To sock or not?

[Mangodude]

i've been running a sock for a while, great for pulling stuff out but it fills up in like a day and i often dont change it for a week. I'm pretty sure that cant be good for the system. which is better? sock that often overflows or no sock at all and siphoning during what changes? (i'm trying to do 10% every week)

 

[sirreal63]

Depends on your point of view, many people use them successfully, I have never used one and probably never will. If you have filter feeders you could be removing their food and when I started in this hobby there were no filter socks and I have never had nutrient issues. There is nothing wrong with using them and I never found it to be a must have piece of equipment. I clean the sump when I do water changes and that method has worked very well.

 

[downbeach]

If you're using a felt sock, you may want to try the mesh type. They clog less, and are easier to clean, although they are a little less effective than the felt type.

 

[sweet ride]

I'ved used filter sock in my current system up until a month ago, when I finally decided to pull it out am actually surprise how much more gunk my skimmer is pulling. I also don't have to replace them every 2 or 3 days and wash and dry as well. The sump has a little more gunk now compare to when I was running filter sock I will just have to vacuum them every so often now. At the end of the day the only main difference I see is that I have salt creep now in my sump as I didn't have them before.

 

[dan-in-gr]

Hi, I ran a mesh sock for many months, but now use no sock, it needed cleaning every 3 days. Now I do two things, I use the food cycle on my controller when feeding to keep food from going into sump and I have a course sponge in overflow area I clean out once every couple of weeks. Yes, I do get a little more stuff in bottom of sump, but it is still acceptable. I am completely done with filter socks. I also upgraded my skimmer and it pulls out twice what I had before.

 

[Soy]

keeping an sps tank is a lot of work as it is. why create more with a socks. i put a bunch of rock in the overflow section of my sump and have sponges growing like crazy there. no issues whatsoever. I also put a powerhead in the return area so i dont have to siphon anything. too much work. sigh*

 

[Mangodude]

Thanks everyone! i'll give it a try and post how it goes..

i'm running out of room in my sump (never thought it'd happen) can i put rubble in my overflows?

 

[REEF SMAC]

I've tried with sock and without. I still prefer to use one.
Lot less splashing and salt creep around my sump.
A lot less detritus seems to make it to my sump.
Prefer to change out my socks and put them in the washing machine than to have to siphon my sump all the time.

 

[DNA]

For a dirty tank a sock is helpful until it gets clean enough.
I'd replace it every 3-4 days.

 

[fishyguy7]

I run a sock and replace it every 3 days with a clean one, once all 5 of them are dirty I put them all in the wash

 

[Alex T.]

I prefer socks. In the long run, I don't believe that letting gunk and detritus settle wherever it wants is a good idea. Since we're in the SPS forum, I think that the more you can export detritus of your tank, the more chance you have at success.

Thinking that a skimmer actually pulls detritus out of the water is foolhardy IMO. Detritus is heavier than water, and I have a hard time believing that the bubbles will get it into the collection cup. If you look at the bottom of your skimmer after a month or so, you'll see that it collects the detritus that didn't make it out of the skimmer outlet to your return pump. Many who pull their filter socks notice that they skim more. This is because the tank is getting dirtier, not that the skimmer is all of the sudden more efficient.

Aside from this, I don't need any of my snails making it into my Red Dragon skimmer pump and fouling it up either. It's much easier to pull snails out of the sock when I change it than to go routing around the sump picking them up. Socks don't take the organics out of the water, only the particulate that would have broken down anyway and caused water quality issues. I think you have to be much more vigilant in your maintenance routine if you don't run filter socks.

Again, this is my opinion. I know there are many people who don't run them, but it's far easier to be preventative with controlling water quality issues in an SPS tank than it is to be reactive.

 

[T-Boner]

I prefer socks. In the long run, I don't believe that letting gunk and detritus settle wherever it wants is a good idea. Since we're in the SPS forum, I think that the more you can export detritus of your tank, the more chance you have at success.

Thinking that a skimmer actually pulls detritus out of the water is foolhardy IMO. Detritus is heavier than water, and I have a hard time believing that the bubbles will get it into the collection cup. If you look at the bottom of your skimmer after a month or so, you'll see that it collects the detritus that didn't make it out of the skimmer outlet to your return pump. Many who pull their filter socks notice that they skim more. This is because the tank is getting dirtier, not that the skimmer is all of the sudden more efficient.

