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Considering getting a diatom filter for my 72 gallon Troph tank to help keep the water cyrstal clear. Right now I am running 2 AC 500s the water looks good but want to be crysal clear. Not really familiar with these do they work for one? Or arent they worth the cost?

It depends on who you ask. I would say most feel they are great for occasional water polishing even though the manufacturer says they can be run continuously.
They do clog rather quickly and therefore require more maintenance than a canister or HOB power filter. Here is a link to a very informative thread involving Diatom filters.
http://www.nycichlids.com/viewtopic.php ... ght=diatom

I wouldnt own a fish tank without a diatom filter. My tank stays crystal clear without it. I use it for cleaning the gravel. I have Milawi mix substrate ,a mix of coral,shells, and other various things. The filter comes with plastic screens on the suction and outflow tubes. I remove the screen on the outflow and just leave the flexible tube on. This allows me to force the water down against the substrate which churns up the bottom to get all the fine particle wastes that accumulate there. You wouldn't believe the mess it creates with all the floating junk that came off the bottom. But with the high flow and suction it will be back to its origional crystal clear state in approx. 1 hr. There a bit pricy but will last forever. Some will say having gravel too clean is a detriment to the biological effects working in the gravel. But Im not from that school of thought. A good filter will take care of that. One last thing, I disconnect my regular canister while swishing the diatom over the bottom. No need to get the extra junk in your main filter. Hope ive been helpful.

I had a vortex and it failed quickly. It was replaced and the 2nd one failed too. When it worked, it worked well, but only for a few weeks. Not worth it.

I then got a SYSTEM 1 DIATOM POWER FILTER and love it. It is noisy as hell, but works great, you just can't run it for more that a few hours at a time. Great for clean-up.

Diatom filters work. They do require maintenance (cleaning).

Im curious as to what broke down in the vortex. I would guess the motor siezed, or the impeller had problems. There's not much else. I had my first over 10 yrs but used it only once a week for one hr.at a time.Got out of the hobby and sold it. The one I have now is 5 yrs old. No problems. I never ran them full time (too noisy) and the current it created was like a river.

With both the Vortexes I had the seals failed very quickly and it started sucking air. This causes it to air-bind. It appears to be an engineering problem with the newer units. You know what happens when the bean counters take over a company. Pretty soon they are in chapter 11.

Thanks for the reply on the kaput vortexes. Ive always put a light film of vasaline on the gasket, maybe thats the trick to longevity. Even though ,every once in a while she'll spit out 10 or 15 seconds of fine bubbles. So mine sucks a bit of air also. Better suckin air than leakin water..

I used vaseline. It wasn't the jar that leaked. It was the shaft mechanical seals that failed.

Whooo !! Gotcha.. Thanks

Mine is about 30 years old and still works, although for me I find it a hassle to use.

As the old saying goes, they don't make 'em like that any more!