Take Out Filter Sock???

[ridetheducati]

I am going to guess without research that the feather dusters I have by the dozens live on plankton?

And detritus.

As others have mentioned above, I stopped using sponges and socks years ago. The sump is a filter and will gather the detritus and it needs to be vacuumed at least bi-weekly. A top notch skimmer helps as well, arguably the most important piece of equipment in the system.

 

[funkyfish77]

No socks here . They add to much work to matinence (sp) what my skimmers don't get will settle out before the return pump . I clean my sump once a week . I've never been much for daily choirs on my tank so everything gets done on a weekly basis except emptying my skimmers that's every few days. I do keep a few socks handy for when I blow off my rocks in my display .

Funky

 

[markaren]

Thank you , that answers another question.

Since my first aqua scape the other day I had sand debris settled onto my rocks. I bought a Turkey baster bulb thingy and thought the re-dusting would clear better with a sock.

How do you clean under an egg create on a water change?

 

[sirreal63]

Where is the egg crate?

 

[markaren]

The crate sits on the common PVC tube adapting to raise the Skimmer. It sits under the skimmer in the middle chamber of my sump..

 

[sirreal63]

I never get 100% of the gunk out with sump siphoning, but at least once a year I do pull the sump and give it a good cleaning. You will never get all of the detritus out of the tank so just get what you can. There will always be more in the display than the sump, even with a bare bottom tank it collects under rocks. The goal is to get what you can and not worry with you cannot.

 

[Voxboy]

The crate sits on the common PVC tube adapting to raise the Skimmer. It sits under the skimmer in the middle chamber of my sump..

I have a good size power head in my sump that keeps everything swirling. My reef octo has a much better skim because it grabs more floating in the water

 

[Voxboy]

The crate sits on the common PVC tube adapting to raise the Skimmer. It sits under the skimmer in the middle chamber of my sump..

I have a good size power head in my sump that keeps everything swirling. My reef octo has a much better skim because it grabs more floating in the water

 

[ajcanale]

+1 on the no filter socks. Especially if you run a refugium. Filter socks, especially felt ones, inhibit feeding of a refugium when it comes to pods. Not to mention the hastle and potential nitrate production.

I run small powerheads in 2 out of 3 chambers (not in fuge), preventing debris buildup.

 

[ajcanale]

Double post...

 

[markaren]

Ok...Sock is removed. I see benefits out way the negatives. I will keep an I on things for the next week as I move into testing Alk, Mag...I have no corals and this is my last learning and balancing step before getting into exactly what kind of tank I want.

 

[Voxboy]

Keeping detritus in suspension as much as possible with a good skimmer is the best way for me to remove waste from my tank. I have close to 10,000gph water flow in my 130 DT

 

[markaren]

UPDATE:

Initially and immediately I suffered almost no difference in clarity. Yes, there were a few more micro pieces but almost not noticeable.

Nitrate I have not tested lately because I do regular WC. I think it is obvious that this is going to be a GREAT benefit.
I am seeing more of the junk collecting in my sump.

My skimmer is where the issues began. A XP2000SSS was running flawless and then began to stop skimming little by little. I cleaned it and this seemed to help...but logic told me that that was actually because I stirred up the sump.

Why did my skimmer stop working. Well....I'll tell ya. I had recently bought 2 MP40Wes and "Love" them. I am pretty sure it was the 40's that kept me from noticing the slow lack of sump pump exchange to the Show Tank. Also I had change the sump intake after removing the sock and submersed the return ...WOW quiet system now.

So quiet I did not notice that my pump was basically not pumping . The new power heads had distracted my in experience to closely monitor everything including the pump. After all the tank was now starting to look quite crappy and I was starting to think a Sock might be put back in.

GUESS WHAT! I have an Eheim Pump , the kind that has one of those mesh filters ...AHHHHHH!!!

I turned off my Power heads and looked intently at the return. LOL I could blow more with a straw.

My skimmer was not working well because it skimmed the sump prestine. The turn over was almost non existent. The result.
No skim Mate
No Sump Flow
Nitrate Factory in Pump filter Mesh
Increased debris in Tank .

This is rhetorical
Should I also remove the last filter from the pump? It has the normal plastic screened cover the prevent large object form being sucked.
So I lived and learned and solved all on my own and can't wait to see how the tank will start looking again.

 

[sirreal63]

I have no filters on my return pump, as you noticed already they tend to clog quickly. The large screen cover is all you need, but I don't even have that.

 

[markaren]

I am going to do a water change today and suck the sump for the first time since this change. Thanks Jack for your help and the others. the no Sock thing is one of those things that defies logic, I had underestimated the slower flow in a sumo ( not the clogged filter...slower intentional adjusting for skimmer time) to accommodate settled detritus from suspension.

This is gonna work fine and shows that giving a chance to try something out of your norm can produce surprisingly nice results with FAR less work.

 

[smatter]

Definitely 86 the sponge in the Eheim. Once the sponge is gone you will have a reliable pump you shouldn't have to look at very often; and congratulations on losing the sock :thumbup:

Sent from my DROID3 using Tapatalk 2

 

[mhucasey]

the no Sock thing is one of those things that defies logic

There are a lot of things like that in this hobby - I started using the classic berlin method back in the early 90s and it seemed non-intuititive to remove the trickle filters and resins and canister filters, but even the berlin method experts didn't say to remove the filter floss(there weren't socks back then). Everyone just said change it regularly so they didn't become nitrate factories. I finally got sick of changing them and having them clog and so i took all mechanical filtration out - voila! the last of the algae disappeared, the corals improved further, skimmer worked better...etc...

 

[reefgeezer]

I guess I'm on the fence. I don't use filter socks 24/7, but I do use them. I have several small ones (4" X 8") that clog in less than 24 hours. Check our McMasterCarr.com for cheap ones. When I take the turkey baster to the rocks, siphon detritus during water changes, or do any other maintenance that might put more detritus in the water column, I add one and let it run until it clogs with detritus and bacteria colonies from carbon dosing.

A big +1 of removing any filter or fine screens from return and skimmer pumps... but... then your pump will get jammed by something that gets sucked into the impeller! You always have to keep an eye out.

 

[Voxboy]

My strange logic why I do not use them is that once they start collecting debris…water is forced through it anyway. It never gets removed from the water column. Optimal flow through the sump with a power head in each section and a really good skimmer. No sponge on the return pump either.

 

[markaren]

I do tend to like Johns application. I mean, why not, right. Using a sock in this manner is a wise fast removal tool. Even if for 30 minutes and remove. I am about to take the Turkey baster to my rocks , I think I will pull out a sock while doing so and see what I get. Mostly my rocks debris are actually from my sifter and is basically sand.