Broken Skimmer how long before tank suffers.

[TjStein]

Waiting for repair parts should be in late next week .Will my 90 Gal. reeftank be ok? I have 120 pound live rock and medium Bio Load lots of softies? how long can I wait before it crashes , will frequent water changer help?
Thanks

[bertoni]

That depends on how it's stocked. I'd stop feeding for the time being. A 10% change in the next few days might be useful, but I wouldn't do anything drastic.

[garzaci]

It might not suffer at all. I'm not going to get into the whole skimmer/no skimmer debate, but it could turn out good. A few days should be. Just watch your tank and if you see any bad signs do a water change.

[iamwrasseman]

shouldent be an issue just reduce feedings etc as bertoni suggested

[TjStein]

what is the skimmer no skimmer debate ? I have medium size yellow tang, 6 line medium size wrasse ,clown ,goby ,hawkfish, angel.

[NirvanaFan]

You should be fine without a skimmer until then. You could feed a bit less, but you have plenty of live rock. The softies (depending on what they are) may even like the "dirtier" water.

[Chiefsurfer]

+1 on softees liking "dirty" water. If you do 10% WC's every 5-7 days, you should be fine for whatever time period you want. To even improve the quality of the water you drain, you could drain using a portable overflow. Like a 2-quart drink-mixing container submerged right below the surface, and syphon out of that container.

By quality of water drained, I mean the higher amount of bad water taken out. Taking water from the top vs the middle or bottom.

[kingfisher62]

Oh, my god! Your running with out a skimmer!......................Dont sweat it , I have not run one for eight years, still waiting for that damn part to come in! lol

[DC_40gallon]

Throw on a hang on back powerfilter with a new filter. You'll be fine! Just discard the filter when you go back to skimming.

Lots of people just use hob powerfilters. I use a 330 gph one ( I don't put in filters though) and use it as a mini fuge and it breaks the surface
of my water so that oily film can be skimmed.

[KingwoodMarcia]

Yes, it depends how your tank is stocked and what other filtration you have. How much live rock, bio balls, ect....