Two Auto roll or not Two auto roll?

[MasterClassReefs]

As someone who has never run auto rollers or even seen one in action how well do they filter? Can you go too far with them? Should 100% of your drain water flow through them or should you split it and let your skimmer handle the rest? Thoughts? #reefsquad

 

[exnisstech]

I ran one on my SPS tank untill a few days ago as the only mechanical filtration. It works well but TBH if you don't mind cleaning socks I'm not sure its worth the cost. My main drain runs to the roller but any water that trickles down the e drain goes unfiltered. I feel it's possible they can remove too much but im not really a fan of heavy mechanical filtration and don't strive for crystal clear water. My coral all show a feeding response when I blow rocks or stir up detritus in the sump so I don't want to remove everything. I'm not a clean freak like some folks and believe there's a benefit have mulm build up in my sumps because there's always critters living in it.
If you hate cleaning socks they're awesome.

 

[mbuxton]

My glass sump has 4 sock areas... two in a row. My Skimmer is located after the socks in the sump. Interestingly I find the second row catches more gunk than the first row.
I hate socks so ended up buying cups / holders and cutting my own filters every week. (Amazon: Aqua-Flo 12" Pond & Aquarium Filter Media.)
I love the idea of a roller filter but it would take years to justify the cost over making your own filter. (Aside from needing to potentially modify the sump to accommodate a good quality roller setup)

 

[MasterClassReefs]

I ran one on my SPS tank untill a few days ago as the only mechanical filtration. It works well but TBH if you don't mind cleaning socks I'm not sure its worth the cost. My main drain runs to the roller but any water that trickles down the e drain goes unfiltered. I feel it's possible they can remove too much but im not really a fan of heavy mechanical filtration and don't strive for crystal clear water. My coral all show a feeding response when I blow rocks or stir up detritus in the sump so I don't want to remove everything. I'm not a clean freak like some folks and believe there's a benefit have mulm build up in my sumps because there's always critters living in it.
If you hate cleaning socks they're awesome.

I was wondering if they would be effective enough to drop my nitrate and phosphate to zero causing me a different set of issues. I may create a bypass for them or simply run 1 fleece roller. I will be using a @BeanAnimal style drain set up so the main drain and durso is what I was going to run to the rollers. Perhaps an optional bypass or simply leaving the durso open or running it to a filter sock would be beneficial.

 

[MasterClassReefs]

My glass sump has 4 sock areas... two in a row. My Skimmer is located after the socks in the sump. Interestingly I find the second row catches more gunk than the first row.
I hate socks so ended up buying cups / holders and cutting my own filters every week. (Amazon: Aqua-Flo 12" Pond & Aquarium Filter Media.)
I love the idea of a roller filter but it would take years to justify the cost over making your own filter. (Aside from needing to potentially modify the sump to accommodate a good quality roller setup)

For my situation this custom sump is about to be built to my needs so I can work out quite a lot of options. At this point as far in as I have gone on this build the cost of 2 fleece rollers isnt concerning for me. Its a drop in the bucket for the project and seems highly effective.

The automation I like a lot and helps with consistency. 2 rollers also provide redundancy should one go offline for any reason.

@LobsterOfJustice suggested a bypass in the durso line to allow me to tweak the flow through the 2nd roller so I have more control over the nutrients. His thoughts make sense here. I hadnt considered how effective these rollers are when I was laying out the design. I treated them more or less as filter socks.

 

[BriDroid]

I ran one on my nano and it worked ok. The water level sensor never worked right so I just had it setup where my Hydros would advance the roll for 5 seconds every 8 hours. A roll would still last me a month. I actually sold it and went back to socks on this tank too.

On my new tank I’m going back to filter socks. I bought a big bulk box of them on Amazon. Collecting 10 or so dirty ones in the garage and washing them isn’t a huge deal to me. A little bleach and a cycle with some extra rinses and good as new.

 

[MegabiteOG]

I'm a big mechanical filtration guys and absolutely love the roller. I hated changing/ cleaning socks every 3 days or so. I also feed heavy and have a lot of fish so for me mechanical filtration is a must. As for nutrients, mine stays up and stable around 15 - 20 NO3 and and PO4 at .15 - .20. I'd say 95% + of the water goes through the roller with some bypassing it through the emergency overflow. Opposite to @exnisstech, I'm a crystal clear water guy and even run ozone to further that goal.

