One enterprising aquarium hobbyist on YouTube was setting up to use a diatomaceous earth pool filter on his aquarium. His was going to use a small aquarium pump to power a relatively large pool filter. This was just kind of humorous. Pool pumps are large and powerful as that is needed to hold the diatomaceous earth on the filter media. A small aquarium pump won’t begin to work with a pool filter.
Note that many people successfully use the Vortex (model XL 400 GPH) diatomaceous earth (DE) portable aquarium filter to treat ich and other diseases, although the practice is pretty well outdated now and the filter is no longer made. DE filters can remove many free-swimming infective stages of various parasites from the aquarium water before they can attach to their hosts, and when the attached adult parasites on the fish die, the fish are eventually left parasite-free.
Because many free-floating bacteria are also removed from the aquarium, wounded fish or fish with bacterial diseases often heal more quickly. But in an aquarium, a DE filter generally can’t be used for too long (i.e. more than one day) as it will plug.
Startpage Aquariumscience
Source: Aquariumscience.org – David Bogert
