Sock-ology: My Filter Sock Experiences

AI Hydra
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Lionfish Lair said:
Maybe I should not have said anything and if I was going to say anything at all, I should have SAID it. I guess I just never feel the need during a conversation to list my years of experience and the skills I've gained along the way. I let my words hold water, not the fact I've set up more tanks than a crazy lady has cats. I hope my years of experience helps someone and never ever cuts off someone's thoughts and ideas based on their lack of years. I give ANYONE permission to question what I do and say. I invite it. It's bloody STIMULATING! I hope to promise you I will never list my years of experience as supportive data to what I'm saying. Maybe as a statement if it's relavent, but it'll never show up as a recurring theme in many of my responses.

And no offense to Paul B, but I have no idea what "I'm gong to be like Paul B here" means.....
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Very well said [emoji2]
 
Deltec
This is a great informative thread. I don't use socks but that doesn't mean I didn't learn something. Nor do I do water changes but I don't even know what that has to do with this thread. Lol thanks redfish :-)
 
Top Shelf Aquatics
I wish i could find a way to incorporate a sock before my return pump instead of off the drain pipe. At least with my tank it seems like it would do more good there.
 
Does filter socks with holes big enough for a golf ball to fit through count??

After reading this thread I almost dumped my dress socks in the trash :rolleyes:
Does someone knows how long we have socks in the hobby as me 45 years in the hobby really got lost at it.
Btw, I'm going to share the first post on my local forum, that must be a MVP (Most Valuable Post) of the week.
 
Top Shelf Aquatics
Diesel said:
Does filter socks with holes big enough for a golf ball to fit through count??

After reading this thread I almost dumped my dress socks in the trash :rolleyes:
Does someone knows how long we have socks in the hobby as me 45 years in the hobby really got lost at it.
Btw, I'm going to share the first post on my local forum, that must be a MVP (Most Valuable Post) of the week.
Click to expand...


45 years??? Man you are def not a n00b.
 
I am now 100 percent convinced that the age of my old socks....either from their simple age, my washing technique, the swelling of the fiber, whatever.....reduces the size of the openings causing them to prematurely overflow.

With my new 200 micron socks, I'm back to 4 to 5 days between changes. Here it is just before a full five days, and the sock is "filling up," showing that it is beginning to clog up. The water level in the sock is a little over an inch above the water level in the sump.

 
NanaReefer said:
I have a question!! How much do you all think a skimmers performance is affected by having it in the overflow chamber where a sock is also used?
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I'm hoping it has no negative effects because my skimmer is in that first chamber with my sock.




I'm not sure what your thought process is in regard to impacting the skimmer. Do you think by manually removing some of the smutz with the sock, it now isn't showing up in your skimmer? Similarly, without a sock you'd be producing chocolate brown skimmate? Or do you foresee some other way a sock impacts the skimmer? You've gotten my curiosity! I will tell you that the water level in that first chamber never changes........The baffle height determines that steady depth. So what are your thoughts?
 
www.dinkinsaquaticgardens.com
Diesel said:
..........Btw, I'm going to share the first post on my local forum, that must be a MVP (Most Valuable Post) of the week.
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I'm not sure what this means, but do you need my address to send me a royalty check? :eek: :D


Thanks Diesel!
 
redfishbluefish said:
I'm not sure what this means, but do you need my address to send me a royalty check? :eek: :D


Thanks Diesel!
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Now you made me feel like a jeabo fan that I stole your idea :rolleyes:
I'm always a fan of a good topic that makes sense and gets us somewhere.
 
Well I have noticed that obviously the longer I go without changing my sock the more nog my skimmer produces.
So yes a sock does have an effect on a skimmers performance. I feed Reef Frenzy 2x a day. Some would say I have a light bio-load, 5 fish 26 corals. I run 200 micron felt socks.
Sock & skimmer in the same chamber also. Thinking of going sockless for a week. Having just gotten a new beast of a skimmer [emoji13]
 
Chewy.com
redfishbluefish said:
I just learned something interesting about mesh filter socks that I'd like to share.

Before I do that, I want to briefly review socks to educate those who aren't aware of the differences available in filter socks. (For those smarty pants reefers, you may wish to jump to "Conclusion.")


WHAT ARE THEY MADE OF

Filter socks are available in two different materials.....Felt and Mesh.

