Random intrusive thought here, my apologies. . . Any of my fishy friends remember these Vortex filters? While getting back into the hobby in 2024 after more than a decade away, I went poking around for some of my old equipment. I guess I was not really that surprised to see that diatom filters had fallen out of favor over the years (that's making the assumption they were ever favored to begin with).
I am a bit saddened. They were a versatile workhorse IMO. For all the trouble they could be, I never found anything else that could remove suspended particulate as quickly and thoroughly post-maintenance. What do y'all think? Worst piece of equipment you ever owned? Your treasured secret weapon? Still got one in the bin of aquarium stuff in the basement that every prolific hobbyist has?
Posted by Slow_Ice5066
2 Comments
I’ve never heard of these before, but now I kinda want to build one even though they seem a little sketch.
Also, it’s 2026?
They were not an everyday filter, but they were the ONLY way I could muster to get rid of certain free-floating bacterial/algal blooms and reliably get rid of ick, if memory serves. You couldn’t use them for more than perhaps 2-3 days because they would clog up too much, but they cleared a tank *beautifully* which was also nice for picture taking. They were fundamentally hard to use and confusing since most filters don’t require shooting a bunch of crap into them first (imagine someone trying to sell you a vacuum where you HAD to vacuum up a bunch of flour first or it wouldn’t work). They were also top-heavy and got very hot. But yep. I absolutely loved mine. I’ve heard that the Marineland Magnum Polishing Filter is a recent internal to tank alternative with good-mixed reviews… have you considered it?