Filter socks clog in 1 day

[kecked]

But there is zero particulate matter. The socks are clean but plugged.

 

[Dmax]

A friend of mine had snails clog up his skimmer. What type of cuc is good for a sump?

I wouldn't sleep at night with a CUC in the sump. Have had snails in the past make their way down alive and navigate all thru the sump. I had a external skimmer that the water level dropped one day. I checked everything I knew to check with no luck why it was happening. I ended up pulling the external feed pump and found a dead snail in the inlet pipe blocking the water flow. Glad it didn't make it to the impeller.

I have ran the tanks with and without. I usually end up running them again because my water will look dirty from all the small particles floating around. Maybe not a issue on a smaller tank that isn't real deep front to back.

I'm about to pull mine off the tank and see how long I can tolerate it. I changed out my skimmer pump to a larger one and hoping it may help pull more out before it can overrun the display.

 

[Kzang]

Hi,
I upgraded from a 20 gallon long to a Red Sea Reefer 350 - 70g display and 20 g sump. Everything was going smooth as silk. No ugly stage, no gha, no anything bad really. At about 6 months in my nitrates got up to 12. I think my target should be lower so I started dosing NOPOX as I was doing in my 20. My anemones acted badly at first so I ramped up the NOPOX real slow. I am now at the suggested dose and my nitrates have dropped to 4, which I think is great. However, my filter socks, which I used to change 2x per week, now are clogged and overflowing every day. Is this going to go on forever? Changing filter socks every day is not that fun. When my nitrates are lower and I am dosing less will it go back to the way it was? Change the socks 2x per week?

Thanks, I really appreciate your help.

Details you will probably ask me:
Fish load:
1 Kole tang
1 Percula clown
1 Coral Beauty Angel
1 Orchid Dotty Back
1 Blue Spot Toby Puffer
3 PJ Cardinals
1 Lawnmower Blenny

All fish would still be considered small for their species except 1 of the Cardinals is full grown

Various leathers and toadstools and soft corals, Euphillia including hammers, torches and frogspawn and bubble coral, mushroom corals, gsp, green napthea, Pallys and Paly Grandis. 2 SPS - Styloflora and Montipora Septosa, 3 RBTAs. All look great.

Chemistry:
KH consistently at about 10.2
Calcium 410
Phosphate 0.03
Salinity 1.025

Dosing Red Sea KH as well as NOPOX

I change 1 gallon of water daily

Are you running a skimmer? You're supposed to skim out the extra bacteria from the nopox. Maybe its getting clogged with bacteria slime?

 

[cdnco2004]

I have a system about the same size as yours. UV and Skimmer as well. I was going through socks about every three days. I ended up switching to the reef diapers so I did not have to wash the socks. Then within a few weeks of starting to dose NP Bacto-Ballance my socks would overflow within 30 hours of changing. I ended up going back to washable socks as the reef diapers are just to expensive to go through that fast. My numbers also dropped nicely and water looks better. I just bought another half dozen washable socks and change every day. Better water quality is worth the extra work. Oh my socks are 50 micron socks. And since my socks have been filling up daily my skimmer output dropped. I think the bacteria affluents are capturing more and are larger and filling up the socks before they get to my skimmer so my skimmer is not as efficient as it used to seem.

 

[Dave Reef]

Still no socks on a regular basis. I put them in for a few hours after I vacuum the gravel. That's it. Water into sump, skimmer, then back into DT. No more mechanical filtration. Really no change in anything at all vs. when I was hassling with those socks. Clarity great. Nitrates = 8, Phosphate = 0.02. I used to change those socks every 3 days. What the heck? This is so much easier.