Do you use filter sock on your drain in the sump?

[Moe_K]

Going to post a poll here. I'm wondering what the current thinking is on the old filter socks.

 

[Cherokee_Dude]

I use the plastic type filter socks... I love how much uneaten organics it catches, especially after a week that I feed cyclopeze. That stuff would just rot if the sock didn't catch it.

 

[acrofragger]

i dont use filter socks tho i do use the big sponge that goes in the divider of my sump .

 

[STiTCH87]

Not yet I don't, but I plan to give it a try and research it's pros and cons for myself.

 

[Pat02026]

I am reluctant to vote no...... The reason being is space in my sump is at a premium, therefore they weren't considered while building/designing my sump layout due to the tight dimensions. If I had the room I would run one in a heartbeat. There's a lot of detritus to be cleaned out of my sump every few months, and I feel that with a sock this could be avoided. The biggest downfall is the maintenance. I swapped out once a week with my old setup.

Out of curiosity, how often are you changing yours (those who are running them)?

 

[s_kelley]

I chose MUFFINS, why you ask???? Well who doesnt like muffins? haha
on a serious note I have varied between filter socks and the plastic mesh filter socks for years and had pretty decent results.
When I had my 75g with a 20long sump I used strictly mesh and did pretty good, i think i could of never changed it out and been fine.
Now that I have my current set up I really noticed how much it is needed. I feed various foods and you really see how much is sucked into the overflow and down into the sump when you dont use anything. Then it needs to be sucked out when you do water changes or it it just decays. I added my filter sock hanger and been happy ever since. I purchased four filter socks and two mesh ones, i forget the micron but BRS sells them, I have to change the filter socks weekly and could let the mesh ones go monthly but my OCD kicks in and usually do it monthly anyways.
I have noticed the filter socks catch way more everything, algae, uneaten food, copepods, whatever
but the mesh ones let a bit more through, when I went away for ten days to mexico i put the mesh filter in and it was fine
I am not sure what is best so i change it up every once in awhile

 

[yomibro]

I used filter pads before but noticed that a lot of stuff was getting through and ending up at the bottom of the sump, the filter sock actually traps almost everything that flows down from the overflow box and I rinse the sock every water change (2 weeks).

 

[GobyWanKenobie]

I use a filter sock on my 72 FOWLR and change it once a week. It keeps the water crystal clear. Every once in a while I will leave the sock off for a couple of weeks just to give the pods a better chance, but I can definitely tell the difference. If I leave if off for too long, I start to get cyano.

 

[Moe_K]

Whoa, interesting responses so far. Lots of fans of filter socks.

I was worried they might be nitrate factories. Not so much?

 

[s_kelley]

They def could be. Just have to keep up with changing them out

 

[STiTCH87]

By changing them out, do you mean adding a new one every time? Or can you wash and reuse?

 

[pallobi]

I use them now, and have for about 9 months now, maybe longer, however I and modifying my sump and adding a sort of "pre-sump" sump area where the detritus and fall and I can jus siphon out daily or whatever, as needed... Its jus easier than using and replacing filter socks and cleaning them... I have to take a little time either way and this can be done with little extra time and less effort... Jus my plan

 

[mchartier]

I don't, I don't have time to be changing and washing them, I do however every 4-5 months shop-vac my sump to get any detritus that is accumulating there. Which I should be doing on my next water change

 

[s_kelley]

By changing the out i mean, i have a bunch of them and take out the dirty one put a clean one in. Then wash out and keep rotating them.
I siphon what little detritus is in my sump out when i do water changes

 

[jayinh]

I use them and have always . they catch a lot of stuff and should be changed out often, i designed my sump to house two 4" socks on a shelf thats lower than the top of the sump as to allow for overflow if they backup/clog.

what are other doing for cleaning the dirty socks...filter socks that is ; )

 

[johnnyb]

I use them and its a good thing my wife feeds my tank as I am at work during the hours the lights are on. No matter how often I tell her feed less she doesnt. Every sunday I do my 40 gallon water change and swap out my socks. I have 2 socks on my drains. They are clogge by the following week and almost overflowing the top into the sump. I take them out hose them off and place them in a bucket of bleach. I take the 2 that were in the bucket of bleach from the week before rinse them and put those in a bucket of clean water. Take the 2 in the bucket of clean water out and hang to dry. I take the 2 out drying from the week before and rinse them 1 more time and put them in the sump. So i rotate 8 socks. The 8 last a long time. I cant imagine all that stuff staying in my tank if it wasnt for the socks. It sound slike a lot but my weekly water change and sock cleaning takes me under 30 minutes for my whole system.

 

[dannyp02908]

i dont use them. Not that i am against them, i just try to do as little maintenance as possible. Let me know when there is a controller that will swap them out for me, lol.

 

[P-Nut]

I use them, and wash them once a week, and throw them away if they are too dirty.

I also have one with carbon that I throw in the sump.

 

[SteveDola]

I find that muffins do an excellent job at absorbing any toxins as well as filtering out large particles in the water column. Before I would use donuts but found them to be lacking something in the center to adequately capture particles...plus the strawberry frosting would tint the water to a pink color which was too much when running in conjuction with my Fiji purple bulbs. Mind you that I only use English muffins since the banana nut incident of 2008 where I almost nuked my entire tank because the nuts started leaching arsenic back into the water column. Let it be known, I love me some muffins!

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back to reality...I ran filter socks on/off for almost 9 years but then I redesigned my sump to better allow for no use of socks. I still have some incase I need to filter out sand or whatever but I became tired of the cleaning/washing/removing/replacing maintenance of running filter socks. DO they keep a polished water column and clean sum...yes but with a correctly spaced set of baffles and a wetvac cleaning every 3 mths I can achieve almost the same results with much less effort.

 

[acrofragger]

I don't, I don't have time to be changing and washing them, I do however every 4-5 months shop-vac my sump to get any detritus that is accumulating there. Which I should be doing on my next water change

some one say idea