The heck with it, im going sockless!!

fishbox · Nov 4, 2017

I'm in the middle of building and adding my 1st sump ever to my 40B and have been debating the whole mechanical filtration idea. After reading this thread along with this post from Randy on another thread, I've decided against it. I do however like to take a turkey baster and wreck havoc on my sandbed before I do my water changes which stirs up a ton of particulates. So I will probably add something on water change day to help catch some of that.

With all the advancements in both our techniques and the equipment that we use, I'm noticing a new trend of issues with people stripping their tanks a little bit too much and ending up having to dose nitrate and phosphate. I'm no genius but instead of dosing nitrate and phosphate why don't we just leave a little bit in there???

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
You are correct that I never tried to remove detritus or particulates aside from running a skimmer, and a thick layer collected in my sump and refugia.

IMO, it may have been what prevented my tank from ever going ULNS despite massive organic carbon dosing.

IMO, unless ULNS is a goal, I'm not sure detritus removal is anything more than an aesthetic requirement.

In my system, the refugia had plenty of very low flow locations where detritus could easily settle so it wasn't a visual problem in the main tank water column, or even settling on the main tank bottom.

That said, I never tried particulate filtration on my tank (except in, say, GAC and GFO "reactors"), so I cannot really say how the tank would have been different if I did so.

lou dog420 · Nov 6, 2017

Mal11224 said:
I like the idea. How have your nitrates been? Do you run chaeto? I'm guessing your skimmer pulls a lot of gunk out.

Nutrients almost undetectable, yes I have a refugium with calurpa.

BreakingWave · Nov 10, 2017

I'm pro-plankton! Socks do more harm than good in my opinion, so long as your system is set up for it. You need high flow through the sump to keep everything suspended.

pdisner · Nov 12, 2017

karo25 said:
That should be a Reef2Reef bumper sticker. ;Woot

Yeah...I like I a lot!!

karo25 · Nov 20, 2017

So I did it, I went sockless!! ;Couchpotato All these sockless people convinced me to give it a shot. I was worried and tested a lot but it's been just over two weeks and my numbers have not changed at all and the few corals I have seem to have a bit more color. I'll keep testing, but so far so good.

lou dog420 · Nov 22, 2017

karo25 said:
So I did it, I went sockless!! ;Couchpotato All these sockless people convinced me to give it a shot. I was worried and tested a lot but it's been just over two weeks and my numbers have not changed at all and the few corals I have seem to have a bit more color. I'll keep testing, but so far so good.

Once you go sockless you never go back!

Lilcherylpony · Dec 13, 2017

gary henkel said:
i would suggest to all of you for whom a 1-2 minute swap out of a sock is burdensome to look at this video from bsr. watch it all the way through. as far as cleaning them, we have about 10, store the used ones in a hamper like thingy until we start running low, throw them into washing mashine with some chlorine bleach after inverting them, come out ready to go for the next cycle. pay particular attention in the video to nutrient levels where no sock was used and where they were used and changed twice a week. science talks.

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/video/view/brstv-investigates-what-do-filter-socks-do-for-you/

yep....we're friends for certain. We just didn't know it