# What can a Vortex D-1 Diatom Filter do in 6 hours ?



## Buck (Oct 13, 2002)

I thought I would post these "endview" photos of my 75 gallon for those of you that have never seen diatomaceous filtering in action. 

During last weeks maintenance I decided it was time to clean _a filter_ but I ended up doing both of them. I rarely clean both filters at the same time in my tank. The water in my tank was clouding up bad ever since. 
I dusted off the diatom filter and ran it for 6 hours this afternoon and here are the results... 

Any other questions ? :lol:


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## Rolo (Dec 10, 2003)

Wow, amazing! the plant viens are shaper and the lighting is brighter. It looks like the water is air. What is the make and model of your diatom?


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## Rolo (Dec 10, 2003)

Oh I see the make and model now. Pretty expensive. I saw a post around her called the "poor mans diatom" and it was a cheap water polishing sand by Seachem. Do you think it can get the same results? Does a diatom affect nutrients?


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## Buck (Oct 13, 2002)

This filter isnt something that you would run all the time, which I guess would make it pricy, but there is not a bacterial or algal bloom (gw) that it will not remove in a day or 2. Professional tank maintenance people use these things quite often to polish the water in show tanks. 
I have not seen seachems version so I cant tell you if it does the same but any filter that uses de as a media will surely take out the finest of particles from the water. As far as nutrient loss, again, I cant tell ya yes or no cause I just dont know how it could be checked.
I recently setup a 10 gallon with a 55 watt pc over it just for a few extra plants to hold and it had bad green water from my laziness... I threw the filter on it also yesterday and in 45 minutes it cleaned it out and crystalized the water. :wink:

I had a buddy that was a non believer in these filters and thought his water was crystal clear so I brought the D-1 over his house and we ran it for 4 hours while we tested the temperature and quality of his beer and he was amazed at how the water just shined when it was done. 

As you can see in the photos above, thats 4 feet of tank you are looking through and you can see how clear the water is after just a short amount of time.


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## aquatic-store.com (May 24, 2003)

Great post buck It shows the amazing things diatom filters can do. Unfortunatly everytime (8x) I have contacted them about selling their products I get no response but they do work splendidly


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## compulsion (Mar 2, 2004)

i loved the look of this, so i decided to diy a diatom filter, its just a tube, 2 end caps and a jay cloth for a gauze, then lots of crushed ehiem substrat, ya know the sintered glass stuff... 
is this what is normaly used when a carbon block isnt used?. ive just set it running and im gonna give it 6ish hours to see if its done anything,


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## Rolo (Dec 10, 2003)

It isn't a diatom filter if it does not have diamasceous (spelling?) earth in it. Cloth and sintered glass don't match the fineness of a diatom. I'm sure it should work well though.


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## Tonyd (Jan 22, 2004)

That's a really cool post Buck, amazing difference. I'm gonna show my wife the pics as an example of why we should get one.  

Tony


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## GDominy (Jul 30, 2002)

Heh.. seeing as my 135 Gallon tank has just turned into green soup.. I think I'll pick one of these up.

I've got my eye on the XL model of the Vortex.. I like the 400gph instead of the 150 gph.. that would take forever to filter the 135 gallon tank....


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## Jimmyblues (Dec 16, 2010)

*Vortex D1 Will IOnly Offer Temporary Relief From Algae Blooms*



GDominy said:


> Heh.. seeing as my 135 Gallon tank has just turned into green soup.. I think I'll pick one of these up.
> 
> I've got my eye on the XL model of the Vortex.. I like the 400gph instead of the 150 gph.. that would take forever to filter the 135 gallon tank....
> 
> ...


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