I ran it for 3 days and I'm not impressed at all. A water change makes a much larger difference from what I've seen. I'll give it another go though. The diatom powder was dirty so I know it was doing something but you could still see very large particles floating through the water.
Diatom filter question
- Thread starter Mudfrog
- Start date
Wow, that was not what I was expecting to hear at all! I always had excellent results with my Diatom D1 on my 110g tank. It always gave me perfectly clear water in a matter of hours and a noticeable improvement in a matter of minutes. Your Diatom XL is bigger than my D1 and should have more flow and more filtering surface area. How big is your tank?
I would guess there are two possible problems. 1) The debris is bypassing the DE. 2) The debris is never making it into the Diatom filter.
If the debris is making it into and coming back out of the Diatom filter then there is something wrong with the setup or the filter itself. My experience with DE filters is that nothing visible will ever make it through the filter.
My hunch is that the water with the debris is never making it into the filter. When I ran my Diatom D1 on my 110g tank I would put the intake and return tubes at opposite sides of the tank. I received my Diatom D1 used from a friend and I had to put longer tubing on it so it would easily reach both sides of the tank.
The stream of return water was always very strong! So strong I could aim the return flow at the bottom of the tank from the surface (30" tall tank) and easily push all the debris up off of the bottom into the water stream for the filter to remove. Do you have a very strong water stream? If not you might have some trapped air in the filter. You have to turn the filter on its side then back upright a few times to get all the air out of the impeller housing. Taping the filter when it is on its side will also help dislodge any trapped air. You should have a Very Strong stream of water!
After 3 days did you see a slow down in the water stream from the filter? As the DE pores get plugged the water flow should slow.
I would guess there are two possible problems. 1) The debris is bypassing the DE. 2) The debris is never making it into the Diatom filter.
If the debris is making it into and coming back out of the Diatom filter then there is something wrong with the setup or the filter itself. My experience with DE filters is that nothing visible will ever make it through the filter.
My hunch is that the water with the debris is never making it into the filter. When I ran my Diatom D1 on my 110g tank I would put the intake and return tubes at opposite sides of the tank. I received my Diatom D1 used from a friend and I had to put longer tubing on it so it would easily reach both sides of the tank.
The stream of return water was always very strong! So strong I could aim the return flow at the bottom of the tank from the surface (30" tall tank) and easily push all the debris up off of the bottom into the water stream for the filter to remove. Do you have a very strong water stream? If not you might have some trapped air in the filter. You have to turn the filter on its side then back upright a few times to get all the air out of the impeller housing. Taping the filter when it is on its side will also help dislodge any trapped air. You should have a Very Strong stream of water!
After 3 days did you see a slow down in the water stream from the filter? As the DE pores get plugged the water flow should slow.
Do you have any pictures of your setup with motor and plumbing? I put a post on of a small sandfilter for a small pool do you have any thoughts on one of these? Thanks for any help.
The debris could possibly be bypassing the filter some. The bag did not appear to be completely covered in powder. I used the entire bag that was included with the filter so maybe it wasn't enough? The directions say to use 3 cups of powder and I would guess they included 1-2 cups.
The flow was strong and the filter was definitely taken in debris. I know the filter worked some as the powder was brown after the 3 days (a light brown). I did not have to try to look for debris though, it was pretty bad.
I'll try again in a month or so.. the filter is kind of a PITA to set up and take down, etc.
You have to put enough powder in there to cover the whole bag. When it clogs, you have to connect the inlet and outlet then turn it off and shake up the powder. Next, turn it back on and let it clear up before putting it back into the tank.
When a DE filter is working properly nothing visible will ever make it through the filter. I would check for any holes in the filter screen (bag) and make sure it is firmly seated in the pump head. It seems like I used about a cup of DE in my Diatom D1 which is smaller than your XL. I received my Diatom used so maybe it might take a use or two to get all the pores in the screen clogged with the DE powder????... But it doesn't seem like it should.
DE filters are not only used on swimming pools and aquariums they are also used extensively in industry and food processing. Wine is often filtered through DE to clear out the yeast and yield a perfectly clear product. Beer is also often filtered with DE (cold filtered).
With my D1 I would always get a small plume of DE powder in the water when I turned it off and turned it back on. The filter itself would clear up this plume almost immediately. When initially charging the Diatom I found a large big gulp cup submerged in the tank worked great for the charging process.
Please give the filter a try again. If the particles are making it into the filter they should not be making it back out. DE is supposed to filter down to a particle size of 5 microns. Small enough to catch water born pathogens like ICH. Much smaller than anything you should be able to see in the water column with your naked eye.
P.S. Truxx - I posted over in your thread.
DE filters are not only used on swimming pools and aquariums they are also used extensively in industry and food processing. Wine is often filtered through DE to clear out the yeast and yield a perfectly clear product. Beer is also often filtered with DE (cold filtered).
With my D1 I would always get a small plume of DE powder in the water when I turned it off and turned it back on. The filter itself would clear up this plume almost immediately. When initially charging the Diatom I found a large big gulp cup submerged in the tank worked great for the charging process.
Please give the filter a try again. If the particles are making it into the filter they should not be making it back out. DE is supposed to filter down to a particle size of 5 microns. Small enough to catch water born pathogens like ICH. Much smaller than anything you should be able to see in the water column with your naked eye.
P.S. Truxx - I posted over in your thread.
