advice on min. maintenance for most benefit

[lynxie]

my husband was in a serious car accident on the 18th, and is still in hospital (he's thankfully now stable, but it's going to be a long road to recovery). needless to say, i've been spending most of my time either at the hospital with him, or at work... i've got a killer algae bloom (reddish, on l-r, sand and even on some of the snails), at one point last week i luckily noticed how low my sump was, checked salinity and i was at almost 1.030 (!!!) so i quickly added r/o to top up sump and bring sp.grav back down.... haven't lost any livestock (yet?). i have 2 small ocellaris, 1 tangaroa goby, randalls pistol shrimp, 2 peps, 2 camels, a feather star, a handfull of dwarf hermits, snails, some zoas, buttons, 'shrooms, a hammer frag, 2 frogspawn in my 90gal+30ish sump.... what is the min maintenance i should do to keep the tank healthy (don't care how it looks, just that it stays healthy) until hubby's out of hospital and i have time again to dedicate to the tank? is a 10% water change every 2 weeks (stirring sand while i siphon) enough to hopefully keep things healthy until things settle down again? or? any suggestions, advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Loverotties]

I do 10% a week and blow off the rocks too!I hope your using RO/DI or distilled water for your WC and top-off.

[ibanez2k]

+1

[Reeftanker3295]

I agree just blow off the rocks, do 10 gallon changes every week and skim.

Sorry about your husband, I hope he has no problems in the recovery process and feels better soon.

[lynxie]

thanks, he will be fine, it's just going to be another few weeks in hospital, and a long while after that before he feels like himself again...

and yes, i have my own r/o d/i unit, so i can drip it over a few days, and not have to go buy, lol, which helps cut down on time as well.

by "blow off the rocks" you mean squirt w/ turkey baster (or similar) i assume?

how long am i safe to go, considering its still such a new tank, without full testing (ie, just using quick dip-strip a few times/week for nh3, no2, no3, ph instead of doing the test-tube tests that take a while)?

[ibanez2k]

as long as you are doing the regular water changes I wouldn't worry about testing for now. Your water will be good enough quality if you are doing good water changes. Just make sure the water temperature of the water change is close to your tank temp and the salinity is where you want it. And yes, blow off your rocks with a turkey baster or a good powerhead. You want to make sure you get all the settled detritus and junk free from the rocks and crevices and into the water column when you remove water for the change. Keep up on that and you should be good for the time your husband is recovering. Good luck with everything.

[Mr.Peanut]

I wish your husband a speedy recovery.

I have a 75 gallon with a 20 gallon sump, I do 5 gallon water changes once a week.