Emergency ?? Return pump off for weeks !!

[Trunalimunumapruzre]

130 gallon tank. 110 display, 20g sump. I’m not sure how long it’s been off. I’d say at least a week and a half and maybe as long as 3. I kept wondering why my sump was smelly and had gunk all over it. It’s disgusting down there. When I finally noticed about 15 minutes ago my first instinct was to turn it back on immediately… but I think that was a big mistake because now my water is insanely cloudy with this gunk all over the place.

I have a pump in my tank that’s strong and near the top so I know the tank has been getting plenty of gas exchange from surface disruption. In fact, my tank has ironically never looked better than it has for the last week or so. But now I’m freaked out that I really messed up, and maybe I just dumped a ton of ammonia into the display.

Also, my return pump doesn’t have an off feature but rather a “1%”… so I know there was SOME exchange of water going on between the sump and the display over this time but it was negligible


So what do I need to be concerned about?? I’m on my way to pick up ammonia detoxifier and purigen. The earliest the LFS can come by to do a big 50% water change would be Tuesday, but I just don’t know if I can wait that long.

If not I could burn all day buying like thirteen 5 gallon jugs to do a big water change myself but that’s insanely inconvenient and expensive and time consuming and waiting till Tuesday would be much simpler.

If anyone has thoughts or comments to help I’d be so appreciative. Thank you in advance

 

[jgirardnrg]

Breathe...
I would at the very least have a nice supply of filter socks on hand and I'd be changing those out daily. The ammonia detox should help. I'd also set the skimmer to skim more on the wet side and watch the cup to make sure it doesn't overflow back into the sump. If you can't do a big water change you need to focus on export. Have you tested the water parameters?

 

[Trunalimunumapruzre]

I’m going to test it in about an hour when I’m back home. Will definitely be changing filter socks and I upped the skimmer as well. Will report back!

 

[Trunalimunumapruzre]

Ok so I have an ammonia alert that hasn’t changed colors at all… it’s about 2-3 months old and has been in the tank the whole time so maybe it’s too old to work but nothing bad so far. On if my torches receded slightly. I’m going to do all the preventive stuff described just in case but all looks ok so far!