Doing the dirty work: Have you used filter rollers with your reef?

[Morpheosz]

I use 1 red sea reefmat 1200 on my 340 gallon display 75 gallon sump with a skimmer rated for 300-400 gallons at high bioload 500 gallons at low bioload, and an Algae turf scrubber, plus a cannister filter filled with matrix rock and a pellet reactor both for denitrification. That said, with all that. my phosphates still test out at between .05 and .15 ppm (weekly) and nitrates have tested at 20.5 ppm (weekly).

I go through approximately 80 - 100 Inches per day (Around 7 to 8 ft per day). Which lasts up to 15 days for me per roll.

At $60 a month I can buy a lot of filter socks. The rolls come out solid brown in color and I feel like my skimmer's job has been reduced to oxygenating the water. If anything I wish there was options around 200 micron or 500 micron to allow the skimmer some stuff to skim out. But, that said, I am no where near bottoming out nutrients. I'm hoping the roller mat doesn't need as much paper the longer it goes, but, seems to be a consistent thing month over month right now. been running it at this pace for about 6 months.

One thing to look at is how high you have the Reefmat mounted out of the water. I moved mine up about 3" (i.e. the water level down 3") and the added water pressure improved efficiency by 2/3. I was using 30"/day, now about 10".

 

[Snowxcross]

just wait until you have to replace the roll. I've been using one since they came out, and will get rid of mine once I'm out of rolls. What a PITA.

I have changed the roll, not a big deal.

 

[corky1966]

Doing the dirty work: Have you used filter rollers with your reef?

One of the major filtration questions for a reef tank was filter socks or no filter socks. With the introduction of filter rollers there is another significant option for mechanical waste removal. At first there were some challenges with the rolls quickly being used up, however over time some of these filter rollers have received raving reviews. Have you ever used filter rollers and what has been your experience? Do you have a brand, size, or style preference? Do you have any tips or thoughts to share? Please let us know your experience with filter rollers in the discussion thread that follows.

Photo by @BBLINKS

@EAZi_Coral

Love my reefmat 1200 once I figured out what water level to run it in ! I went from using 50 inches a day to 8. Couldn’t be happier with it !

 

[RichReef]

I will never run a tank without a roller mat ever again. Even a freshwater tank.

I use a BM and will eventually replace it with a Red Sea. My time spent cleaning filter socks is worth way more than 15 dollars a month. Floss isn't good enough for me.

Best purchase ever.

 

[Treefer32]

One thing to look at is how high you have the Reefmat mounted out of the water. I moved mine up about 3" (i.e. the water level down 3") and the added water pressure improved efficiency by 2/3. I was using 30"/day, now about 10".

Yeah, I could move it up a little further. I Have it sitting on the basket on some egg crate that's sitting on some rock at the top of my sump water line. It's maybe 3 inches in the water. The water level is barely above the basket. (The basket is empty - no media or anything in it). I still go through 80 -100 inches per day. The only think I can think of is my 20 ish fish are really dirty. . lol. I have 2 creole anthias, the male is close to 11-12 inches in length. I also have a blue caribean tang that's close to 9 inches. And a couple other adult tangs. I feed 8-9 cubes of frozen food a day and a sheet of nori every 2 -3 days. I don't know what else to do, other than just hope the water gets clean enough at some point that it doesn't need to use that much paper.... I thought about trying to use a prefilter of some type that drains into the reefmat. But, that creates more to clean. So. . ..

 

[Niner reefer]

I have the Clarisea sk-3000, but the dang thing keeps jamming. It’s never worked correctly, the water float trigger sticks no matter how much I clean it. I would LOVE for this roller mat to work, but due to the consistent jamming I went back to filter socks.

 

[klavmaister]

Love my reefmat 1200 once I figured out what water level to run it in ! I went from using 50 inches a day to 8. Couldn’t be happier with it !

what do you mean? I have a reefmate 500 in a red sea g2, can't see that you can adjust this anywhere?

