Skipping mechanical filtration

[desertranger]

Anyone ditch the filter sock type mechanical filtration system. We are going out of town and I took out the sock so my neighbors don't have to worry about changing it. If it works out I may continue to run it this way.

 

[frisbee]

I've never ran any sort of mechanical filtration on my tanks. Well, that's not entirely true. Right before I do a water change, I'll use a power head to stir things up in my sump, blow the detritus off the rocks, and sometimes turn the sand bed over. During this time, a filter sock is used for a few hours, but that's about it. So far so good.

 

[Choff]

I'm not currently running any socks. My sump is large and I have a huge open area that is unintentionally working as a settling area. I take a brine shrimp net and sweep through it to clean up the detritus.


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[Luukosian]

Went back to the sock when I got the new sump in. Ran without a sock for years and cleaning the sump was a pain....I'm sure there are easier ways to do it but just got sick of cleaning it. Plus I catch my peppermint shrimp in the sock sometimes....easier to just dump them out of the sock back into the display lol.

 

[Snid]

I would say that unless you do as frisbee does and have a maintenance routine that stirs things up and catches the bad stuff too big to be skimmed, you'll want to keep some form of filter. Otherwise those big particles are just going to gather and collect and turn into something bad.

Think of it this way... Everything you remove from the sock with each cleaning is everything that will remain behind when it's not there.

So the answer is, yes, you can remove it, but you may need to change your maintenance plan to accommodate the change.

 

[Ratpack]

I have ran my tank for the last 4 years without any mechanical filtration, up until last night. I replaced my 30 gal sump with a 40 gal. Wow the difference between a clean sump and a dirty one makes the whole system seem cleaner. As others have posted, if you have a ritual of cleaning the sump, you will be OK, but if not, things can build up. My old sump was nasty. The new one has a filter sock system and after seeing it clean again, I don't think I will go back to not having one. To me it will be much easier to clean the socks than to clean the sump.

 

[Steve L]

I don't have a sump, but I've only used a skimmer as my only means of filtration for over 2 years in my 70 gallon reef tank. I blow the rocks off every couple weeks and let my CUC pick through it all when it hits the bottom.

 

[desertranger]

thanx for the info