[cokipoint]

My 150 gallon tank has been cycling for 2 days, I have a 30 gal. custom sump. My 4" filter socks are dirty sould I clean them or leave them alone.

[pogodzib]

You'll want to keep them fairly clean of debris, so clean them if they have debris inside of them. If they just appear dirty because they changed color, I'd leave them alone.

[RyanG]

You can clean them by throwing the in the washer, using no laundry soap or anything. Some people use a tablespoon of bleach, make sure you have high efficiency (he) washer if you use bleach.

[Taras1]

I try to rinse mine out by hand once a week in salt water. Using a washing machine sounds a bit expensive for just one filter sock. I'm not sure that I'd want to try the bleach though I guess you could soak the sock in some chlorine neutralizer. Sounds like a lot of work to just rinse out the sock, IMHO.

[Jay03GT]

I have about 8 of those things now. I change them out every 3-4 days. When I have a few dirty ones I take them out back and hose them out with a garden hose until they are pretty clean. Then I soak them in a bucket with a splash of bleach overnight, then rinse them real good in my washtub in the garage. I then hang dry them.

[Taras1]

Jay03GT--Why the bleach? I'd think you'd want to keep the bacteria that builds up in the felt.

[Jay03GT]

Originally Posted by Taras1

Jay03GT--Why the bleach? I'd think you'd want to keep the bacteria that builds up in the felt.

I don't know. That is the way everyone does it around my area, except they use the washing machine. I figure the hose with city water already killed all the bacteria, and I'm not using the socks for bio-filters, just to get big stuff out of the water before it hits the skimmer. I feel it keeps it from becoming a nitrate factory this way. All I can say is that this is the way recommended to me by my LFS, who started a LFS because he was a hobbyist tired of all the garbage LFS's around us. And so far it has worked very well for me, undetectable trites, trates, and ammonia, I feed everyday, and the hair algae from the cycle was minimal and is going away in a hurry without resorting to any additives or crazy critters. That may all change tomorrow though!

[cokipoint]

I washed the socks in the washing machine and they look pretty clean. Initially when I put the socks back on the sump I had no foam. Now after a few hours I have foam again and the socks look clean. Can anyone help me with this problem. I am on my 4th day of cycling 150 gal tank.

[Jay03GT]

no foam? In your skimmer? If so that was pretty normal on my setup, new skimmers take some time to "run-in" so to speak. Honestly I probably doesn't matter much if you change them or not at this point, but once the tank has cycled I change them about 2 times a week. If it was me I'd go ahead and change them during the cycle.

[cokipoint]

My skimmer is not in the sump as yet.

[Jay03GT]

where are you looking for foam at then? I'd go ahead and run the skimmer.

[cokipoint]

What I am trying to explain is, I am getting foam our of the top of the sock. I dont believe that is suppose to happen. If this is normal then I guess everything is fine.

[Jay03GT]

It foams over the top of the sock? I get a little bit of foam in mine. If it is fomaing over the top I think if you had the skimmer running it would probably stop doing that. But a little foam in the sock is pretty normal, at least on my tank.

[wesley6610]

I use filter socks as well and they get dirty pretty quickly as well, but unless there is some slight overflow from inside the sock due to a blockage, I change once a week. I hand wash my socks with a mild detergent to remove all particulate since I live in an apartment and can't gain access to a garden hose with that much pressure to really clean it. However, I make sure that after using soap I THOROUGHLY rinse all soap from the socks before replacing them into the sump. Once I get a few more socks I will do the washing machine method.