foam sleeves in canister filters are bad?

[luumanfoo29]

i saw in another thread that some people don't like to use foam sleeves on their canister filters. Does it really contribute that much to nitrates?

 

[dave601m]

I have a similar question too, if no one uses sleeves, what are people using for mechanical filtration to remove large chunks of stuff from the water column?

i just recently stopped using my magnum 350 and switched over to a hang on overflow box/sump with a skimmer, and the skimmer seems to be doing a good job with the otherwise invisible stuff in the water, but the water isn't nearly as clear as it was when i was using actual mechanical filtration. now i have floating fish waste, uneaten food, etc in the display... any tips or suggestions, or should i hook back up the magnum in addition to the sump?

 

[Richard]

Mechanical filter are bad only if you don't clean them regular(once a week).

 

[RichConley]

My issue with mechanical filtration is that it only works with water flow. So you've got all this waste sitting in this filter pad, with water running over it, so it decomposes quite quickly instead of getting skimmed out.


Methinks your skimmer needs tweaking.