Do You Need a Filter Sock or Other Mechanical Filtration for Your New Saltwater Aquarium? EP: 20 

Looking for the right mechanical filtration for your tank? Find it all at Bulk Reef Supply: ➡ www.bulkreefsupply.com/protein-skimmers/fleece-rollers-power-filters-socks-and-pads.html

Although I don’t “need” your videos I do enjoy watching and listening to them. I never had stuff like this back in 2001 when I started I can only imagine how much stress and money I would of saved. I am very happy BRS kept you going I was disappointed in them for not bringing you with. “Expert” you tube reefing vids are a dime a dozen but you sir are more helpful than a thousand so called experts. Getting started correctly is key and probably the most important step in someone’s reefing experience. I hope they keep these going for years to come with you at the helm, you have a certain way about you and a voice that easy to listen to and you are great at breaking this crazy world of ours down into something digest able.

Glad BRS has kept you on as your beginner videos, in particular, are great.

Absolutely loved the intro... I continue to find myself watching your beginner guide videos even though I've been reefing sense the late 90's... Great content, editing, and above all presentation!

Great video! Glad to see Matt over at BRS. Keep up the good work!

Well done Matthew. Good to see you again.

Love the introduction!! Well deserved!

I like this guy! Glad yall made a spot for him.

Yes! The series that got me planning my journey is back 😋

Glad you are with BRS!!

I’m am sooooo happy and glad BRS brought you back! I just wished I had more teachers like you when I was a kid struggling in Elementary School. I love your videos and some I watched multiple times just to remind myself so I don’t make the same plumbing mistakes 😃. Thank you and keep up the GREAT WORK!

Great to see you back Matthew! I like to use pond filter pads for mechanical filtration.👍

Glad you're still around man. Great video as always.

Congrats on the new job. Glad to see you catch on with BRS.

Great overview! U r a good teacher for beginners

Happy to see you even when BRS acquired Marine Depot.

You deserve more views! Thank you for all your help and knowledge!

I use no filter sock, and have very low nutrients. I removed-it during a long trip and decided not to put it back. My corals and skimmer are the only filtration i use. I dose nitrate and feed heavy.

Great video- glad they brought you over to BRS! Looking forward to the next vid

I'm excited for you big guy. I'm glad I can still direct your videos to people I know starting out. Keep it up!

Love this guy glad he landed at BRS

For my Mechanical filtration, I use dense filter foam and quilt batting as a way to catch the finer dirt and I pair it with ceramic media and lava rock or crushed coral for Biological filtration.

Skimmer cup skimmate looks like coffee! Drink up buttercup!

Thank youbfor the info, very useful, beginner here, from Philippines... Godbless you 😊

Glad to see you back

Glad you’re here.

Excellent video for beginners! Great job!

That intro hit diff now

Been in Saltwater and Reefing for almost 30 years. Made most of the mistakes of course, but one I will never make is not using some type of mechanical filtration. I normally use a sponge like you had, or multiple, under a polishing media. Never used filter socks as I feel those have other uses. There's no way you could possibly keep your reef close to clean without using mechanical filtration. All the debris would build up and look wretched. Also, depending on how often you feed, change that media at least once every 2 days. Wash the sponged and throw away the polishing media. It's cheap and easy to change.

Thank you! I really appreciate your help and advice.

Very helpful! Thank you!

8:20 i can agree with this. I stripped all phosphate and silicate - dinos, bad bad dinos.

This is actually really great

NICE! I'm happy for you

I WAS SO CONFUSED HAHAHHAA. I had to look again if this was Marine Depot.

I never put out my mechanical filter for 5 year and my reeftank still doing well

Legit love the intro

I use disposable filter socks, I change them out every 3 days according to bulk reef supply’s recommendation, I love the disposable socks they super polish my water and are good for exporting nutrients from my tank, maybe you guys should do a video on them?

This is great!!!

I wonder how many pods get removed from the removal of filter socks or other mechanical means

One thing about bleach though: it doesn't help at all with removing dirt from your socks, it just bleaches the dirt. You might think the sock is clean but dirt is still in but has turned white. Bleach is only good for desinfecting stuff, but that automatically happens when the sock hits fresh water for a while. (saltwater bacteria won't survive a freshwater dip) Bleach is also bad for the environment. Rinsing your socks (turn them inside out) with just water is the way to go.

great video!

