How often do you change filter socks out?

[jacobfata]

In my 90 gallon discus I do at least every three days, sometimes even daily. Are other people obsessive like me when it comes to cleaning?

I have four filter socks that I rotate out. I double wash them in the washing machine, first time with a half cup of bleach.

I’m interested in others methods if you care to share!

 

[esoxlucius]

In my opinion you can't be too excessive in cleaning your mechanical filtration out. Whether you're using filter socks, sponges or poly floss all three are first port of call for gunk. That gunk is no good hidden in your media, yes it's out of sight, but it breaks down and leads to nitrate. I use sponges and floss and they both get a good rinse out in warm tap water every day. It takes me literally 3 or 4 minutes. The olive greeny to brown crud that comes out is better down the plughole than stuck in my media. My nitrates on water change day are usually around the 10-15 ppm mark now. That wasn't always the case though. I used to rinse my sponges and put brand new floss in once a week. Then my nitrates would typically be 30-40 on water change day. The way I do it now has greatly improved my water quality. Over excessive? Not a chance. Efficient and better for my fish? Certainly.

 

[duanes]

Agree with exolucius, when in the states I usually had 5 tanks to a sump, so I had one sock working, one sock ready to go, and one soaking in bleach.
If I could get two days on a working sock, I considered myself lucky, sometimes only 24 hours depending on size of fish, and how messy they were.
I consider fish like largish cichlids (oscars, Vieja Parachromis) 1 day per sock species.
I was very anal about nitrates, when mine hit 5ppm, to remove nitrate precursors, I cleaned socks and did a large water changes.

 

[jacobfata]

Thank you both for responding! I wanted to make sure I wasn’t disrupting anything by changing it so often. My discus aren’t exactly messy but they require frequent feedings, so ever 48 hours or daily is what I’ll stick to. I find a lot of uneaten food in the sock, and I couldn’t go about my day knowing it’s there just building ammonia.

 

[DN328]

Thank you both for responding! I wanted to make sure I wasn’t disrupting anything by changing it so often. My discus aren’t exactly messy but they require frequent feedings, so ever 48 hours or daily is what I’ll stick to. I find a lot of uneaten food in the sock, and I couldn’t go about my day knowing it’s there just building ammonia.

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Nice tank...I like the clean look and their colors pop.

I don't think there is harm changing socks often either as mentikned. At the same time I also think it depends on your filtration and what your stock produce. I had a relatively low stocked tank with an 22" aro and a few others and changed every 1-2 weeks. Sometimes changing more often did not have a measurable impact to my nitrate level. So...I found no reason to do it more often.

 

[jacobfata]

Nice tank...I like the clean look and their colors pop.

I don't think there is harm changing socks often either as mentikned. At the same time I also think it depends on your filtration and what your stock produce. I had a relatively low stocked tank with an 22" aro and a few others and changed every 1-2 weeks. Sometimes changing more often did not have a measurable impact to my nitrate level. So...I found no reason to do it more often.

Thank you for the compliments. I see your reasoning.. Less is more!

 

[Lepisosteus]

Depends if you are using felt or mesh and the micron. I found that it would take 3-5 days for my felt socks to start restricting flow noticeably and 7+ days for mesh. Both being 225 micron