 

[mortimersnerd]

150g with a Trigger Platinum 34. Really happy with it so far.

 

[alann]

Really considering getting a reefmat because of the app. I think red seas app is the selling point for me.

 

[Colodano]

Running the reefmat 1200 on a 625G2 tank, and the tank is in a retail store, so the staff there needs to be involved as minimally as possible. I can monitor usage on the app, see when the roll is getting low etc. all from anywhere.
From a tank maintenance perspective, this is leaps and bounds above having to change socks every few days.

 

[scottbapilot]

Something that a lot of people forget is that the Clarrisea has a by-pass valve that you can open and close to control nutrients. I love my SK-5000.

 

[Baka Mop]

Really considering getting a reefmat because of the app. I think red seas app is the selling point for me.

I just bought a new RSR G2 525XL with all the accessories, and the main selling point was the Reefmat ready sumps. That, and my LFS was having a 10% off sale on all Red Sea products.

 

[pecan2phat]

Been running Klir DI-4s for years on multiple tanks and it's a love/hate relationship. The hate part is limpet snails that tear the fleece roll every few weeks. I wonder if this is a Klir problem with their cage design. Any others with different branded rollers having tearing fleece problems?

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

How many of you that love the roller have wall to wall sps systems? Please raise your hands. Not just a couple frags. Wall to wall. Pics would be great

 

[Twosixpax]

I use a reef mat 1200 love it. One roll Lasts 2 months for me. Costly for sure but I guess it's the premium to save on time and effort. Another issue I'm experiencing are low nutrients and this is due to the roller removing food particles and waste immediately which means there's nothing cooking the water to release some nutrients.

I had the same experience ReefMat 1200 running for a month and nitrates down to zero - thinking of using the APEX to turn it off for some period (overnight?) to try to bump the nitrates some.

Agree with most of the sentiments here - not the cheapest option (by far) but I couldn't go back to socks..

 

[hubble]

I have the Clarrisea SK-5000 Gen 3 on my 160 and love it. It took a few weeks to get it dialed in (return pump percent, by-pass valve opening, and being a new tank) but once I did it's been great. The first roll lasted 4 months and I removed it and cleaned it and replaced the roll.

 

[tee89]

I had the same experience ReefMat 1200 running for a month and nitrates down to zero - thinking of using the APEX to turn it off for some period (overnight?) to try to bump the nitrates some.

Agree with most of the sentiments here - not the cheapest option (by far) but I couldn't go back to socks..

definitely run it on a timer or start dosing. I'm dealing with dinos at the moment, PO4 bottomed out.

 

[TastyScrants]

I want free flow of pods and other micro organisms in my system. Enough said.

I’ve recently adopted this mindset after using a roller filter for a long while.

Once I removed it i started to see an improvement in coral colour and polyp extension. I later set up a refugium to improve biodiversity.

One of the reasons I’m here resurrecting this thread is I am not finding much information out there on the impact a roller filter has on the reef in general.

I’m wondering if I’ll need to reintroduce mine in the future or not, or if I’ll always be without mechanical filtration.

I am going to start using filter floss temporarily though during tank maintenance to capture additional detritus.

 

[TastyScrants]

How many of you that love the roller have wall to wall sps systems? Please raise your hands. Not just a couple frags. Wall to wall. Pics would be great

Why are you asking this? I’m looking for knowledge and you may have the answers to my questions.

I recently removed my roller mat because I think it was starving my tank. Since doing so my acro colour and polyp extension has improved drastically.

I wonder if these roller filters are too good. Are you also thinking this?

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Why are you asking this? I’m looking for knowledge and you may have the answers to my questions.

I recently removed my roller mat because I think it was starving my tank. Since doing so my acro colour and polyp extension has improved drastically.

I wonder if these roller filters are too good. Are you also thinking this?

I was asking bc I hadn’t seen any roller mat tanks with wall to wall high end sticks. Still haven’t btw.