Diatom filters, anyone?

[Jongalt26]

The man The Myth The Legend, Paul B, was the one who told me that there is a difference between pool grade and food grade. Here is the response to my question if the vortex DE was required or if i could use food grade (which is less expensive and easier to find)

Food grade diatom powder is different. But you can use swimming pool powder which is very cheap. Make sure it has no additives in it.
Food grade powder is not porous and doesn't work. I have a bunch of it and water wouldn't go through it. It is for human consumption and a different product.

Thanks,
jason

 

[mcarroll]

For those wanted to get the marineland filter there is a 10 dollar mail in coupon out.

http://www.tetra-fish.com/~/media/UPG/AquaticRebates/MagnumPIRebate2017.ashx

Awesome find!

 

[jason2459]

The man The Myth The Legend, Paul B, was the one who told me that there is a difference between pool grade and food grade. Here is the response to my question if the vortex DE was required or if i could use food grade (which is less expensive and easier to find)

Food grade diatom powder is different. But you can use swimming pool powder which is very cheap. Make sure it has no additives in it.
Food grade powder is not porous and doesn't work. I have a bunch of it and water wouldn't go through it. It is for human consumption and a different product.

Thanks,
jason

No pool stores around you? I got a huge bag from a local pool store many years ago really pretty cheap. I transferred the contents of the bag into a couple 5 gallon buckets and will last me forever. It was like $25 or just slightly over for a 25lbs or 50lbs bag. It was pretty big I remember that. Even had some left in the bag that didn't fit in the 2 5 gallon buckets.

 

[Jongalt26]

Thanks Ed!

 

[Lowell Lemon]

Aquarium products sold a System One Pressure Filter that would hang on the tank. It was a DE filter and was much easier to use than the Vortex. Maybe someone has a few of those hanging around. Anyone?

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Great discussion!

 

[mcarroll]

Aquarium products sold a System One Pressure Filter that would hang on the tank. It was a DE filter and was much easier to use than the Vortex. Maybe someone has a few of those hanging around. Anyone?

I remember really wanting to try these....they had one of the only purpose-built RFUGF systems too as I recall.

Sadly I think they shook out of the industry around/before 2000.

 

[Paul B]

I don't know how people keep a tank without one of these things. But then again I don't understand a lot of things people do in this hobby.

 

[reefwiser]

I like to use one when I am working in the tank cleaning or killing things. SPS are so touchy with changes in water quality it saves your but sometimes.

 

[Jongalt26]

No pool stores around you? I got a huge bag from a local pool store many years ago really pretty cheap. I transferred the contents of the bag into a couple 5 gallon buckets and will last me forever. It was like $25 or just slightly over for a 25lbs or 50lbs bag. It was pretty big I remember that. Even had some left in the bag that didn't fit in the 2 5 gallon buckets.

There is but at the time i didnt know the difference between vortex DE, food grade & pool grade. Heck, i didnt even know they had it in pool stores when i asked Paul that question lol.
Jason

 

[Tacticalbaton]

Well hopefully this will be of some help to all of you. First look up Marineland Hot Magnum 350 besides Vortex you can use this filter and it works fine with Diatom Powder. Second you can avoid buying your Diatomic earth from Vortex. You have a choice you can pay the $32.00 for 5 pounds or buy 10 pounds from any pool store for about $15.00. Don't listen to the Bull**it that they are not the same, have been using it for years. Just make sure that there are no additives. Yes Vortex is over priced and has not changed much. The only thing I realy hate with the new one is the plastic jar. You can pick up a large glass mason jar the is the same size as the plastic one and they screw in just fine. I have both units but now lean towards the Hot Magnum as the seal is a replaceable Oring and does not cost the earth to replace. Either way you are good but definitely hit the pool store for your earth...

 

[Jongalt26]

Oh that helps a lot, glad none of that was covered earlier in the thread otherwise it would be redundant.

Jason

 

[Tacticalbaton]

Oh that helps a lot, glad none of that was covered earlier in the thread otherwise it would be redundant.

Jason

Jason, It was only after I wrote that did the other pages come up. That was a link that came off the R2R news letter. So next time you decide to be a smart butt ask yourself why someone would write this just to waste their time of stuff that was previously covered...

 

[Rip Van Winkle]

I've had two and used them all the time. They take EVERYTHING out of the water and should definitely not be used continuously for that exact reason. They're really older tech, the bags inside need to be changed out regularly and are very easy to rip because they have a metal insert that keeps the bag open. The pump is on top and cannot be immersed into water. The pump's electric motor is susceptible to salt contamination. I used two vortex models. The pump housing is made of steel and has vent holes for cooling at the top, so if you are in an environment where there is salt spray, the windings on the electric motor can become contaminated with salt and start to deteriorate. Also as someone mentioned above, if when changing out the filter bag for a new one, the unit is not assembled correctly, it can leak at the seals.
If you do everything right (lol) and it's working fine, it's very effective. No doubt. I'd have to go look it up but just offhand, I believe it can remove particles bacteria sized.

It was designed to be used for a limited time on your setup, just to polish water.
I used the two I owned for cleaning my brine shrimp and mysis shrimp culture tanks.

 

[Paul B]

It is a simple but badly designed piece of Old School technology that is the best thing out there for removing everything in the water that is not diluted. It will remove anything in the water that is not water. As Rip Van Winkle said, that is also why you don't want to use it all the time. My tank depends on bio diversity which means a food chain. Dino's, and algae are also part of the food chain so you don't want to remove everything.
I use it once a year or less but if I wanted to remove every particle in my tank I would use it more. But I want much of that stuff in my tank that many people want to remove. That is also one reason my fish only die from old age and nothing else. Our fish and corals depend on microscope food so don't over use the thing except for a short while to fix whatever it is you are trying to fix.

 

[miyags]

Anyone try the vortex freedom diatom filter or the retro pump one?

 

[mcarroll]

Jason, It was only after I wrote that did the other pages come up. That was a link that came off the R2R news letter. So next time you decide to be a smart *** ask yourself why someone would write this just to waste their time of stuff that was previously covered...

I think R2R changed some website behaviors recently cuz I've gotten got by that same thing 2-3 times in the last couple of weeks or so – I follow a link to a thread, it appears I'm at the end, so I make a reply. When I hit the post button it shows another batch of posts that had already happened, but weren't there before.

I chalk it up to all technology inherently being ____.

 

[JasPR]

I used one thirty years ago and bought another a few months ago! They are the worst designed, hardest to set up and maintain and messy-est BEST filter you will ever use. It strips water of green and yellows within an hour. Did I mention set up to do this takes 20 minutes to get right and 20 minutes to clean afterwards-- the very best of the worst filter designs-- JasPR

 

[scardall]

I do have an vortex XL . The biggest pain in the blank. Hard to seal and prime. hoses come off sometimes too. But when all is working it is a Great filter to use. If these guys would fix two design issues these would be fantastic. Same old design for the past 25+ years. WHY??????????????

 

[Paul B]

. Same old design for the past 25+ years. WHY??????????????

Not exactly. It's the same bad design for over forty years.