vortex XL diatom on a 90 gallon results :)

[tcarswell]

I got my own vortex XL diatom as per Jcardona's recommendation. Normal price on this unit was 129 at big als to 150 at other sites.

I found it here for 89 dollars
http://www.aquariumguys.com/diatomfilter1.html

Anyways on with the water porn.

Complete setup I ordered extra super char and 5 pounds of diatom earth.
Also a great opportunity to show off my new table lol.

Tank before

Tank after 3 hours

Tank after 24 hours

The before shots can be deceiving as there was a bit of a microbubble problem and glass was dirty. Either way the water is now invisible after 24 hours. Im extremely satisfied.

 

[patatmblife]

Haha, my Vortex XL came today and my water was extremely cloudy from an algae bloom that's been going on for about 2-3 weeks now. Tried everything from a 50% water change every day to adding a polishing pad to my FX5 but nothing worked. I ran the Vortex XL and after an hour the water was crystal clear! And the filter turned all green. Too bad I didn't take a BEFORE shot.

The motor is rather hot. Is this normal?

 

[jcardona1]

awesome! I'm surprised more people don't run these. you really don't know what clear water is until you try one. and yes, the motors run hot it's normal

 

[tcarswell]

Thanks guys. And yeah the motor gets hot. Its been running 72 hours now with a recharge daily and finally some of their carbon stuff which works extremely well.

 

[patatmblife]

Thanks guys. And yeah the motor gets hot. Its been running 72 hours now with a recharge daily and finally some of their carbon stuff which works extremely well.

How do you do a recharge?

 

[Knowdafish]

Diatom filters. They've been around forever. Gotta love' em!

 

[kingyella]

make me want to get one, nice tank.

 

[tcarswell]

Thanks for the kind comments.

To recharge it you have to backflush out all of the DE. When the bag is clean of all the DE you run the filter in a pitcher of tank water with the pitcher in the tank and add the new DE and allow the filter to absorb it all. Then you lift the pitcher out and voila recharge

Sounds a lot harder than it is.

Ive been using three cups of DE how much do you guys use for the XL ?

 

[jcardona1]

Yeah its not that bad. I don't backflush though. I just open it up and rinse off the bag, a lot easier

 

[Fishman0]

these things work great... you should see the results on pools.

Im from the north east and worked for a pool company for years. when we would open some pools in late season the algae was dark green or looked like coffee from the leaves... anyway, when we started the system the owner thought we were insane when we told them there pool would be clear in a day or two (Hayward DE 60) then they would call up in amazement after a few hous saying they can see the bottom already.

DE filters are amazing, anyone know how to utilize DE as a 24/7 filter?