Can you rent a diatom filter?

[Europhyllia]

I stupidly used one of those phophate filter pads on my tank not realizing they would leach aluminum oxide into the tank.
The leather corals are very sensitive to these aluminum oxide particles and I have gotten instructions to remove the aluminum by
a) using a poly filter pad (made by poly bio marine)
and
b) running a diatom filter
Those filters are hugely expensive though.
Do any of the fish stores rent equipment like that?

[justahobby]

How has it affected your aquarium?

[Big_Pun]

what about a some big water changes

[Europhyllia]

How has it affected your aquarium?
The colt coral had totally shriveled up.
The other corals didn't show any effects at all. Fish and inverts weren't bothered either.
If it wasn't for the colt I wouldn't have had any problems.
I've tried water changes but the colt still didn't bounce back much.
It also takes a me a little while to make that much water (it's a 125g tank - I usually just change 10 gallons at a time).
I am hoping I found a solution today though.
And I think I might be able to skip the diatom filter actually.
The LFS I went to today to look for that poly filter didn't have it but they had Seachem's Cuprisorb and I figured it's worth a shot.
After a few hours of running the cuprisorb I noticed my chilis looking better than ever - happy and feeding. Silly me I didn't even think of chilis being leather corals too...
My sun coral also seems to be particularly happy today (could have been related to me feeding prawn eggs to the chilis too though...).

I am hoping the cuprisorb really is pulling out the junk and the colt will be able to recover and look better tomorrow...

[CoryDude]

EuroMom,

I know a few stores that tried to rent them out, but the filters were quickly ruined by customers that didn't either use them correctly or didn't clean them up properly.

Best bet is hopefully someone can loan you one. Jack and I were just talking about getting one added to the maast equipment library. Hopefully someone can help you out.

[kkiel02]

Don't diatoms need silicates to reproduce/grow? I now that phosguard and other brands, just have a different name are suppose to absorb phosphates and silicates. This would also be alot easier to track down.

[CoryDude]

She's talking about a diatomaceous filter...dead diatoms, not the lives one. They can trap a lot of stuff and are the best at polishing water. I use to have a smaller one on a FW tank. Ran it a few days out of the month for water clarity.

[kkiel02]

Oh well in that case disregard my post.

[Bill S]

Ace and I were talking about these a few months ago. They were all the rage in the 70s and 80s. They worked extremely well. Our concern was that diatoms - diatomatious earth is the skeletal bodies of diatoms - is silica. And, we were concerned that that might cause problems in a reef tank?

[Europhyllia]

Honestly I had never heard about before. I had inquired with Ply Bio Marine about their product (Poly Filter) in regards to removing aluminum (leached from one of those phosphate filters!) and this is what they said:

Karin,

The activated alumina products sold into the pet industry and then repackaged as
phosphate adsorbents leach aluminum ions and alumina particulates.
Activated alumina products should never be directly added into saltwater reef aquaria.
Our food grade activated alumina for potable water system is pre leached in sterile
ultra pure water. However, we still only recommend it in our Kold Ster-il (r) System not
used directly in saltwater aquaria applications

You should also be aware that the Iron (ferric hydroxide ) granules and pads also
have negative effects upon saltwater. Like activated alumina ferric hydroxide adsorbents
will adsorb alkalinity and specifically trace elements. The main trace elements adsorbed
are Vanadium, Copper and Rubidium plus alkalinity. In the future you should consider
our Poly-Filter (r) will sorb all phosphates : Ortho, Poly, Tri Poly, Hexa-Meta and Organic .

Poly-Filter (r) will sorb the alumina solutes (dissolved aluminum) but not the
free particulate alumina. Particulate alumina oxide removal requires a very
specialized particulate filter i.e. one micron or smaller particulate filter system.
The quickest approach is as follows: remove each leather coral and rinse well in
aluminum / alumina free saltwater . While the leathers are out of the aquaria use
Poly-Filter (r)( for the aquarium)to sorb aluminum solutes in concert with a large diatom
filter system. Yes ,in this emergency situation, use the diatom filter with it's silica based
medium. You will have some diatom growth later. If you soak the diatom media in R/O
or low pH distilled (copper-free) water before usage much for the free silicates will leach out.
The high pH and alkalinity of saltwater reef aquaria would prevent most of leachate silicates
from entering solution. Instead they will simply precipitate out onto the bottom.
We do manufacture a specialized 0.20 micron filter canister and media that would sorb
any alumina particulates and dissolved aluminum ions. However, by the time you could order
a strong pump and our Fin-L-Filter (r) PSM-1 System the leather corals will be severely
effected and damaged.

The quickest approach is: leather coral removal, rinse corals well, Poly-Filter (r)
plus a large diatom filter used for aquarium filtration / alumina solute, particulate
removal.