3 yr and still a newbie

So my tank has been up for almost three years now, recently started to battle a phosphate level being too high.

In my sump when the tank was set up my Lfs had put a cloth material sock pouch that would catch the water from the main tank as it ran into the sump. Initially was told just to help "dampen" the noise.

Removed them and was at Lfs store and said I just had pulled them out and they were like those should be changed every two weeks. And that this helps to catch big particles of junk and also "polishes" the water...

 

I just re-did my tank AGAIN, I lean something and change something significant every time.

Removing fine particulate matter with socks does a great job of polishing the water IME.

It's a wonderful hobby because you keep learning and the hobby is ever evolving.

 

In this hobby, there are so many ways to achieve the same goal and no two systems are the same. I have never ran socks long term on my personal tank. They seem to catch too many micro brittle stars in my system and I dont really care to much about polishing my water. I run a more natural system with the aid of an algae turf scrubber. But I do run socks on most of the tanks at my store and on most of the tanks I maintain and service around town. They can certainly help filter large particles from the water before it gets to your skimmer. Just depends on how your filtration is setup. If you have a strong nutrient export system (macro algae in a refugium, algae turf scrubber, nitrate reactor etc) then I dont like to run socks because alot of the "particles" in the water are actually food for fish and corals. And I like to think of my sump as part of the system as a whole and dont like to stop pods, bristle worms, brittle stars, plankon etc from flowing freely through the sump and back into the display tank. Again, it comes down to your filtration, and your overall goals with your system.