Water change question

[Ford625]

Hi all. I have a dumb question. I have to send my skimmer in for warranty, so I won't have one for about two weeks. Do I have to do a water change more frequently than once a week or should I stick to my schedule? Thanks in advance!

Dan

 

[aiaman]

I guess it all depends on how many times your cup 'runnith over
Did your skimmer cup fill frequently, as that would be a sign of a lot of debris in the water column.
So if you over fed or over treated the skimmer would help to remove the amount of debris or pollutant in the water.

what size is the tank, do you have a sump or a canister filter?

 

[Ford625]

It's a 55 gallon. Used to run a filter until I realized it was causing my nitrates to be high. No sump or canister filter at the moment. So I was just skimming. The collection cup filled up about a third of the way once a week. It was enough in my opinion

 

[aiaman]

is the tank drilled as a rr tank?
should I assume that there is a sump and return pump
if so you probably can just do the weekly change

 

[willray]

In this hobby there are no bumb questions.Yes, IMO up the water change.

 

[Ford625]

is the tank drilled as a rr tank?
should I assume that there is a sump and return pump
if so you probably can just do the weekly change

The tank isn't reef ready. Although I wish it was I don't have a sump set up yet. I need to find time to build the 20 gal long I bought like 2 months ago! Lol

In this hobby there are no bumb questions.Yes, IMO up the water change.

Lol. That's what I figured. My wife thinks its a pain more than I do. Lol. She keeps saying "you just did a water change"

 

[aiaman]

so your wife is right again this time, sorry guy
no sump/pump to keep things moving can/will stagnate water
no skimmer makes it worse
are you testing the water with any kits?

as an example I run currently a 36g with floss, purigen,a small skimmer & a canister filter
I do weekly 20% water changes and parameters are just fine with the floss
your nitrates can be due to many other issues than the pads

so increase your changes and test, test, test to be safe

 

[Ford625]

Oh yeah was testing with a red sea test kit and my nitrates were always high. Just for giggles, I shut off the filter for about a week and my nitrates went down to zero.

I have two koralia 1050's circulating the water for the time being. I always do a 10% change weekly (to the day). The water isn't standing so it's a good thing. I can always up it to 2 - 10% changes a week to keep things healthy.