What should I do with the filter sock compartment?

[deannao]

Hey everyone!
So I’ve got an AquaOne 255 Reefsys tank to set up. We decided on a Redsea skimmer, reefmat and dc pump. It’s a pretty tight squeeze but it all fits! However since we are by passing the filter sock compartment with the reefmat we are left with an unused compartment. The local fish shop guy said we’d be able to use both but the reefmat connects to the down pipe. What would you recommend doing with it? Just add media in there ? Any suggestions would be amazing please and thank you.

I’ll had an image down below of the sump and where everything is located.

 

[JonoH]

Just add some rock in there for extra biodiversity, i had the same sump on my old tank, and your doing well to fit all that in there!
The only issue you will have is with flow, so you may need to add a secondary pipe to keep the water flowing in that area.

 

[twentyleagues]

Can you remove the sock holders and put the reefmat there?

 

[deannao]

Just add some rock in there for extra biodiversity, i had the same sump on my old tank, and your doing well to fit all that in there!
The only issue you will have is with flow, so you may need to add a secondary pipe to keep the water flowing in that area.

Any smaller and they wouldn’t have fit I can still get my arms around everything so that’s a huge plus. Yeah been thinking about just using it for live rock etc! I didn’t even think about flow and adding another pipe just incase, I did think about adding algae in there and a little nano wave maker for water movement but scratched that idea.

 

[deannao]

Can you remove the sock holders and put the reefmat there?

Nah it’s way to small for the reefmat to fit and unfortunately that whole back panel is one big glass panel so I’m not able to take out that section either, I can take the silicone off the top where the holders are so the tops open but that’s about it.

 

[dank.reefer]

You could put reactors in there (carbon, gfo, or biopellet) then feed them off of your return pump to limit the amount of detritus going through them. Or put media baskets in the sock holes and feed them using your return. There are many different filtration options available for 4" filter sock holes you would just need to pipe in the water flow since you will be using the reefmat outside of that section.

 

[saltcreep74]

Hey everyone!
So I’ve got an AquaOne 255 Reefsys tank to set up. We decided on a Redsea skimmer, reefmat and dc pump. It’s a pretty tight squeeze but it all fits! However since we are by passing the filter sock compartment with the reefmat we are left with an unused compartment. The local fish shop guy said we’d be able to use both but the reefmat connects to the down pipe. What would you recommend doing with it? Just add media in there ? Any suggestions would be amazing please and thank you.

I’ll had an image down below of the sump and where everything is located.

Rubble rock, bio balls, or a bag of carbon would be my recommendations.