter's effectiveness out on Marine Velvet Disease. I regularly acquire fish with velvet for experimentation purposes. However, I am lacking in knowledge on how to properly setup & use a diatom for disease control, what size diatom filter to get, how long to treat for, etc. etc. So I am reaching out to anyone who has experience using a diatom filter. I would like to know:
Is a diatom capable of completely eradicating parasites from an aquarium, especially velvet? Or is it just an indefinite maintenance tool (like a UV sterilizer)?
What size diatom filter would I need to treat a test subject with velvet in a 29 gal QT? How long would I need to treat for before the fish could be considered parasite free?
What other diseases is a diatom filter supposedly capable of managing or eradicating? Ich, velvet, brook, uronema, gill flukes, internal parasites, bacterial infections???
Please discuss below!