Quick question, need advice

[PotteryMan]

I am done cycling my tank. Nitrates were almost 100. I did a huge water change got them down to "roughly" 50 on Salifert test. Put CUC in last Friday. Did another large water change yesterday and took the bio balls out of wet/dry sump. I know I am old school and only had FOWLR.

Nitrates today are roughly 25, not lower maybe slightly higher. I do not have a skimmer, that is my next purchase. I have an Old School Red Sea Berlin I was going to crank up until I had the money to buy a new one but it is cracked. I have been wearing out the credit card lately. I plan to purchase a skimmer first of the month when I pay off the card.

Should I do more water changes to keep exporting the nitrates until the skimmer is cranking? CUC is doing well...what level should I shoot for to keep them in a safe range? I do not plan to add anything else until I get skimmer installed.

Wow, that wasn't quick...sorry.

 

[m0nkie]

25 should be fine. mine went up to the 50 and my snails all did fine. they were at 20 for a long time and now down to 5

 

[PotteryMan]

Thank you for the reply. I may do another water change this weekend just to try to bring them down under 25. It is a 100 gallon tank, I have a lot of old dry live rock in the tank that I seeded with 50 lbs of new. Brown algae bloomed like crazy now subsiding. Going to go slow. Happy to have the aquarium back up!

 

[shesacharmer]

Another big water change should get you closer to where you need to be. The skimmer will help. I think you are doing well, testing and going slowly.