Felt socks are thick (ca 1/8 inch) and made of a nonwoven material. They are very efficient is cleaning your water, but because of their thickness, more difficult to clean. You can't see through them. Typically people clean these in their washing machines with a little bleach.

Mesh are a screen material that comes in various hole sizes. Common hole sizes are 100-200 microns. Under a microscope, these look just like a window screen, but much smaller little squares. Because they are a single layer of fiber, they are translucent and clean fairly easily. Typically people clean these by rubbing fabric to fabric while holding under a running faucet. (Some also clean these in washing machines with a little bleach).


WHAT SIZES DO THEY COME IN

Filter socks are available as the fabric alone (mesh or felt), typically with a draw string, or with a hard plastic ring. The common sizes for the plastic ring versions are 4 inch and 7 inch diameter rings. These rings typically fit into some sort of holder to allow DT water to drain through the sock.


MY EXPERIENCES

I first stared with both mesh and felt socks....both with seven inch rings. The only effective way to clean felt socks is in a washing machine. I have a top loading aggitating washing machine that ended up breaking up the plastic rings on my socks.




Since I could not use my washing machine to clean my socks.... felt was out!

With my mesh socks, the way I cleaned these was to run them under the faucet while rubbing fabric to fabric, and then hanging them to dry. This was very effective in getting them fairly clean. About once a year I'd soak them in a little bleach to make them squeaky clean white.

My socks are old....somewhere between 3 - 6 years old....or maybe older. I originally had about a dozen, but now down to six socks. What I've recently noticed (the past six months to a year or so) was that a sock that use to last 4 - 5 days, I was now only getting 1 1/2 to 2 days out of before it was overflowing. By the way, I use 200 micron socks.

I wasn't sure what was causing this, but my guess was bacterial bloom blocking up the mesh, precipitation on the sock, or are just clogged up with something the bleach wasn't cleaning. A recent thread was cause for me to order up a couple new socks to figure out what was going on. What I first noticed with the new socks was that they were more transparent than the older socks I have. Again, both are 200 micron socks. The best way to show this is to show you two pictures of a window in my house with the first taken through the old sock, and the second through the new sock.







To further investigate the above differences, I pulled out the jeweler's loupe and looked at the two socks. What I found was that the old socks appeared to have smaller holes. Also noted was the threading was thicker with the old socks. What I'm now surmising is that my washing routine caused the fabric to flatten/fray (and now thicken), reducing the size of the holes. The new sock has been in my tank now for over three days with no evidence of water rising.


CONCLUSION

In conclusion, I am now convinced that my washing routine of mesh socks by rubbing fabric to fabric caused the fibers of the mesh to widen, and thereby reducing the size of the holes to filter the water. What was once a 200 micron filter sock, that lasted 4 - 5 days, was now much smaller, causing it to overflow within 1 1/2 days or so.

My interest in running a filter sock was to eliminate snails from entering my skimmer. I will now be ordering 300 micron socks with the hope that my washing routine, fattening the fiber, will still allow me to get four or five days out of each sock.
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Nice post.

I just inherited a 200+ gallon planted tank with a 75 gallon sump so I will be using filter socks for the first time.

I have some socks already and had already surmised that the mesh style would be easier to maintain than the felt types but I was surprised to see that you get less than a week between swapping socks. My own setup will be using the 4 inch socks since the tank was drilled on one end so I guess that they will need to be swapped out a lot faster.

Looks like I need to order more socks and your post has been helpful in selecting the mesh size.
 
Great thread!
 
Tidal Gardens
Sockless and with mesh socks, I have waaaay too many microbubbles. But with the felt sock I feel like I'm trapping food, pods, and shrimp larvae prematurely. What's a newbie to do? Maybe a felt sock that is open at the bottom? I trust my skimmer, livestock, and bacteria to break everything down, so my sock is needed more for bubble control than mechanical filtration. I've even thought about super glueing Marine Pure spheres into a hollow cylinder design and trying that.
 
twreefer said:
Sockless and with mesh socks, I have waaaay too many microbubbles. But with the felt sock I feel like I'm trapping food, pods, and shrimp larvae prematurely. What's a newbie to do? Maybe a felt sock that is open at the bottom? I trust my skimmer, livestock, and bacteria to break everything down, so my sock is needed more for bubble control than mechanical filtration. I've even thought about super glueing Marine Pure spheres into a hollow cylinder design and trying that.
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No bubble trap? How many chambers is your sump?
 
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IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

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