Marineland polishing filter with diatomaceous earth

Hyde2406 · Dec 31, 2019

I got the Marineland polishing filter put it in a 5 gallon bucket put the diatomaceous earth in there so that it would get charged took it out of the five gallon bucket put it in my tank and it started blowing diatomaceous earth everywhere I'm allowing the filter to kind of suck everything back up but I'm hoping it's not going to harm my fish or Coral any help would be great

EmdeReef · Dec 31, 2019

Hyde2406 said:
I got the Marineland polishing filter put it in a 5 gallon bucket put the diatomaceous earth in there so that it would get charged took it out of the five gallon bucket put it in my tank and it started blowing diatomaceous earth everywhere I'm allowing the filter to kind of suck everything back up but I'm hoping it's not going to harm my fish or Coral any help would be great

It’s just silica, nothing to worry about - worst case you may get some diatoms.

WVNed · Dec 31, 2019

You put the shells of diatoms in your tank

Hyde2406 · Dec 31, 2019

Oh good thank you so much, how can I avoid this the next time I use it? I'm only using it to clean my sump and sand off detritus, figured I'd disturb everything and have the filter do its job then I'll remove it when it all looks clean, any thoughts?

Billdogg · Jan 1, 2020

I'm not sure about the marineland, but with the Vortex Diatom filter you cannot shut it off when you transfer it to the DT. What I do is get it charged in a 5g bucket like you did, and then submerge a juice pitcher in the bucket and put the intake and output lines in the pitcher. You can then lift the pitcher and filter out of the bucket and into the tank. It's easiest with a 2nd person helping but once you do it a couple times you'll get the hang of it.

I'd go so far as to suggest trying the transfer a couple times without the diatom powder just to get used to it.

WVNed · Jan 1, 2020

Billdogg said:
I'm not sure about the marineland, but with the Vortex Diatom filter you cannot shut it off when you transfer it to the DT. What I do is get it charged in a 5g bucket like you did, and then submerge a juice pitcher in the bucket and put the intake and output lines in the pitcher. You can then lift the pitcher and filter out of the bucket and into the tank. It's easiest with a 2nd person helping but once you do it a couple times you'll get the hang of it.

I'd go so far as to suggest trying the transfer a couple times without the diatom powder just to get used to it.

There are ways with a vortex. I simply made it so I could connect the inlet and outlets pipes and run it a few seconds while it was sitting at the tank then I could turn it off and place them in the tank. As long as you didnt bump it the powder stayed on the bag.

A tiny bit of white spray came out as it purges the air but it never hurt anything.