To foam sponge filter or not?....

mpjmeyer · Apr 16, 2017

OK my tank has been up and running for about 4 months. I currently have a 65 gallon tank, 10 gallon fuge and a Lifereef protein skimmer in the Lifereef sump which came with a foam filter sponge

I've had nothing but problems controlling my nitrates. I do water changes every sunday, tested rodi water, tested mixed water before it goes in tank and even purchased a media reactor to help

After going through my setup to see what the issue could be, I realized I've never rinsed the foam filter sponge in my sump!! After more reading, I've discovered many people suggest taking it out and not using any filter instead of a foamblock that could create a nitrate factory.

Today, I performed a 35 gallon water change, rinsed the foam filter, cleaned skimmer, vacuumed sand bed and more. Should I just take the foam filter out permanently and not have a filter except protein skimmer or keep it in the sump and rinse it every other day? I don't use filter socks either

Reefing Madness · Apr 17, 2017

You could leave them in there, just have to remember to rinse them out weekly, so they don't build up garbage.

ramabama · Apr 17, 2017

I would leave them and add it to your weekly maintenance schedule.

mpjmeyer · Apr 17, 2017

I rinsed it out yesterday during the water change, took it out this morning for a rinse and the water I squeezed from it had a tad of a yellowish tint. Is this normal? I kept it out of the tank to dry until I get home from work later

Reefing Madness · Apr 17, 2017

Yea, the yellowish tint is normal, not to worry. If you arent using it as a biological filter, I'd hit it with the hose, rinse it well, then throw it back in.

IronVulture · Apr 17, 2017

I have the same sump I just squeeze mine out and rinse it in the old water from my water change.

FFFishy · Apr 17, 2017

I've got a custom Life Reef Sump and have sponges both before the skimmer and before the return pump. I'm not using filter socks. I clean the sponges once a week (or more frequently if they get clogged) by rinsing them in our laundry sink with 'regular' water, then squeezing out most of the water before returning them to the sump. Yes, there's yellow residue to be washed out of the sponges. I replace the sponges approx every 3 months. Make sure that you rinse new sponges very well in old tank water, otherwise expect your skimmer to be upset for a day or two. Here are a couple of tips:

(a) I marked the sponge compartment with two pieces of colored tape. There's a lower mark that represents the water level for a just-cleaned sponge, and an upper mark that says 'clean me'. I've got about a half an inch between the marks.

(b) If you do some major cleaning in your tank (blow stuff off the rocks, stir up sand, etc), put a piece of felt filter material on top of the sponge. It acts like a fine filter sock trapping small particles. I buy sheets of the filter material and cut a bunch of pieces to fit the sponge compartment. I'll put a piece of the felt material over the sponge and leave it in place for 24-48 hours, then discard it. I'm doing this once every 3-4 weeks.

Shaun Sweeney · Apr 17, 2017

I use pond foam for my primary filtration. I rinse them (squeeze in the sink) till the water is fairly clear and put them back - oriented the way they came out.

bblumberg · Apr 19, 2017

You don't indicate what "problems controlling my nitrates" means. 10 ppm? higher? Corals do need at least a few ppm of nitrate for good color.

I see some rock in the fuge. How much live rock is in your system? Purchased live, or did you start with dead rock? If the latter, it takes many months to build up the denitrifying bacteria deep inside the rock that will reduce the nitrate normally produced by biological filtration to nitrogen gas. You might simply need to wait longer for the denitrifying bacteria to become established...

I have Lifereef compact Berlin sump in my 75 g that uses the same skimmer as yours. I found that upgrading the pump from the Mag 9.5 it came with to a Sicce Syncra 5 (about a 50% increase in flow) made a very big difference in how the skimmer performed. I only cleaned those foam blocks every few months or so because they are inconvenient to reach in my stand and never had much nitrate problems. However, I started with live rock and the tank was 9 years old before I switched to Lifereef sump/skimmer.

My new 150g build started with mostly dead, acid/bleach washed rock, although I did buy one 50 lb box of air freight live rock (unfortunately mostly came as rubble which is in my fuge). The big difference with this tank is that I have a large segment in the sump (6" x 15" x 12") with stacked Siporax Pro in it (25 mm size). The tank has been steady with just detectable nitrate since I set it up about 7 months ago. My FW tanks that also use Siporax took almost 6 months to show a reasonable amount of nitrate reduction (>50 ppm down to 10) from the Siporax. Other filter media (Eheim Ehfisubstrat Pro, Seakem de-Nitrate) did not reduce nitrate at all.

Bruce

Scott Hawaii · May 10, 2018

100 micron filter socks with UV sterilizer make my water crystal clear. 100 micro is fantastic mechanical as well as polisher in one tinny space. 2oo micron has larger pores but does not polish the water with no visible particulates like the 100. My fuge has a rainfall algae scrubber with a regal 250 RO protein skimmer. That is all in my 30 gallon synergy sump.