Reef aquarium algae

I'm pretty sure the filter sock was causing constant algae bloom. I only cleaned it a couple times a month. Read that others clean theirs 5 to 6 times a month! Since I took it out of the water column things seem better.

Diatom filter method for reef salt water aquariums

Maybe this is well known? I just figured it out. So I've had many regular diatom explosions in my tank. Typically I suck the brown stringy diatoms out when I do a water change. But never get close to completely removing it. So I've been thinking about a Vortex diatom filter. When doing this last water change I noticed how well my macro algae chaeto filters the diatoms! Usually they breakup so fine that most common filter socks, etc can't contain them. So this idea hit me to stuff a good sized wad of chaeto in  my reactor 150 chamber to see if it would catch them. I only filled a quarter of the tube packed pretty dense. Well dang it worked! The out flow hose into a clear cup and no diatoms. The issue is that the flow is much less that the Vortex which probably clears the tank much faster. Anyway thought I'd share this DYI method to remove diatoms!