"Toni" wrote in message ...
"Trapper" wrote in message Now I'm worried my
diatom filter isn't up to snuff. I ran it for
about 14 hrs, with input and exhaust in my sump, and the water has
gone from 6" visibility to about 18". I find this disappointing; I
would have thought the diatom filter would be much more efficient than
this. Flow rate is down to, oh, maybe 50-75 gph.

Is this about what people have seen, performance-wise, from their
diatom filters?



Mine has had 90g of green water clear in 2 hours.
If it gets clogged, you need to clean it and replace the diatom powder. I
can determine the amount of clogging by sound and watching, but the first
time use is different I'm sureg. If it starts spitting microbubbles it is
clogging. If the diatom powder has a green tint to it, it is clogging. If
the water is very green I'd imagine it would clog fairly quickly.

In my experience.

Toni,

I just ran to the LFS to get a 5-lb box of diatomaceous earth. Gave
the filter a thorough rinse and a re-charge, and it's chugging away in
my sump again. In just a matter of minutes the powder takes on a
green tint. I figure as long as flow rate stays up I'll keep at it.

It can clear the ~5 gals of water in the sump in a hurry, that's fun
to watch.

On a humorous note, consider this: we rate engines in horsepower, so I
wonder if, analogously, we should rate diatom filters in daphniapower.


--Trapper, in gloomy NYC