I was just playing around with my sheet a bit and found numbers that may be of interest...
In the question, .25ppm was added to the tank per day. A 1% daily WC gave the Reefkeeper ~24ppm of nitrate at the end of the year.
If we were to change the WC% to 10% monthly, instead of 1% daily, and keep the nitrate addition consistent - you would end up with 51.78ppm at the end of the year. Virtually double. This is interesting because it's 1/3 of the water change volume (10g/month vs. 30g/month).
I'm going to play around a bit with it, and try to put together a sheet that allows you to plug in your desired range for nitrates (or whatever you'd like) and the cost/additive (in this case salt because it's a WC), and find the most cost efficient method to achieve the desired range.
For example, say you wanted your nitrates to be between 20-40ppm. If your salt costs $0.30/g, a 1% daily change in a 100g tank costs you $110/year.
A monthly 20% change would cost you $72/year and still produce the desired result (33.74ppm at the end of the year - within the desired range). A $38 saving.
Shouldn't be difficult to goal seek to come up with a cost saving plan for all supplements/additives...
In the question, .25ppm was added to the tank per day. A 1% daily WC gave the Reefkeeper ~24ppm of nitrate at the end of the year.
If we were to change the WC% to 10% monthly, instead of 1% daily, and keep the nitrate addition consistent - you would end up with 51.78ppm at the end of the year. Virtually double. This is interesting because it's 1/3 of the water change volume (10g/month vs. 30g/month).
I'm going to play around a bit with it, and try to put together a sheet that allows you to plug in your desired range for nitrates (or whatever you'd like) and the cost/additive (in this case salt because it's a WC), and find the most cost efficient method to achieve the desired range.
For example, say you wanted your nitrates to be between 20-40ppm. If your salt costs $0.30/g, a 1% daily change in a 100g tank costs you $110/year.
A monthly 20% change would cost you $72/year and still produce the desired result (33.74ppm at the end of the year - within the desired range). A $38 saving.
Shouldn't be difficult to goal seek to come up with a cost saving plan for all supplements/additives...