One of the best product reviews on RU-vid! Regarding the detritus buildup. To me it seems obvious that the way you placed your filter pad strips inside the cup allows for a lot of water to pass around the pad unfiltered. Since extra cost is negligible, I’d recommend roughly twice the padding or possibly filter floss liberally stuffed in the cups so that no water can find it’s way around the media without passing through. Again, fantastic review! Thanks!
Wonder what the cost of filter socks becomes when you factor in time spent washing them, detergent cost, and electrical/gas cost to run the washer and dryer.
Wouldn't the floss be more effective if you cut and laid disc shapes in the cups vs rolling it? Seems the path for waste to get through would decrease greatly this way.
When i was first researching how to use the cup i saw a video that the manufacturer put out and they had rolled the filter floss when inserting it. So that how i assumed it was done. the other reason i did it like this is: by cutting the filter floss into strips vs circles there was less wasted material. think of it as if you're making cookies using a rolling pin. the only difference is i can't wod up the left overs and roll it out again like i can with cookie dough.
Great information you’ve convinced me to change from socks to cups. however I’m going to use quilting batting I’ve used it for years as a polish media it cost way less and works perfectly. And just a personal opinion (please don’t take offense) I didn’t care for the music selection it was too loud and I found it Too distracting
good video but you forgot about some benefits of the filter cups.. to use a cup properly you can change filter media out and it forces water out the bottom of the cup. filter sock water comes out on the sides. you can throw a bag of carbon or GFO in a filter cup and water will be forced thru them.
I have thought about using these filter cups to replace my filter socks just because its a pain cleaning filter socks but also like to keep my sump clean. Tough decision
hey man! i'll be honest the phosphate and nitrate pads were just preventative maintenance. at the time i didn't have a problem with either. as far as how often i replaced em it was every 3 days or so when i replaced the filter floss.
I think the filtration of the cups would be much better if you stuffed them with polyfill or cut the pads in a circular shape to ensure detritus, etc isnt able to bypass the filters.
Mark O true. But this is how the manufacturer of the cups did it. Also if you cut the poly filter into circles you have around 25% material loss because of the circular shape.
I see. IMO, it would be worth it to cut the circles and have a little waste in order to have the most effective filtration. Poly pad is pretty cheap, and you could chop up the waste and use it as packaging peanuts :D I've always wondered why sumps don't just use a single flat poly pad that can be wrung out weekly, as opposed to filter socks or cups.
why not use pillow batting from walmart. I pay like $7-8 for a roll that last me like 8 months, I don't get why people pay so much for a little package of filter floss/fine filtration. I never buy anything from pet stores for filtration purposes, they charge on average 3x the amount for the same stuff you can get at walmart or a dollar store
The Camo'd Korean that’s a good suggestion. I was running the cups based on the manufacturers recommendations. Since this I’ve moved on to good ol’ filter socks.
PsyWAR Reefing The way you roll your cut pads allows for gunk to get through. I would get your cups from the dollar store, drill one larger hole in the center and use filter floss. that way everything has to flow through the center. make a bunch and now you have "cartridges" that take 15s to replace. you can deal with cleanup of used cups later at your convenience.
I diy'd these 1 dollar a cup thats 2 dollars you are not using filter floss you are using filter pad, filter floss is 1.50 a bag. the cups are way cheaper than the socks.
Reef er all I can tell you is my experience. The results from my un-scientific test were so close that in my opinion whatever makes you happy. Go for it. Some day I may switch back to these cups.
