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Filter sock or no filter sock?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by atoll, Mar 7, 2016.

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  1. Mar 7, 2016 #1
    atoll

    atoll Member

    90
    19
    Bolton UK
    Hi, I have a question I hope you can help answer for me. I have a new 450ltrs Aquarium inc sump. I have use filter sock on my current tank but have never seen any pods either in the bare sump or on the GHA on my DIY waterfall scrubber when I clean it etc. I am thinking this time maybe I should ditch the filter sock all together with my new build.
    The sump I have was/is set up for the Triton method but will not use that method at all with this tank. The sump consists of a large first chamber section that the water from my DT drops into via a ball valve There is a smaller second section I intend to put my protein skimmer into after the scrubber which I will put in the first section. Finally there is the end chamber for the return pump. So what are your thoughts, shall I ditch the pre-filter sock or retain it for my new tank? Thanks.
     
  2. Mar 7, 2016 #2
    Turbo

    Turbo Does not really look like Johnny Carson Staff Member Site Owner Multiple Units! Customer

    2,907
    156
    Iowa (United States)
    I've read a lot of comments either way on this issue. One side is that filter socks remove pods, which they do. Especially when you run a 100 micron sock, even a 200 micron sock. Actually I just got done writing a message to one of the filter sock manufacturers asking if they make 400+ micron socks, specifically for use in blocking bubbles but also such that at least baby copepods that fall off a scrubber screen can make it through....

    The other side is that they do trap a lot of detritus and this is a good thing.

    The best advice that I've heard lately is to run them for a day after you do your regular maintenance. Meaning, after you do things like scrape algae of the glass, blow off rocks, etc, then remove them.

    Another method might be to have your input chamber of your sump be one that fills up and spills over onto a slanted spillway where you can place a sheet of filter material over a piece of egg crate. So the idea here is to allow water to sheet over the filter material and drain through it, but give a path to pods and other life to flow past the filter material (eventually). This would serve both purposes of avoiding trapping pods while still trapping detritus.

    I suppose you could just do a flat tray as well

    Also sheets of the same material used for filter socks are super cheap and a lot easier to clean.
     
  3. Mar 19, 2016 #3
    trivodi

    trivodi Member

    75
    11
    USA
    I used 10 micron sock change daily and in about 10 days my SPS started loosing color really fats.

    I don't run a skimmer and the tank is bare bottom. Once my coral started losing color I switched to 100 micron sock and they kept on losing color. The 100 micron did let some very fine almost invisible stuff through. So obviously some stuff makes it trough as opposed to the 10 micron.

    Now i run no socks at all. I just let the junk settle in the first part of my sump and I siphon it out once a week which is what I did before the socks. I did the socks to see if it will do better than my siphon because there is always some left after I siphon.

    By the tank is 40 breeder all SPS and I have close to 10000 ghp from power heads so there is only a few little specks of stuff that collect in one corner. My overflow is just a 1 inch bulkhead.

    So in my opinion filter socks work very well as long as you clean them and be careful how often you change them, I would start by changing them every 3 days unless they overfill before that.

    Also I don't think you will get much of a benefit from them unless you can suspend most of the junk in the water column which is hard to do with sand debs. I have power heads pointing straight down at the bottom of my tank.

    By the way I did lost a few corals from my little sock experiment, so be careful
     

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