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

What does mechanical filtration mean for a new saltwater tank? Will it make your tank easier? It definitely will! Matthew picks up the Beginner Series this week with Episode 20: Mechanical Filtration.
#BRStv #BRStvBeginnersGuides
Looking for the right mechanical filtration for your tank? Find it all at Bulk Reef Supply:
➡ www.bulkreefsupply.com/protei...
Interested in the science behind filter socks and when the best time to change them is? Check out these BRStv Investigates experiments we did!
➡ BRStv Investigates Filter Socks : • Is your filter sock ch...
➡ Top 20 Filter Sock Mistakes! : • Filter Socks Will Be t...
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➡ BRS on TikTok : brs.li/BRS_TikTok
Legal Stuff
The purpose and content of this video is to provide general information regarding the products and their applications as presented in the video. Aquatic sales solutions, Inc. And its officers, directors, employees and agents disclaim all express or implied warranties, in any way, related to the products and their application as presented in this video, make no representation or warranty regarding the products and the application as presented in this video and shall not be liable for any direct or indirect losses or damages of any type, including but not limited to punitive damages, or from personal injury or death resulting from or in any manner related to the video, and the products in and contents of the video. The viewer expressly agrees that aquatic sales solutions, inc. And its officers, directors, employees and agents shall not be liable for any damages or losses related to the products in and content of the video and hereby agrees to hold the foregoing harmless from any such losses or damages.

[@BulkReefSupply]

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

[@portwolf2293]

Do not use bleach in hot water. Bleach has a low boiling point and chlorine gas is deadly.

[@Waynerock77]

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.

[@sunnygoold9449]

Exactly - You Rock!

[@Necro_AAAARon]

Ditto

[@RogueAquariums]

Totally agreed. Matthew breaks everything down to make beginner reefers avoid costly mistakes.👌His editing skills and the way he presents his videos, makes it enjoyable to watch.

[@27vangoo]

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!

[@christianwall7181]

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

[@Pickwilliams]

That intro hit diff now

[@c3dpo]

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

[@blcaldeira]

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!

[@oltex806]

Well done Matthew. Good to see you again.

[@blastaaraquatics]

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!

[@rrrreefer9721]

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

[@Trihope]

Glad you are with BRS!!

[@pkaquatics6579]

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

[@kylefriend6391]

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

[@aftamatt]

Love the introduction!! Well deserved!

[@roberttirado1149]

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

[@steely185]

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

[@Algaewarrior]

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

[@2eyezclozd]

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

[@salgadocsa]

Excellent video for beginners! Great job!

[@jbreefer148]

Thank you! I really appreciate your help and advice.

[@svetlana921]

Great overview! U r a good teacher for beginners

[@calvinsm]

Very helpful! Thank you!

[@PunchGaming1007]

Happy to see you even when BRS acquired Marine Depot.

[@anniejefferson4642]

Glad to see you back

[@brianredban9393]

Love this guy glad he landed at BRS

[@jeremybw2180]

Skimmer cup skimmate looks like coffee! Drink up buttercup!

[@adamcunningham6596]

This is great!!!

[@blackthornknives]

This is actually really great

[@alaskacosplay]

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.

[@luisfang7269]

Awesome!

[@mamawxhunter0402]

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

[@im160bpmplus]

NICE! I'm happy for you

[@txrp21c]

great video!

[@Necro_AAAARon]

Glad you’re here.

[@hurricaneaquatics]

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.

[@adiywarbo5362]

Great video

[@GtcoUC]

Legit love the intro

[@natesaquatics4713]

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

[@maventeckers]

Good stuffs ☺️

[@Vidishish]

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.

[@CageJp]

Hooray!

[@madisongray2382]

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

[@gulfcoastreefer6571]

Love you mattew

[@Burnwarcrimetemple]

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

[@seancolinclark]

Great intro 🤣

[@truereefkeeping6022]

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?

[@tetearalte7651]

how long you use one filter socks? How long before you throw it in a trashbin?

[@Harolddespui]

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.

[@tetearalte7651]

do you use regular water for washing filter socks ...and Another question, do you use saltwater for cleaning ceramic rings? or fredshwater

[@Harolddespui]

@@tetearalte7651 I turn my filtersocks inside out and rinse them out under the kitchen tap, shake them out and let them dry. Ceramic rings i never wash, but if you want to do that use your tank water, else you will kill all the good bacteria. Freshwater is the dead for all living marine life.

[@MikeyColon]

Welcome aboard!

[@user-dy9zy5kr5p]

Best filtration system : Wetland BOG + bakki shower 🚿

[@teecee9660]

can you do a video on picos?

[@MrGarnettmiller]

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

[@charlesgilliland532]

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

[@TreverNightingale]

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?

[@BigRigWA]

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

[@beekay4848]

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

[@DaltonDroneZone]

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.

[@sunnygoold9449]

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

[@knwr]

But it's not really. 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. If a protein skimmer is to be considered mechanical filtration then activated carbon, resins, zeolites and every other filtration that also relies on adsorption would be considered mechanical filtration.

