Filter socks

[dacaptain78]

I will be leaving town for three weeks, leaving the care of my tanks in the hands of family members. One idea i was pondering was removing the filter socks on my tanks for this time. Without having to change and clean the filter socks would make one less chore for the care takers to worry about. Is this an unwise move?

 

[BHDMC]

I have done this each time I am away for business. This could be one week or two weeks at a time. Never had any problems. There are some hobbyist do not use any filter sock or pad. Your sump will just get alittle dirty.

 

[dacaptain78]

Thanks for the response. I imagine that it would be fine as well since I didn't run filter socks at one point either, but I always did weekly water changes. I can manage a little mess in my sump as it is eashy to clean.

 

[ClosetFishGeek]

When I left for a 2 week vacation I had a buckett set aside for the dirty filter sock which typically i remove once a week and i had a replacement sock ready to go. The person that was taking care of my tank I instucted and wrote down everything that needed to be done on a daily and weekly basis. Changing a filter sock is a piece of cake......ex: 1) Take dirty filter sock out and place in buckett 2) take new sock and replace...:splitspin
If you dont think he can manage this then just leave your sock off for 3 weeks. I would also lighten your feeding while you are gone.

 

[dacaptain78]

I have five tanks with different types of animals so this will be a time consuming effort for my family members. Therefore, I would rather keep the list of maintenance duties as short as possible.

I have asked that they feed the animals everyother day. I plan on doing a large water changes before I leave so my water quality should not be an issue, although I may have my wife bring water samples to the LFS to check for any problems. If anything is out of the ordinary I can have the LFS do a water change for me. I am praying that this does not happen though.