Ruuning bio-pellets without a skimmer?
 

My skimmer pump quit last Wednesday and I have been running my 90 gallon tank without it ever since. I am also running bio-pellets but wondering if I should remove them until I get the skimmer fixed.
At this point I have no idea how long it will be until I get the skimmer going again. I am planning on doing a 20% water change tomorrow (Sunday).

I wouldn't run biopellets without skimmer. Biopellets feeds the bacteria and skimmer sucks up the bacteria filled with nutrients. So if you don't have the skimmer running, you will be releasing back the nutrients to the system instead of sucking it up.

That's what I thought and that would explain the green film on the glass.

Yap. It can even cause cyano eventually.

I would kind of be tempted to leave the pellets online if it was just going to be a couple of days before the skimmer was back online, but I suppose it's not too bad to get them going again afterwards too. Six of one, half dozen the other.

3 words: DON'T RUN PELLETS

If its for a couple of days, i would not bother the pellets but running pellets longer without a skimmer your ganna run into cyano problems. Feed less during the days without the skimmer online.

I am going to pull them out.

not that it matters, but if it were me I would also just leave them as well. That is, if it was just for a couple of days as you say. Beyond that, then yes, definitely take them off line. But it sounds like you've made up your mind anyway. The only concern I would have is that two days without water running through the reactor could stagnate the reactor a bit.

if you need to turn off your bio pellets for more than a few days just run it in a 5g bucket of saltwater ,it will keep it from going stagnant and no excessive mulm that your skimmer cant pull out:)