Are fleece rollers worth it?

[Vivid Creative Aquatics Verified Sponsor]

I have always had filter socks, but have been curious about owning a fleece roller. Are they worth the cost? Would you buy one again?

Worth the cost? Ddepending on your needs and goals for your tank, yeah, I think they can be worth the costs. But the initial cost and sometime even the ongoing costs can be a barrier.

Fleece rollers are convenient when it comes to lower maintenance times and can be very effective. In some cases, can be too effective, as many have already stated.

Other factors to consider are flow rates – some fleece rollers require lower flow-through rates than you may want to push through your return line. However, @Ryan - Serious Reefs has address that above, which I think is an interesting solution.

We have an alternative that sort of meets in middle of the convenience of a Fleece roller and the laborious task of washing filter socks.

The NOSOK allows you to utilize filter floss to get filter sock-like performance but you’ll never have to wash filter socks. You can also customize the filtration to some extent with the NOSOK. You can run it with or without filter floss, and with or without the built in 255-miceon filter screen.

 

[Ryan - Serious Reefs]

i’m certainly not knocking them but what do they do differently that my skimmer doesn’t do?

Functionally, one removes fish waste and uneaten food in real time. The other waits for it to partially decay before removing it.

In terms of performance, either can maintain stable nitrate and phosphate in a moderately stocked tank. In a heavily stocked tank that is fed frequently, however, the skimmer does not even come close.

One note on filtration. We are all hard-coded to think of nitrate and phosphate as the final products of food breaking down. That simply isn’t the case. They are just the parts we can easily test for. Foods also contain binders, preservatives, minerals, vitamins, organic carbon, and many other compounds.

Mechanical filtration like felt socks or fleece rollers differ from skimmers because they capture waste before it breaks down and release these things. Particularly useful in a low water change environment.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

FWIW, skimmers do take out many particulates as well as dissolved organics. Not saying that it takes out the same ones (skimmer can take out smaller ones, but also misses some) or as many (don't know), but it’s clear from many sorts of information that solids can be skimmed.

These are some sorts of clear evidence of particulate removal:

This person saw his skimmate turn red/brown from dusty GFO:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/beginners-intro-to-gfo-by-pgravis.100025/post-1242683

This person saw it turning black from GAC:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/i-think-i-may-have-gone-too-far.34461/#post-374272

Diatom shells (likely whole diatoms) are in skimmate:

https://reefs.com/magazine/elementa...-skimmer-actually-remove-from-aquarium-water/

 

[rtparty]

i’m certainly not knocking them but what do they do differently that my skimmer doesn’t do?

Filter roller removes FAR more than a skimmer ever can but I find that to be a major negative for most systems

 

[TONYLONG]

They’re nice options but sometimes it takes time to get them properly tuned up to every system .
Once you achieve it it’s just sit and enjoy .
Mostly monthly fleece roll needs to be replaced