Aside from this, I don't need any of my snails making it into my Red Dragon skimmer pump and fouling it up either. It's much easier to pull snails out of the sock when I change it than to go routing around the sump picking them up. Socks don't take the organics out of the water, only the particulate that would have broken down anyway and caused water quality issues. I think you have to be much more vigilant in your maintenance routine if you don't run filter socks.

Again, this is my opinion. I know there are many people who don't run them, but it's far easier to be preventative with controlling water quality issues in an SPS tank than it is to be reactive.

+1 nicely put!

 

[brob22]

i agree also

i run socks to keep the detritus out of my sump

in the long run it creates less work cuz u dont have to vaccum ur sump nearly as much

 

[Laddy]

I've run a few systems with, and a few without.....needless to say having them a part of the system is yet another thing to clean. But hey, if it wasn't for cleaning and maintenance, everyone would be in this hobby.

I mainly use a sock to manually remove organics from the water column, not so much to ease the burden on my protein skimmer, but so that detritus doesn't clog up my GFO reactor and calcium reactor. Once detritus is allowed to enter those systems the efficiency goes right down the drain.

 

[toothman]

I have used socks off and on for 5 years, you do have to clean them in the washer with bleach and change them every 3 days. They are a pain, bottom line the tank does look a bit cleaner with a sock. That is it. No big deal to not use one either.

 

[MedRed]

If you're complaining about having to clean your socks often, that's all the more reason to use them. You are actually removing detritus from the tank instead recirculating it. Every time I remove my sock, it makes me happy that all of that junk is coming out of my tank. They will definitely help your tank look clearer/cleaner.

I usually have to swap socks once a week. I do wash with bleach in the washing machine after I've accumulated 4-5 socks.

In regards to filter feeders. I have 4 filter feeding crabs as well as NPS that have all been in my tank for over a year with no one starving to death.

 

[Alex T.]

If you're complaining about having to clean your socks often, that's all the more reason to use them. You are actually removing detritus from the tank instead recirculating it. Every time I remove my sock, it makes me happy that all of that junk is coming out of my tank. They will definitely help your tank look clearer/cleaner.

I usually have to swap socks once a week. I do wash with bleach in the washing machine after I've accumulated 4-5 socks.

In regards to filter feeders. I have 4 filter feeding crabs as well as NPS that have all been in my tank for over a year with no one starving to death.

^^^Exactly.

 

[MHG]

I prefer socks. In the long run, I don't believe that letting gunk and detritus settle wherever it wants is a good idea. Since we're in the SPS forum, I think that the more you can export detritus of your tank, the more chance you have at success.

Thinking that a skimmer actually pulls detritus out of the water is foolhardy IMO. Detritus is heavier than water, and I have a hard time believing that the bubbles will get it into the collection cup. If you look at the bottom of your skimmer after a month or so, you'll see that it collects the detritus that didn't make it out of the skimmer outlet to your return pump. Many who pull their filter socks notice that they skim more. This is because the tank is getting dirtier, not that the skimmer is all of the sudden more efficient.

Aside from this, I don't need any of my snails making it into my Red Dragon skimmer pump and fouling it up either. It's much easier to pull snails out of the sock when I change it than to go routing around the sump picking them up. Socks don't take the organics out of the water, only the particulate that would have broken down anyway and caused water quality issues. I think you have to be much more vigilant in your maintenance routine if you don't run filter socks.

Again, this is my opinion. I know there are many people who don't run them, but it's far easier to be preventative with controlling water quality issues in an SPS tank than it is to be reactive.

. I agree as well but i noticed that when you pull more out of your tanks, people on this forum will tell you your tank is too clean and that is why xxxxxxxx...



I like felt socks to remove micro bubbles...

 

[hanaumabay]

i would never use socks, just too much work. i already have many other things to clean.

 

[Alex T.]

i would never use socks, just too much work. i already have many other things to clean.

For the life of me, I can't figure out all the trouble people say they have with maintaining and using filter socks. Buy at least 4 socks, change them every 3 days or so and when they're dirty throw them in the washing machine. It takes no more than 10 seconds to switch out a filter sock! Where's all this work everyone keeps mentioning? Maybe many are too busy cleaning all the detritus out of their tanks, sumps and skimmers that their socks could have pulled for them.

Now, if there's a plausible reason not to run them...fine. I can agree to disagree on filtration philosophies and respect differences in opinion. However, saying they're too much maintenance isn't accurate. Comparatively, It takes much more time to thaw frozen food to feed my fish or clean the glass with a mag float or rinse out new carbon and gfo ash before adding it to my reactor.