To sock or not to sock..

[Davy Jones]

Setting up a custom 125 gallon, usng a 40 breeder as the sump. Currently it is setup with a small drain section, a compartment with 3 filter socks, a very large skimmer section and a return section.

I want to configure it to have a refugium.

My thoughts are this, remove the filter socks section but leave the final baffel giving me about 8x18x12 or so for the fuge.

Or I can try to move the filter socks a bit and encroach on the skimmer section, at most I could have 7x18x12 by doing this and then the skimmer section is just large enough for my skimmer.

I know socks help keep the sump clean and that would be their only purpse for me, so my question is.. are socks even worth it or is a larger refugium section better? I have an h80 now but would switch to either El cheapo Amazon grow light like the Mars hydto or the h380 if the fuge section is large enough

Thoughts??

P.s. not planning on going triton, just hoping to use the algae, skimmer and maybe some gac as the nutrient removal. Don't want to do all the other stuff available

 

[HB AL]

IMO I would keep the socks if possible in your reconfiguration of the sump. They are great at catching unwanted particles. For example when I blow out the rocks or no flow zones in the main display they work great in filtering out those particles and I will change it out as soon as the display is cleared out of the blow out. My sump does not collect much detritus and I attribute that to the socks. I have always used the 200 micron ones but recently got some 150 micron from my lfs to try out. If you rotate out the dirty one for a clean one every 2 to 3 days I see no reason for not using them. I have not seen anything definitive reason for not using them unless you don't have a sump or have a reason they are detrimental to the tank inhabitants. Try and make it work and keep the socks. My sump is very simple, 1st section sump then skimmer, middle section full of rock small and large sizes with a bag of carbon and a bag of phosgaurd then last section with 2 return pumps filled with large rocks. It seems to work really well with this simple layout.