[@Andreas-gh6is]

@@knwr it's considered mechanical filtration by most, because the chemical interaction is just with water, air and other protein particles, and then the bubbles get removed mechanically and continuously. With adsorption media there is a chemical process happening with the actual medium that is put in for filtration. Skimmers behave a lot more like mechanical filtration, where the filtrate has to be removed regularly, rather than chemical filtration, where the whole medium has to be replaced or (chemically) renewed regularly.

[@knwr]

@@Andreas-gh6is I see what you are saying, it's not observed as a "chemical filtration" by people because it's not expected, and I agree that it's not formally categorized as chemical filtration. However water, air, and proteins are in fact chemicals and hydrogen bonding is a chemical interaction whether people are aware of that or not. In the reefing community protein skimming is often considered its own unique filtration because it requires different hardware than everything else to accomplish it. It's not considered "mechanical" other than by a few who incorrectly categorize it. The bubble argument still doesn't fit the definition of mechanical filtration. As you can see the original commenter admits that most people don't refer to it as mechanical, and it won't come up in the majority of queries if you search for "mechanical filtration" options (other than BRS). I think people don't realize that these techniques are adopted from water treatment facilities and these facilities don't refer to protein skimming procedures as a part of mechanical filtration. It's not like the reefing community came up with all of this and it's just hobbyist semantics. If BRS wants to come up with their own categorizations that aren't aligned with what's already out there then I suppose that's their perogative. It just isn't what they seem to present themselves as. Anyways, I could see it being useful if the consolidation simplified something. But the majority of people are running a skimmer _and_ mechanical filtration (which I think is appropriate and usually necessary to have regular mechanical filtration), so the distinction is actually helpful.

[@ronniekregar3482]

@@knwr there is no chemical reaction. A chemical reaction is a process that leads to the transformation of one set of chemical substances to another. No materials are being chemically changed.

[@knwr]

@@ronniekregar3482 A phase transition faciliated by intermolecular bonding interactions is most definitely chemistry and "skimming" is a water chemistry procedure in the water treatment industry. You do not need a "transformation of chemicals" for chemistry to take place.

[@pvaquariums7720]

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

[@BulkReefSupply]

I'm not sure what amonia bom or no3 bom is, but you can certainly be successful with or without a skimmer. Most AIO style tanks are on the smaller side, so water changes are pretty quick and easy. I highly recommend water changes as part of your normal maintenance.

[@suppresseddetails5260]

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

[@mrsupersym]

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.

[@truereefkeeping6022]

I sure hope not

[@BulkReefSupply]

Oh boy, let the rumors begin! 😂

[@mrsupersym]

@@BulkReefSupply not denying means confirming 😅

[@Monkey_The-D]

Why is Tom Arnold hosting BRS now?

[@knwr]

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.

[@ronniekregar3482]

There is no chemical reaction taking place. You're not turning one compound into another. It's suspends particles in the water and removes them...is putting ice in the freezer a chemical reaction? it's still water, just frozen...

[@knwr]

@@ronniekregar3482 A phase transition faciliated by intermolecular bonding interactions is most definitely chemistry and "skimming" is a water chemistry procedure in the water treatment industry. You do not need a "transformation of chemicals" for chemistry to take place.

[@knwr]

@@ronniekregar3482 To be clear, my argument is not that it should be contained within "chemical filtration" methods in the saltwater hobby. It's generally thought of as its own unique filtration method and rightly so. My point is that if we are being technical, it is far closer to chemical filtration and doesn't have much to do with mechanical theory at all (zeolites are considered chemical filtration and rely on the same intermolecular adsorption bonds described above). Hence my disagreement with grouping it into mechanical filtration methods.

[@ronniekregar3482]

@@knwr fair enough

[@WhatIsMisophonia]

This gets a bit hairy... I think you're right to a degree, but you're also being perhaps a bit pedantic. A sponge/fabric filter is a great growth media for bacteria but also physically removes large particles, so is it mechanical or biological, or should we invent a new word and call it "biochanical" since typically the way these things are used, they do both in equal measure? 🥴 Every filtration method used relies on the chemical properties of matter and how they interact, such as how water can be moved via an aerator, regardless of whether it's moving that water through bioballs, a filter sock, etc. It is a mechanical "process", but that is not the same thing as mechanical "separation". When aquarists define filtration, they often define it according to components, such as adding media to an area with already flowing water. In this case, they specifically call something "chemical" due to the act of adding extra chemicals or substances with altered chemistry such as active carbon into the water for their reactivity, rather than simply manipulating the extant water chemistry using pumps and such. Because protein skimmers use a built in physical mechanism for moving air, which pulls water along with it, which pulls proteins along with it, it's defined by its mechanism. Don't get me wrong, it's important to keep things clearly defined, but maybe we're overdoing it a bit when butting heads about how to define broad filtration systems. It certainly contains an obvious mechanical component, so it's easier to simply define it as such, even if it's not entirely accurate.

[@chump3947]

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

[@Andreas-gh6is]

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...

[@eillyacostandinides3344]

Mathew you have sold your soullllllllll

[@Arizona9001]

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

[@BulkReefSupply]

🤢