Filter Socks- Anyone able to do away with them?

[jayroc24]

Hello everyone, I have question for those who have successfully been able to do away with the socks and rollers.
All the parameters looks good other than PH has gotten a little low 7.9 to 8.2 (slowly coming back up)

Background-

Fish-
Chocolate tang
(2) damsels
Fox face
goby
(2) Picasso's
I will be adding more

Clean up crew
Copepods
1 Mexican snail
4 Turbos
5 nassarius snails
2 Emerald crabs
1 sea urchin

Corals-
mixed reef - mainly SPS and LPS
I will be adding more

Equipment-
RSM 625XXL
(3) AI 32's
Vectra L2 Return Pump
Full APEX system
Skimmer- Bubble Magus DC-9- I hardly ever have to clean this... maybe once a month

Current Fuge setup-
Running a fuge light with Red Ogo Gracilaria it is growing; currently running it 24/7 to keep my PH up (only using half of the capability of the refugium, I can expand this)
(2) filter socks (I would love to do away with any kind of filters socks/rollers).

Thoughts?​

 

[DiefsReef]

Interesting question. is it possible?
I went with rollers so I would not have to deal with socks but am not aware of any process that will do away with all filter media. If there is than I'm very interested!

Need some input from the old salts around here (no, not referring to age )

 

[sharis100]

If you have no socks or variants- ie filter floss in cups or rollers, you would need some other method of straining the water for large particulates to keep nutrients in check. Vacuuming the detritus consistently helps. Accumulating detritus in large clumps of chaeto is also done as a method of filtration. With a very strong protein skimmer and a lot of chaeto you could run a clean water column. The problem is detritus decays and raises nutrients. So, if you have softies and lps, this could be a method of doing things. Water changes would help. Simple systems can work. But if you are trying to grow more sensitive organisms like sps and more picky finicky lps, things might be more complex. I would not run a sand bed if trying this to make things easier to maintain. And lots of water changes would be needed or automated AWC. As well as vacuuming all detritus you can in tank and sump. Some folks run salt water tanks in jars and only use water changes as their method of cleaning with no filters and no skimmers.

 

[Sbear123]

My husband and I use the roller filters.

 

[jayroc24]

I am eager to try this for a couple of months to see what happens, but I am hopeful to hear from some folks that have tried and had success or failures.
Thank you to all so far for your input!

 

[Tanster2]

I always use filter floss and change it every other day. I pick through it to make sure there's no micro stars or any little organisms that I can save, and then chunk it.

 

[ptreef]

I’ve never done filter floss or socks for any extended period of time

 

[Steve Burton]

I've never had a filter sock in any of my tanks.

 

[jayroc24]

I've never had a filter sock in any of my tanks.

Steve, from what you have read from my equipment/setup; would you recommend doing anything different before attempting this?
I do have auto water changes set up to replace approximately 10 gallons per week and dose with Fusion 1 and 2 based upon the Trident readings.

 

[civics14]

I've never had a filter sock in any of my tanks.

How often do you clean your sump?

 

[Steve Burton]

Maybe once or twice a year

 

[delloman]

I have a roller in my sump it's the best thing ever I will never clean another sock! They make some cool drop in replacements that look like they work well be careful just removing them as I will be a destabilizing event one thing to never have any.

 

[enderg60]

I got tired of cleaning them. I had 2 I would change every 3-4 days, ended up with about 20 so I didnt have to wash them all the time.

I took them off totally after a year or so, didnt see much difference in the tank but my fuge grew tons more pods and feather dusters. I do remove everything and clean out the sump/fuge twice a year though.

 

[Adam]

My $0.02, if it's worth that much...

New systems should use some type of mechanical filtration. Once there is sufficient coral mass and the cuc is established the need for it slowly dwindles. Getting to that point varies but it would usually be in the one to two year time frame.

 

[hzheng33]

I don’t use filter socks in my 150 with 25+ fishes and yet I still struggle to get nitrate or phosphate to register in my test.

 

[saltwaterwannabe]

I have ran with and without socks. The only reason I returned to using them was water clarity. The socks really do take a lot of the particulates out. I increased my water changes when I was not using socks but I never saw a huge difference other than pariculates.

 

[saltwaterwannabe]

..and I agree with what Adam said… if you use socks you want have several of them and a place to store them dirty till you have enough to run through the washer. Remember they can start to smell pretty funky until washed.

 

[ichthyoid]

Roller mat & skimmer, the 1, 2 punch.

If my clarity still isn’t great, then I’ll dose Tropic Marin Reef Actif, which is a bio polymer based flocculant, that also acts as a coral food.

The Reef Actif part may be of interest to you, as a nutrient management method, sans socks/rollers.

 

[Adam]

Roller mat & skimmer, the 1, 2 punch.

If my clarity still isn’t great, then I’ll dose Tropic Marin Reef Actif, which is a bio polymer based flocculant, that also acts as a coral food.

The Reef Actif part may be of interest to you, as a nutrient management method, sans socks/rollers.

I wish I could find a roller mat that would work the way me system is setup. I've looked high an low and it appears the only way I could do something is to design and build it myself.

 

[Steve Burton]

Something like this Theiling? Does nobody make external roller mat filters anymore?