Personally, I would hate to run the tank without a roller.

 

[exnisstech]

I was wondering if they would be effective enough to drop my nitrate and phosphate to zero causing me a different set of issues. I may create a bypass for them or simply run 1 fleece roller. I will be using a @BeanAnimal style drain set up so the main drain and durso is what I was going to run to the rollers. Perhaps an optional bypass or simply leaving the durso open or running it to a filter sock would be beneficial.

My tank with the roller requires dosing to keep N and P detectable but the tank has always ran low nutrients. Its been a couple of years but I do remember nutrients dropping when I first added the roller and I used to shut it off at night and let it overflow a few times a week.

 

[MasterClassReefs]

I was wondering if they would be effective enough to drop my nitrate and phosphate to zero causing me a different set of issues. I may create a bypass for them or simply run 1 fleece roller. I will be using a @BeanAnimal style drain set up so the main drain and durso is what I was going to run to the rollers. Perhaps an optional bypass or simply leaving the durso open or running it to a filter sock would be beneficial.

My tank with the roller requires dosing to keep N and P detectable but the tank has always ran low nutrients. Its been a couple of years but I do remember nutrients dropping when I first added the roller and I used to shut it off at night and let it overflow a few times a week.

This is exactly my worry. I dont want to completely nuke the nutrients in the tank . I may have gone heavy on my initial plans.

 

[exnisstech]

Ya I'm moving out of that tank soon and haven't decided if I'm going to put the roller on the new tank or not. I run mesh socks on my large tank and they are super easy to clean with a garden hose. I'll never run felt socks again. They're too much trouble storing until there's enough to run a cycle in the washing machine. Then I have to make sure the machine is clean or momma gets upset.

 

[Useful_Idiot]

I love my reefmat 1200. It didn’t change nutrients too much in my system, I still need to carbon dose. I prefer it over socks as it gets the dirt out before it breaks down in the water column. I’ve heard some people put the motor on a timer and let it overflow overnight instead of piping a bypass.

 

[tbrown]

I recently started using a filter roller on my tank. It replaced one of my two socks and likely takes approximately 33% or less of the flow. The second sock has been replaced a filter cup with PolyFil. I will say that since I began using the roller I have not iced clearer water than running two cups with PolyFil.

I haven't tested since installing the roller so I'm not sure what it's doing to my nutrients but I typically have low nitrates.

 

[Red_Beard]

Although i may not be the one to ask here as i only very seldom run mechanical filtration of any kind (not counting the skimmer).

But yes, you can over filter the water, but that isnt really a problem if you mitigate with supplemental coral feeding and direct addition of n and p.

 

[MasterClassReefs]

I love my reefmat 1200. It didn’t change nutrients too much in my system, I still need to carbon dose. I prefer it over socks as it gets the dirt out before it breaks down in the water column. I’ve heard some people put the motor on a timer and let it overflow overnight instead of piping a bypass.

That is an interesting idea also. I am going to plumb a beananimal drain system, I have also had it suggested to simply not put a roll in the durso side while one is run on the dedicated syphon if needed to allow some nutrients to build up. As the bioload grows having the 2nd could be nice, and having a backup to run while cleaning another or in the event of a failure seems nice.

 

[MasterClassReefs]

Although i may not be the one to ask here as i only very seldom run mechanical filtration of any kind (not counting the skimmer).

But yes, you can over filter the water, but that isnt really a problem if you mitigate with supplemental coral feeding and direct addition of n and p.

I usually end up with heavy bioloads so I am planning ahead.

 

[Project1004]

I’ve actually got burned out of this hobby after changing out the filter socks for 10yrs.

When I returned 3.5yrs ago…. There were filter rollers out in the market. It was my first big purchase. lol. Recently I came across a gentleman who was recycling the filter rollers by washing it in the water once and in a washer. I have a used roll that is seating outside for this purpose but Havnt gotten to it. 1 roller lasts me about 2-3month.