I Fired My Filter Socks!

[lshin037]

Mine doesn’t. I use the cups and change out the floss every couple of days. I do have a little strainer basket I found at the dollar store that kind of hangs/sits over the sump and I put the dirty floss in it and let the water drain out slowly before I throw it away

Might have to give this a try. When I bought new filter socks I just rinsed them in water and put it in. My skimmer went crazy and overflowed. Soaking them in bleach over night solved that issue. If I dont have to bleach the floss and just simply change them out, it'd definitely be worth it.

 

[globalbutterfly]

I just buy Poly-fil from JoAnns or Michaels when it is on sale or I have a coupon. Make sure you get the “original” that has no chemicals or flame retardants.

 

[Adam]

I fired my socks too. I don't run them but very seldom anymore. No floss, no filter mats and no socks.
The only time I put a sock in is when I know I'm going to be doing something in the sand that stirs things up or to polish the water if I have several people coming over.

Corals love the particulate in the water column. I stir things up in the sump and take a small pump that I zip tied to a piece of PVC to blow the rocks off. I try to do that weekly to a couple times a week. One day the sump a few days later the rocks. Lather, rinse, repeat .
I will say that since I stopped vacuuming the sand with every water change thing got even better. So I now do my best not to disturb it much anymore.

@Steve Burton You need to put something under the leak detectors that are on bare concrete. A paper towel, napkin, sheet of paper... If you don't the metal contacts on the probe will get eaten up by the moisture in the concrete. There's just enough there to cause a galvanic reaction that will destroy the probe(s). Ask me how I know

 

[lshin037]

I fired my socks too. I don't run them but very seldom anymore. No floss, no filter mats and no socks.
The only time I put a sock in is when I know I'm going to be doing something in the sand that stirs things up or to polish the water if I have several people coming over.

Corals love the particulate in the water column. I stir things up in the sump and take a small pump that I zip tied to a piece of PVC to blow the rocks off. I try to do that weekly to a couple times a week. One day the sump a few days later the rocks. Lather, rinse, repeat .
I will say that since I stopped vacuuming the sand with every water change thing got even better. So I now do my best not to disturb it much anymore.

@Steve Burton You need to put something under the leak detectors that are on bare concrete. A paper towel, napkin, sheet of paper... If you don't the metal contacts on the probe will get eaten up by the moisture in the concrete. There's just enough there to cause a galvanic reaction that will destroy the probe(s). Ask me how I know

Lucky. Id rather not use filter socks or floss either but I get a ton of microbubbles if I dont use them. Plus, Im running UV and I've read that filter socks help filter out big particulates that would end up inside the UV chamber.

 

[Adam]

Lucky. Id rather not use filter socks or floss either but I get a ton of microbubbles if I dont use them. Plus, Im running UV and I've read that filter socks help filter out big particulates that would end up inside the UV chamber.

Socks or floss is a good way to get particulate out of the system, especially newer tanks. I wouldn't recommend to someone to just pull them. You have to have something to balance out what you're removing. When my extra large ATS is running right it is more than capable of keeping my NO3 & PO4 under control. One of the cheap lights on it died and I'm just now getting it back on line. But it will be a few weeks before it has good growth. During the month it's been down I've been dosing NO3PO4X at half the recommended rate and it is working pretty good. In addition to the ATS I have a pretty big skimmer and also run UV. The way my sump is laid out the only way I get bubbles is if the return chamber is low for some reason, and I don't have issues with particulate in the UV. Right now I have about 1700ghp going through the sump. Everybody's systems are different, even if just a little. What works for one might be a disaster for another. I do think that as a system matures and has decent amount of coral biomass it handles nutrients much better. As the system transitions from newer to more mature you'll see the NO3 & PO4 numbers start to bottom out. That is when is when you can look to remove something simple like socks and see what effect it has on the overall system.

 

[Steve Burton]

"You need to put something under the leak detectors that are on bare concrete. A paper towel, napkin, sheet of paper" @anit77 , done, thanks Adam

 

[jhutto]

Anyone seen filter cups that are bigger for the 6 inch opening in a standard sump? Red Sea ones are only 4 inches. Would like to try the floss.

 

[danielll]

whats the search to find them online?

 

[lshin037]

whats the search to find them online?

Do you mean where to find these online? there are several manufacturers. Turbos Aquatics, Clear Water Scrubbers, Santa Monica

 

[danielll]

Apologies, I wasn't clear, Someone mentioned cups for filter floss you can buy instead of DIY, just wanted to know who was selling those, I should have looked at the thread, it apparently pivoted to algae scrubbers

 

[Adam]

I'm going to start a DIY thread for my ATS. we can move the discussion over there.

 

[kimxd]

Would you be able to post a picture of it? I don't use filter socks at all, I have a dedicated 27g refugium that makes me go nuts with the amount of chaeto and caleurpa that it grows, but I loved your idea!

 

[CJD18]

I don't wash filter socks anymore! I cut the plastic top off of my filter socks and siliconed them to the top of a plastic bottle that I cut the top from. The bottle fits down into the hole where the filter sock goes. I drilled about 20 holes in the plastic bottle. I stuff it with filter floss. After 3-4 days, I simply take the floss out, toss it and insert new floss. Works like a charm and traps more sediment that the socks did.

Got any pics??

 

[urbanknight]

I'll get some tomorrow for you.

 

[urbanknight]

Here are a couple of pics of a spare that I made. Where you see the black dots, I will drill holes.