Help with filter socks

[Webmanny]

Hi all,

I have a problem with my filter socks. This is a good problem, but it is driving me crazy. Two days ago all the remaining green hair algae in my tank started to die of and there is a lot of filaments floating around the tank and they are clogging the socks daily.

I just placed a brand new sick this morning and now it's already overflowing. I don't know what to do here, I want to remove all that from the tank, but I don't have enough socks for this volume.

Any recommendations?

 

[janes_mw]

.... wash and repeat! or if you can get a couple more so you have enough time to wash or even do a fresh water rinse with hose. They are doing their job!! Can you replace and immediatley wash so you have an exchange?

Sorry no easy answer!

 

[Webmanny]

I imagined this was the case. I appreciate it. I have all 4 socks in rotation right now. I had only needed 2 until now, but the GHA stated losing ground yesterday and it is losing the battle today.

Hopefully by next week, the algae will lose the war.

Thank you for your response. I appreciate it.

 

[janes_mw]

I imagined this was the case. I appreciate it. I have all 4 socks in rotation right now. I had only needed 2 until now, but the GHA stated losing ground yesterday and it is losing the battle today.

Hopefully by next week, the algae will lose the war.

Thank you for your response. I appreciate it.

Sounds like your killing it off so that is a good thing. Keep on top of getting it out of the system even if changing socks is a pain, it will pay off in the long run.

On my 300 while cycling and going through the brown diatoms, I was going through 2 6x16 socks every day and probably could have done twice a day. Done with that now and back at changing 2 socks every other day so I have somewhat of a backlog (14 socks).

 

[CuzzA]

I rotate my bags daily. They're cheap so just get a total of 7 and collect the used ones in a 5 gallon bucket WITH A LID and wash 6 once a week and repeat.

 

[Webmanny]

Good recommendation. I'll stop by FAIOS tomorrow and get a few more.

 

[asbauto]

If you or someone you know is good with a sewing machine you can make your own to get through this battle, I made 9 for under $7 to help with a Dino problem. It's cheap enough to toss when the die off of algae is over

 

[rogergolf66]

My guess is u r dosing some sort of carbon source? Bio pellets, vinagar, vodka? That's whats actually working. higher levels of bacteria consuming nitrates and po4 and they massive amounts of bacteria get clogged in the socks. That all being said I change my filter socks daily anyways. But when I was dosing carbon types I had to change my socks twice a day because of it. Change ur socks daily or before they overflow. What ever comes first

 

[Webmanny]

Roger,

You are 100% correct. I started dosing vodka about 3 weeks ago per the recommendation of our friend Big Z and have been slowly increasing the amount until this point. I have to say that it is crazy effective. I am truly impressed.

I have been using Bio pellets for a while with little effect, but since I started dosing vodka, things changed drastically, for the better.

The only side effect is this and I can live with it.

Thank you all for your recommendations and for helping me confirm that this is expected fallout from the algae die off.

 

[rogergolf66]

Roger,

You are 100% correct. I started dosing vodka about 3 weeks ago per the recommendation of our friend Big Z and have been slowly increasing the amount until this point. I have to say that it is crazy effective. I am truly impressed.

I have been using Bio pellets for a while with little effect, but since I started dosing vodka, things changed drastically, for the better.

The only side effect is this and I can live with it.

Thank you all for your recommendations and for helping me confirm that this is expected fallout from the algae die off.

Personally i would slow down the increase of vodca then. Do u have corals or is this a fish only? If u have corals be carful removing to fast will cause other problems with the coral. If it is a coral tank my recomendation is to slow down the increase in voldka dosing. Jmo. Good luck

 

[Webmanny]

I do have corals and I have stopped the increase as of this week. So far, I have increased 0.5ml per week and right now I am dosing 2ml daily.

Corals look OK so far, but I will keep a close eye on everything until all the algae dies off. Then, I plan on bringing the dose down to 1.5ml.

Thank you for the heads up.

 

[CuzzA]

IME, my favias and chalices did not like the vodka whatsoever and I've read this else where. I think you're supposed to cut the dose in half as your maintenance dose once nitrates are undetectable. Vinegar seems to be a popular option as well that doesn't seem as harsh on the corals as vodka. Just throwing that out there. Good luck.

 

[Webmanny]

Thank you Cuzza. I will do some research into vinegar vs Vodka and if I start to see adverse effects to my corals using vodka, I will switch.

 

[rogergolf66]

Yes cazza beat me to it. If nitrates r dropping fast as they will do I would cut dose now to 1 ml per day. It takes a month or 2 IMO to c the neg results on the corals.

 

[Webmanny]

Good point. I will reduce today.

 

[MJNTWise]

Carbon dosing is the devil....lol...I stopped and my tank hasn't looked this good...There's 2 things that I did. 1) Upgraded my Skimmer 2) Started changing my filter socks everyday. I started Bio pellets BUT I'm turning them off too, A little at a time. I do fun GFO but 1/4 of what is recommended for my water volume. my NO3 is 0 and PO4 is 0. that's the reason I'm cutting back on Bio pellets. BUT my Corals look great so far, Growing like mad.
Just my thoughts and experience

Matt

 

[luisagos]

For those that missed this thread.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2408985

 

[janes_mw]

I do Carbon Dosing but I use Zeovit. The reason I like Zeovite as my Carbon source is that there is a whole forum based on it and some very good folks to guide you (not that there are not otherwise for sure). I have been doing for at least 6 years (probably more) with nothing but good results.

It is super important to change filter socks daily if you can due to the collection of organics that are killed off. Once you get to super low nutrients, you will notice the water column crystal clear and not much in filter socks. But, at that point, you have to read your corals as to light tissue, dark tissue, etc and supplement.

There are alot of folks that pooh pooh Zeovite, but 90% of em have never tried the full system so I discount their advice accordingly.

Anyway, point is..... carbon dosing works, you just have to know what to do with a UNLS (ultra low nutrient system) once you get there (how to feed it).

 

[Webmanny]

So quick update. This has now become a full on bacterial bloom. I am now changing socks every 4 hours. Some corals are now showing signs of not liking this.

I realized what caused this sudden bloom. Yesterday I was installing my new skimmer and while I was messing with the sump, I cleaned the reactor, which was a bit clogged and relocated it. This would increase the flow through the reactor, therefore more bacteria.

Also, since the socks are getting clogged so fast, I've been only washing them with the garden hose. Thus, compounding the problem.

To make things worse, I cleaned the power heads and changed their positions to improve flow. Yet, another thing that will mess up the balance.

Bottom line, i messed with too many things at once and i may soon lose everything in my tank, which is very sad for ne and will likely kick me out of the hobby for at least a while.

As of right now, reactor is off, dosing is off, sock was just changed andcskimmer is running good. I'm placing this one in the hands of luck for now and I'll check in tomorrow after work.

Wish me luck.

 

[asbauto]

Hope everything pulls through for you.... I played hell trying to keep my 45 bow in check and is one of the reasons I went way bigger it's a lot easier to keep a big tank in check from my experience, the small tanks as you see if you do too many good things at once it causes bad things to happen... Good luck and prep some water for a water change and back down the carbon source a little more each day until you get everything to stabilize.