Good stuffs ☺️

Awesome!

Great intro 🤣

Welcome aboard!

Great video

Hooray!

Love you mattew

Best filtration system : Wetland BOG + bakki shower 🚿

can you do a video on picos?

Some large particulates might be bubbled out so you are not technically wrong but protein skimmers are more of a Chemical filter than a mechanical filter.

Hi Matthew. Why did you switch back to filter socks from filter fleece? I've been happy with socks but thinking about trying fleece to cut down a bit on tank maintenance time. So curious why you abandoned the fleece, maybe it's not as good?

I keep sponge just because 99% of my pods and bristleworm population is in the sponge. Debris get trapped and my little guys eats them. I never get to throw away or rinse my sponge. Its super clean

I have a all in one system and my protein skimmer is in the hole where the filter sock is So I asked my lfs and my friend and both say that they don't run it and they also don't have a refugium And they say it is just a amonia bom and no3 bom Do you agree or not

Best Way to clean filter sock is to Power-wash it

Very glad to hear you say that a Protein Skimmer is mechanical! Well done - I think most reefers don't know that

A like and a comment so that algorithm shows me more reefing vids 😀

OMG... CVTV footage in the BRSTV video... Does it mean that BRS is now the owner of CoralVue too? Check out 6:49 and so on.

I have to disagree with the idea that a protein skimmer is a part of *Mechanical Filtration* . (Most of this is from my other response below) The skimmer functions in 2 main ways: 1. *Chemical Adsorption* : Some proteins have a hydrophylic side (attracted to water) and a hydrophobic side (water repelled), while some are completely hydrophobic. Both of these are attracted to a water-air interface through _adsorption_ so their water repelling components can "bob" out of the water, pushing themselves away from water molecules. This process is exploited by introducing a high surface area of water-air interface through the creation of many tiny bubbles. This creates a very large area of space for these molecules to find a more comfortable space than being surrounded by water. 2. *Chemical Phase Change* : These proteins (the solute) increase in concentration in the "cup" where bubbles overflow to, while simultaneously the solvent water evaporates. This precipitates these compounds from a dissolved state to a solid state (seen as cloudiness or observable sludge). This process involves a stimulated _phase change_ which is a *chemical process* , not a mechanical procedure. Some of the proteins may be attached to very small particles, but many are completely dissolved. Regardless, the process of removing undesireable components--whether they are dissolved or not--relies on the exploitation of a _chemical property_ . Mechanical filtration removes undesireable components strictly through restricting the flow of these components based on their physical dimensions. This is not happening in a protein skimmer. A protein skimmer can remove some of the particles that mechanical filtration can also remove, making their target compounds overlap. However this is also the case for other adsorption techniques like zeolites or activated carbon. In addition, some biological filtration can also target small particles and consume them, yet this does not make them mechanical filtration methods (as you mentioned in the beginning). If a protein skimmer is to be considered mechanical filtration then activated carbon, resins, zeolites and every other filtration that also relies on adsorption could be considered mechanical filtration, which defeats the purpose of the categorizations.

For the new people, what he meant to say was "when you see this face WAY WAY too close, it will be beginner videos".

Why is Tom Arnold hosting BRS now?

The info is good but you're way too close to the camera! Please take one step back.

Mathew you have sold your soullllllllll

Drying out bleach does NOT make it safe. Depending on the actual agent, it may reform when reconstituted with water. However, the effect is completely dose-dependent and by washing out the filter sock a few times, the bleach is diluted so much that there is not enough left, if any, to cause any harm. You shouldn't try this of course, but you'd actually have to put a significant amount of bleach into a well-sized reef tank to affect anything (by raising the ph, mainly), a few drops shouldn't do much harm. That being said, household products may contain other ingredients that are toxic to water organisms in much lower concentrations...

WRONG. You don’t pour the skimer sauce into the sink. You’re supposed to drink or pour it on pasta.