So I have been doing 100 percent water changes for a very long time. While it is fairly simple, I am finding I am having harder time dealing with the full water changes. With a baby on the way, I need less mess.
It is a UNS30A Dual AIO
My current process is to take everything out, syphon out display and front chamber, add some premixed salt to do a rinse/syphon excess and then fill add everything back.
This usually takes me about 30 minutes as something is always going wrong. I'm just getting older and not paying attention as much. Used to take me about 15 minutes.
I am currently trying to see cost wise if getting some equipment I can pay a bit upfront to save money monthly.
I purchase premade salt at 2 dollars a gallon. I go through about 25 gallons a month at least with water changes This is a minimum cost of 50 a month My goal will be to save at least 10 a month minimum. My budget will be hit once the baby comes lol so I'm trying to cut costs on tank maintenance.
Since I do the 100 percent weekly I do not check parameters. I also do not worry about filtration. Plan now would be to reduce water changes to about 1 gallon, just about 20 percent with water displacement every week to every other week. To deal with nutrients I will add back the filter sock with floss and add purchase a protein skimmer. Whole I have a lot of flow, I will need a bit more to ensure nothing stays on the bottom of the tank. Looking at the new jedco wireless wave pumps that are like the ecotechs. They have a small version which should work. With my glass lid on top I can't have cords coming out of display portion of tank. Mp10 is to powerful for this setup and to expensive.
This will also mean I need to dose and use test kits. I am looking at salifert which is about 18 a piece depending. So for calc, all and mag that will be with tax roughly 58 roughly so we will round to 60. There are usually I believe minimum 50 kits. If I test twice a week, at least till dialed in, that would last roughly 25 weeks and cost 9.6 bucks, so we will round down on this to 9.5 a month to test those 3.
I have all for reef I was adding in my reef between weekly changes but a while back. There are a lot of dosing chemicals/systems out there so want to find out average cost and for each system.
Currently the cost before dosing is 19.5 a month. This is water and the 3 test kits.
Skimmers on average I have seen about 75 a few I liked that are less as well. The wave maker is currently dmp-5 at 88. Dosing pump will be something later possibly. Equipment Ill have to buy piece by piece over time.
What systems/brands does everyone like and average cost vs size/stocking of tank? You can see my build thread for current setup. Would this even be worth doing?
It is a UNS30A Dual AIO
My current process is to take everything out, syphon out display and front chamber, add some premixed salt to do a rinse/syphon excess and then fill add everything back.
This usually takes me about 30 minutes as something is always going wrong. I'm just getting older and not paying attention as much. Used to take me about 15 minutes.
I am currently trying to see cost wise if getting some equipment I can pay a bit upfront to save money monthly.
I purchase premade salt at 2 dollars a gallon. I go through about 25 gallons a month at least with water changes This is a minimum cost of 50 a month My goal will be to save at least 10 a month minimum. My budget will be hit once the baby comes lol so I'm trying to cut costs on tank maintenance.
Since I do the 100 percent weekly I do not check parameters. I also do not worry about filtration. Plan now would be to reduce water changes to about 1 gallon, just about 20 percent with water displacement every week to every other week. To deal with nutrients I will add back the filter sock with floss and add purchase a protein skimmer. Whole I have a lot of flow, I will need a bit more to ensure nothing stays on the bottom of the tank. Looking at the new jedco wireless wave pumps that are like the ecotechs. They have a small version which should work. With my glass lid on top I can't have cords coming out of display portion of tank. Mp10 is to powerful for this setup and to expensive.
This will also mean I need to dose and use test kits. I am looking at salifert which is about 18 a piece depending. So for calc, all and mag that will be with tax roughly 58 roughly so we will round to 60. There are usually I believe minimum 50 kits. If I test twice a week, at least till dialed in, that would last roughly 25 weeks and cost 9.6 bucks, so we will round down on this to 9.5 a month to test those 3.
I have all for reef I was adding in my reef between weekly changes but a while back. There are a lot of dosing chemicals/systems out there so want to find out average cost and for each system.
Currently the cost before dosing is 19.5 a month. This is water and the 3 test kits.
Skimmers on average I have seen about 75 a few I liked that are less as well. The wave maker is currently dmp-5 at 88. Dosing pump will be something later possibly. Equipment Ill have to buy piece by piece over time.
What systems/brands does everyone like and average cost vs size/stocking of tank? You can see my build thread for current setup. Would this even be worth doing?
