Starting And Restarting Your Diatom Freedom Filter - Vortex DFF Instruction Manual

STARTING YOUR DIATOM FREEDOM FILTER
7. With both the intake and exhaust hoses in your aquarium and having your Diatom Filter at least half full of
water, set your recharge valve to the filter position. Turn the Diatom Freedom Filter upside down, and start
the motor for a few seconds of until you can see that the intake hose has filled with water. Return the
Diatom Freedom Filter to the upright position and turn the motor off. At this point you will have forced the
unit to start a siphon. Hose must run upward toward aquarium.
8. Turn the motor back on. Submerge a plastic container
such as the one in Fig. 15, into the aquarium and put the
intake and exhaust tubes into the container.
9. Lift the container with the two tubes inside high enough
to allow you to hook the container's handle over the lip
of the aquarium. (Fig. 16) Care should be taken not to
allow the intake tube to suck air during this operation.
10. As you can see, at this point you are running
the filter only on the water in the small container.
You may add the Diatom Powder directly into
the container while the filter continues to run.
(Fig. 17) A minimum charge for the Diatom
Freedom Filter is about one cup of Diatom
powder.
11. When all of the Diatom powder has been absorbed into the Diatom Filter and the water in the small
container is running clear, you may unhook the handle from the aquarium and carefully lower the container
out from under the pickup tubes.
The strainer may be removed from the end of the exhaust downspout and the "jet" action
of the exhaust water can be used to "agitate " the gravel to aid in cleaning. Once you have filtered
your aquarium to the desired clarity turn the Diatom Freedom Filter off.
RE-STARTING YOUR DIATOM FREEDOM FILTER
WITH A CHARGE OF DIATOM POWDER
To restart your Diatom Freedom Filter after it has been turned off for any length of time, the Diatom Filter
Powder will have fallen off the filter bag and settled to the bottom of the jar.
Lower your Diatom Freedom Filter to allow any trapped air to escape out of the impeller. Switch the Recharge
valve to charge position and allow the Diatom Freedom Filter to run for about one minute to recoat the filter bag
before releasing flow.
Be sure that all the Diatom powder has a even coat, the Diatom powder is the filter, not the bag.
After an even coat is visible turn the Recharge valve back to the filter position.
7