No skimmer for a week?

[Slicktop]

I did my normal weekly water change yesterday and once i was done my skimmer would not start. I worked on it for over 2 hours and finally determined I needed a new impeller. I was lucky to find one and its gonna be almost a week before i get it. Tank is a 30x30x24 custom cube, full of mature fat fish. Nitrate and phosphate normally run NO3 @ .15 and NO4 @ .06 with skimmer running as dry as possible. The tank was set up in 2015 and i recently redid the rock work due to mushrooms and zoas spreading all over. Decided to go 90% SPS and just added lots of sps frags which are just settling in and seem to be happy. I have heard of people not running skimmers for additional nutrients but with my fish load concerned things may get out of hand. I will be checking parameters often in the next few days to see how the Nitrate and Phosphate react to no skimmer and the PH since the skimmer has an outside air line. I also changed my carbon out yesterday. Anyone else been in this situation? Any suggestions other than testing and water changes ? Hoping the Corals respond in a good way and maybe the skimmer will stay in the closet.

 

[Dburr1014]

I did my normal weekly water change yesterday and once i was done my skimmer would not start. I worked on it for over 2 hours and finally determined I needed a new impeller. I was lucky to find one and its gonna be almost a week before i get it. Tank is a 30x30x24 custom cube, full of mature fat fish. Nitrate and phosphate normally run NO3 @ .15 and NO4 @ .06 with skimmer running as dry as possible. The tank was set up in 2015 and i recently redid the rock work due to mushrooms and zoas spreading all over. Decided to go 90% SPS and just added lots of sps frags which are just settling in and seem to be happy. I have heard of people not running skimmers for additional nutrients but with my fish load concerned things may get out of hand. I will be checking parameters often in the next few days to see how the Nitrate and Phosphate react to no skimmer and the PH since the skimmer has an outside air line. I also changed my carbon out yesterday. Anyone else been in this situation? Any suggestions other than testing and water changes ? Hoping the Corals respond in a good way and maybe the skimmer will stay in the closet.

Replace your socks daily, that will help.

 

[moz71]

I would just do another water change in the middle of week and change socks more often and you will be fine!

 

[Slicktop]

I normally don't run socks but did put one in yesterday. Gonna do some testing later just to see if any big changes in the first 24 hours.

 

[Slicktop]

All parameters are the same as before the skimmer quit on me. its only been less than 48 hrs.. I will test again on Monday and update. Really curious to see how much parameters change without a skimmer at this point.

 

[exnisstech]

I have a 24x20x20 with 5 fish 3 large lps colonies and about 20 sps frags and have never run a skimmer in over 3 years. I have to dose N and P to keep levels detectable. I think you'll be fine

 

[Slicktop]

Only concern I would have is my PH dropping. I had my skimmer hooked up to and outside line. It appears to be @ 7.85 with ATI test kit

 

[Danny G]

Agree with above change socks more frequently and just be more cautious with over feeding. I’m the past I have dumped food in the tank when everything was running smooth. When I ran with lower flow or no skimmer for one reason or another I fed more slowly to make sure there was less waste. Worked out well

 

[minus9]

I really think it's going to be fine and you're really overthinking this. Just use a strong air pump and add a couple wood airstones to the skimmer body to trap the bubbles and provide some o2. Your tank isn't going to change that fast in a week. Plus, the skimmer isn't the thing that's removing nutrients anyway, that's not how they work. Plus, I think your corals might like the extra "food".

 

[Bob Escher]

All parameters are the same as before the skimmer quit on me. its only been less than 48 hrs.. I will test again on Monday and update. Really curious to see how much parameters change without a skimmer at this point.

How is your PH doing

 

[hans4811]

Going thru this right now…if my phos goes up too high, right now at 0.12 so not too worried, but above say 0.15, I’ll just dose some PhosphateRx and take out some chaeto from my sump….or a water change as someone said.

 

[theMeat]

You’ll be fine. Just watch your ph

 

[Slicktop]

I did have a slight decrease in PH , from 8.0 to 7.8 but saw no change in PE on my SPS. So other than adding new charcoal and filter socks, that was all i did out of the normal. I did not change my feeding schedule either. Impeller showed up and was installed on day 7. Everything looks great.