To Filter with your Socks or not?

[martinmcnally]

Whats the consensus on filter socks these days? Good / Bad?

[Bblinks]

I have been on and off with filter sock for some time now, I know for a fact that it does help with polishing the water and keeping it pristine. The only downfall is cleaning it. I have to always pre-washed my filter sock before it goes in the washer machine which is some what of a pain in the a$$. At the end my vote is YES to filter sock.

[paddyob]

No chance here.

I even removed my foam block.

I personally believe it's putting good water through collected poo. I prefer to let my filtration deal with it and occasionally siphon detritus from first chamber of the sump.

And when removing, crud spews back into your system if you are no super careful.

[unclesalty]

Myself I voted no as I do not use them or intend to use them. I let my skimmer do all the work which it seems to be doing just fine!

[Aquattro]

Absolutely use them every time I remember...

[soapy]

No. But occasionally I will put a sock on the return pipe and stir things up with a turkey baster and clean out the tank, including scraping algae from the overflow etc. I usually remove the sock after the cleaning session and rinse it out.

[kien]

No. I don't use them on a regular basis. I'm too lazy to clean them, they periodically cause my skimmer to go berzerk and I don't like the idea of throwing them into the washing machine just to wash 4 or 5 filter socks.

I did used them for the first year that my tank was running, then ditched them. I will put a sock on maybe once every few months whenever I've done a thorough cleaning of the tank which involves blowing debris off of rocks, etc.

I think filter socks are good and filter socks are bad. Depends on your perspective :-)

[lastlight]

I believe removing the detritus daily is beneficial and minimizes what breaks down in the tank. Lucky for me (or very unlucky lol) I run THREE 100 micron socks and all three require daily cleaning as they plug in less than 24 hours!

[Myka]

I use 200 micron. I would prefer 50 micron, but I can't find them for a decent price. I have 10 socks that I changed everyday. When I've used 8 I flip them inside out and wash in the machine. I don't add anything to the machine (no soap, bleach, baking soda). Since I change them everyday they don't get so dirty that I need to pre-rinse by hand. Pre-rinsing sucks.

[lastlight]

Mine become so thoroughly clogged that when I pick them up they are no longer allowing ANY water through. I have to rub the sock against itself and let it slowly trickle out to the point where I can pinch the top and squeeze the sock empty. It's routine and I think it's worth the hassle so I do it.

I wash by hand and do suspect I'm not able to get them as clean as the washer could. I might start doing them in there once a month or something. I worry about all the soap residues in the machine though.