Articfox32

You must change/clean filter socks frequently and it still never fully catches everything meaning you still end up having to clean your sump. If you don't use them you just have more of a mess to clean. I use to run them until I noticed it wasn't catching everything and it was too much of a hassle. Now I have added powerheads to the sump section housing the reactor and skimmer to keep items suspended longer in hopes of it increasing the chances of it getting pulled out by my skimmer, I also would prefer more detrius to settle in parts of the sump easier to access and clean.

I hate hate hate cleaning filter socks. I own four, and in two years I've only used three of the four. And when I did use one for a few days, it ended up outside to dry out filthy (as is). Eventually I cleaned them all, dried them out and tucked them in my storage area until the day I really need to use one again. It is easier to siphon out my sump two or three times a year.

When I see particulates blowing through my tank, and I don't see many, I tend to believe that it is food for something in my reef and will be devoured. We are tending an eco-system, and crystal clear particle-free water isn't natural at all. These are museum showcases, they are living breathing animals and the occasional bit of dust moving through the tank is fine.

If a fish accidentally swims down the drain, it will likely be killed in the sock since it can't get out and would be hammered by flow or bubbled around to death. You might even kill it during cleaning not knowing it was in the sock.

Lastly, any waste that sits in the sock will be there until you take the sock out. If you feed on Monday and some food traps in the sock, it will stay in the sock rotting until Thursday if that is when you pull it. And if you wait longer, you've left compounding waste to rot and contribute to rising NO3 / PO4 levels.

Thank you for the comments. Changing out the sock do become an hassle. Time to take them out and let the filter do there job.

Agree with Melev- they are a PIA. Now with saying that I still use them. On one drain I have a filter sock, on the other, where the protein skimmer is, I dont. I have 12 of them. I throw them in a bucket when they are dirty. When the bucket is full, they go into the washer with some bleach. Maybe once a month or so I do this.

I hate socks. I used one to catch some algae that formed and I scrubbed off while I was away on winter vacation and it ended up catching and kill my several of my molly fry.
I always find them full of my pods too. I'd like to do away with them all forever.

Leaving a filter sock in to long can increase nitrates and phosphates???
for the life of me I have been trying to get ride of green hair algae for about 6-8 months now. I just swapping tanks using my old rock but all new sand and after almost 10 days I start gettin the algae growing again. Before algae started my parameters were all good except alk was low and ph is at 7.7 - 7.8.
Hanna low range phosphate tester is showing 0.00.
could the filter socks be causin the algae to grow?

Originally Posted by Articfox32

Leaving a filter sock in to long can increase nitrates and phosphates???
for the life of me I have been trying to get ride of green hair algae for about 6-8 months now. I just swapping tanks using my old rock but all new sand and after almost 10 days I start gettin the algae growing again. Before algae started my parameters were all good except alk was low and ph is at 7.7 - 7.8.
Hanna low range phosphate tester is showing 0.00.
could the filter socks be causin the algae to grow?

Green hair algae is a beast. You state your alk is low, what is the number? I wouldn't say your filter socks are causing the issue but they may not be helping it. Green hair algae will make nitrate and phosphate test show zero since they are using it as fuel.

I decided to take out the filter socks to see if its worth the hassle of changing them twice a week. My alk level last Monday is at 8.1 and week previous was near 6. Ph was also 7.4 and lower then I would like it to be at. I was able to raise with seachem marine buffer for a ph of 7.9-8.0, hoping it would bring up the alk. Now for the algae I was having a problem with I ended up buying some Mexican turbo snails and after 1 night I had less the half left and a week later I am down to almost none on sand and rocks. Can I feed the snails dry leaf algae to compensate the lack of hair algae?