How effective is diatom filter?

[SoTongBall]

Hi, anybody tried diatom filter before, care to share your experiences?

Btw, is it available in S'pore?

thanks

[Achilles Tang]

No reason to use them.... diatoms do not last very long in reef tanks.

Once the fuel eg. silica, is gone... their life cycle is over.

[SoTongBall]

by back flush to recharge the filter, how long can it last?

It is able to filter out parasitic life forms and at same time polish up the water, tot it might be a useful filter to consider.

[Achilles Tang]

True but if it can strain up to that size, potentially good live zooplankton will also be caught up.

Also I think some diatom filters may leach silicates to the water... double-edged sword if you ask me!

[SoTongBall]

ya, the leach with cause cloud the tank

It is recommended not to run continuously, perhap once a week for a couples of hrs for polishing. Wonder how clear can it get

Well, skimmer will hv the same effect on the zooplankton

Guess using carbon will be a much cheaper alternative for polishing ya

[Achilles Tang]

Unless you have an extremely super forceful skimmer... you won't really skim live plankton out as it is mainly protein molecues that will adhere to the air bubble surfaces and not living plankton.

If you really want to polish water, micron filters are good but again, you will catch all the good stuff as well unless you get the larger micron sizes.

[SoTongBall]

thanks for the infor

hmmm...may consider kiwi polish, cheap & good

[RAV-65]

hmmm...may consider kiwi polish, cheap & good