I am new to this salt water thing and my water is running into a basin, I was told I needed a sock to filter it out. As you can see in the pic I ended up putting two socks on the outbound feed one athletic sock and one santa dress sock. Can I use both or should I just use one at a time? Thanks.
filter sock
- Thread starter mcnetwork
- Start date
Vinnie71975
New member
Ummm you took that a bit to literally your suppose to use something like what is at this link:
http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_AquariumPage.aspx?PageAlias=filter_media_sock
http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_AquariumPage.aspx?PageAlias=filter_media_sock
Reef of Eden
New member
haha poor guy.
yeah not real socks. filter socks.
yeah not real socks. filter socks.
firedogg2
New member
I would hope it was at least a new sock 
I love the enthusiasm.
This is a great site to get all kinds of information. Take your time with this. Learn as much as you can before you go diving into this to quickly. Ask any questions you have. The people here are very informative and helpful. Gool luck to you.
I love the enthusiasm.
This is a great site to get all kinds of information. Take your time with this. Learn as much as you can before you go diving into this to quickly. Ask any questions you have. The people here are very informative and helpful. Gool luck to you.
black_kapre
New member
dude thats to funny i cant belive that he really........... never mind i made my mistakes too, just like every one else
madreefer14
New member
c'mon, To tell u the truth I think the guy is poking fun at us. but on the off chance that he or she isn't lets cut them some slack. after all what would happen if we told a newbie that they needed an overflow?
Vinnie71975
New member
I agree i for one was not intending to poke fun simple to guide him/her to what a filter sock was, i think sometimes we forget that we were all new once, and i myself have only been in the hobby about 5 or 6 months.I do know that with all the info out there on ways to cut corners and save money that Maybe this person thought that we really did mean a "sock" And WHO KNOWS maybe just Maybe he/she Hit on a GREAT idea that works and is cheaper Ya never know!
cardiffgiant
Active member
Oh man, that had me literally laughing out loud.
madreefer14
New member
Mark, Bioballs have a tendancy to increase your nitrates as this is the final by prouduct of the nytrogen cycle. There is no natural biological breakdown of nitrates into a simpler compount thus you get food for undesierable alge such as diatomes and cyanobacter. You can keep them if you want but you might be better served going with a refugium if you can swing one. Take the bioballs out, fill this area with about 2 inches of live sand and a few pieces of live rock and put some cheato macroalge in there. Then get a clamp on light and put a flourecent daylight bulb in that and BAM! you have a refugium to help feed your corals and grow pods and reduce your nitrates as cheato will use this for food.
Don't take it pearsonally, we all did crazy stuff as a noob. But thanx for the laughs. Don't worry, as you gain experience you too will be able to see some pretty funny things that "noobs" will do. HTH
Don't take it pearsonally, we all did crazy stuff as a noob. But thanx for the laughs. Don't worry, as you gain experience you too will be able to see some pretty funny things that "noobs" will do. HTH
K' Family Reef
New member
ever try ole dirty underwear ???
:eek1: :eek2: 
:lol:
Well at least you had the socks on the right feet.
Incidentally a filter sock is not needed on a reef tank with a good skimmer. I only use when when I'm doing soem heavy cleaning and there is a lot of excess material in the water. If used it needs to be cleaned every few days. Otherwise it will trap decying material before the skimmer can export it. This material will rot in the sock which is in the water and produce unwanted dissoved organic material including nitrates and phosphate.
So since the socks you used are probably not 1 micron filters they probably let more of this decaying material get through and in that sense are better than the standard sock.
The bioballs are in a high oxygen environment . Water passes through them quickly. This supports bacteria that breakdown ammonia and nitrite. It does not support the anerobic bacteria needed for breaking down nitrate which is the end product of the first two.
This third type of bacteria which consumes the nirite and releases free nitrogen needs a low oxygen environment where water flows slowly such as inside a piece of live rock or in a deep sand bed. Even if you have live rock and/or a sand bed the bioballs are detrimental because they poduce the nitrate in a location remote from the anerobic areas in the rock or sand. Without them this nitrate would be produced in th higher oxygen zones on the rock or sand surface and the nitrate would be readily available to support the anerobic bacteria.
It is less important to worry about nitrate in a fish only tank than a reef tank. Nitrates can .however, feed nuisance algae. Although corals consume nitrates, ecessive amounts are detrimental.
Incidentally a filter sock is not needed on a reef tank with a good skimmer. I only use when when I'm doing soem heavy cleaning and there is a lot of excess material in the water. If used it needs to be cleaned every few days. Otherwise it will trap decying material before the skimmer can export it. This material will rot in the sock which is in the water and produce unwanted dissoved organic material including nitrates and phosphate.
So since the socks you used are probably not 1 micron filters they probably let more of this decaying material get through and in that sense are better than the standard sock.
The bioballs are in a high oxygen environment . Water passes through them quickly. This supports bacteria that breakdown ammonia and nitrite. It does not support the anerobic bacteria needed for breaking down nitrate which is the end product of the first two.
This third type of bacteria which consumes the nirite and releases free nitrogen needs a low oxygen environment where water flows slowly such as inside a piece of live rock or in a deep sand bed. Even if you have live rock and/or a sand bed the bioballs are detrimental because they poduce the nitrate in a location remote from the anerobic areas in the rock or sand. Without them this nitrate would be produced in th higher oxygen zones on the rock or sand surface and the nitrate would be readily available to support the anerobic bacteria.
It is less important to worry about nitrate in a fish only tank than a reef tank. Nitrates can .however, feed nuisance algae. Although corals consume nitrates, ecessive amounts are detrimental.
K' Family Reef
New member
there might be some debate over the use of filter socks
i dont know all the ins and outs of the debate but i chose not to use one up until this point in time w/ my reef... wanted the tank to get established and wanted there to be free flow throughout the system for pods etc. now that its established and thriving i believe i am going to start using one - as the detritus seems to accumulate in the sump/fuge areas quite a bit... before i would only use one when cleaning the inside of the tank or during 'turkey baster' sessions when blow off all the debris etc from the live rock - catching it in the sock then removing it.
from what have read
if use a sock they ideally would be changed out everyday to prevent nitrates etc although some may debate the freq they need to be changed... they can be cleaned easily by throwing them in the washing machine w/ no detergent.
if you're doing a reef you might want to remove the bioballs.
i thought this was a joke when you first posted it -
but i know how things can be when first getting started in this hobby - hearing talk about phosphates, reactors, refugiums, nitrates, ozone, ETC ETC ETC... like learning an entirely new language! and will end up w/ a phd by time its all said and done!...
good luck!
regards
i dont know all the ins and outs of the debate but i chose not to use one up until this point in time w/ my reef... wanted the tank to get established and wanted there to be free flow throughout the system for pods etc. now that its established and thriving i believe i am going to start using one - as the detritus seems to accumulate in the sump/fuge areas quite a bit... before i would only use one when cleaning the inside of the tank or during 'turkey baster' sessions when blow off all the debris etc from the live rock - catching it in the sock then removing it.
from what have read
if use a sock they ideally would be changed out everyday to prevent nitrates etc although some may debate the freq they need to be changed... they can be cleaned easily by throwing them in the washing machine w/ no detergent.
if you're doing a reef you might want to remove the bioballs.
i thought this was a joke when you first posted it -
but i know how things can be when first getting started in this hobby - hearing talk about phosphates, reactors, refugiums, nitrates, ozone, ETC ETC ETC... like learning an entirely new language! and will end up w/ a phd by time its all said and done!...
good luck!
regards
