Nitrate when is it time for a water change?

[hawk82]

Hey all, I reset my 40 breeder after having a bad dinos battle. I didnt want my nutrients to bottom out again and lead to another dino outbreak. So Ive been dosing Prodibio BioCean every 15 days, and not been running my skimmer. I just tested my nitrate, and its at about 5 on the API test. When is it ok to do a water change, and turn on my skimmer? I dont want to bottom things out again. Right now I dont have any dinos or algae issues. Ive got some gsp and 2 small mushrooms in the tank. Also some macro algae in the display, red grape, and caulerpa.
Tank is 40 breeder, no sump with HOB Reef Octopus bh100 skimmer, parameters are:
PH 8.0
Nitrate 5
salinity 1.024
temp 78

 

[saltyhog]

What's your PO4?

I would think it's fine to restart your skimmer and do small water changes if there is a need. I would still watch nutrient levels like a hawk for a while.

 

[Super Fly]

if it was me, I would not do WC at NO3 level of 5. I'd turn skimmer back on (but not 24/7) whenever PO4 level goes above 0.10 while keeping an eye on it and turn it off when PO4 reaches 0.03 or until tank stabilizes and it can maintain a consistent 0.03-.005 range

 

[Super Fly]

oh, I forgot to ask, where'd u buy Prodibio?... seems they r hard to find these days in the states.

 

[hawk82]

Ok, I need to pick up a PO4 test kit then. I got Prodibio from Amazon.