Hello,
On my 240 water changes (which is what I prefer) kinda suck for me. A five gallon jug is roughly half my body weight and I was up to 60-80 gallons a week to keep nitrates etc down. Even running a larger skimmer for some reason (maybe my skimmer isn’t as good as I thought or my bioload is way off), but nitrates would stay 20-30 ppm.
I then started carbon dosing which has its bonuses and failures all in one. Some pros since I’m where I need to be now it’s only 16-20ml for my water volume of 240 plus my sump which is a 40 breeder (then minus rock, sand space etc you get the math) I’m about 200 water volume roughly. So it’s 30 dollars for one bottle that lasts close to 6 months on average, unless I have a spike which is rare. But I would spend close to 120 a month just for saltwater (because I don’t mix it myself) but it’s 1.00 a gallon for pro salt mix, and when I did it every week it was closer to 200 a month. Another pro is time, I have a small flow pump in my sump so I would fill up five gallon bucket that’s half my weight and dump them outside etc. But I had no way to fill it up faster (because who ever designed my fish tank stand failed in math and design horribly), because the stand is not very tall. So with a 40 breeder in there, I literally had to fill up a normal pitcher of saltwater and dump it in. So it saved time and lots of money, and sorry when you just shy of 90 pounds a 45 pound jug times 12 to load and unload really isn’t fun at all.
The cons well I have successfully addicted my tank to alcohol or aka nopox (and I’m a medical professional, how does that work knowing I had to say the Hippocratic oath?) hey let’s get your fish and corals addicted to drugs you will go far in life (lol) but yeah it’s extremely unwise to stop dosing it. Secondly I lose trace elements so I have to dose those as well, and if my math is right (which it always is), have to dose that correctly and keep records where calcium levels are because they are based on that. (I don’t use any dosers either, apex (simple system errrrrr sorta). Another con is I can risk bottoming my tank to low so I actually need to test weekly which I do with api. Now I know they are not spot on accurate but as long as I stay above 2 yay. Phosphates are pretty low as well, but I will say seeing some hair algae and or turf alage means I haven’t stripped my water to clean. Another con is you simply can’t forget, (in theory you can if the tank swings a little it’s fine), but again not ideal.
The meh(s) I haven’t seen any per say negative effects from my coral or fish if anything they do better. My skimmer is just obnoxious at times. Normally I can set it and it stays and other times it drops way down, or over flows. Yet, I haven’t changed anything for it to do so. I do feed frozen food with garlic guard and probiatic flakes. One it’s a little better for the fish and two it makes where I’m certain my corals don’t starve. I do (and need to actually) spot feed corals about once a week. It’s nice to know they have food because of this method. In all I spend maybe 20 min a day on my tank and on the weekend when I go through things about an hour. Before water changes was a long long exhausting day for me. I have also learned that when I have done changes (aka routine or methods), sometimes they backfire, so as of the moment things work well.
Yes I could make a water changing station, etc etc, but my house just makes it odd. More than enough room but I have three steps from my garage floor to the garage house door. Then my tank is on the far side of my living room, on hard wood floors. It’s not super easy carry five gallons, could I see myself pushing a large rubber bin with 30-60 in it or 50 who knows.
Getting the water out of the tank isn’t terrible, siphon and bucket. Tried the hose to the kitchen sink and interesting enough like my old house, the ends would unscrew, these do not. But again moving 12 five gallon buckets across my home out the garage and down the drive way kinda sucks.
On my 240 water changes (which is what I prefer) kinda suck for me. A five gallon jug is roughly half my body weight and I was up to 60-80 gallons a week to keep nitrates etc down. Even running a larger skimmer for some reason (maybe my skimmer isn’t as good as I thought or my bioload is way off), but nitrates would stay 20-30 ppm.
I then started carbon dosing which has its bonuses and failures all in one. Some pros since I’m where I need to be now it’s only 16-20ml for my water volume of 240 plus my sump which is a 40 breeder (then minus rock, sand space etc you get the math) I’m about 200 water volume roughly. So it’s 30 dollars for one bottle that lasts close to 6 months on average, unless I have a spike which is rare. But I would spend close to 120 a month just for saltwater (because I don’t mix it myself) but it’s 1.00 a gallon for pro salt mix, and when I did it every week it was closer to 200 a month. Another pro is time, I have a small flow pump in my sump so I would fill up five gallon bucket that’s half my weight and dump them outside etc. But I had no way to fill it up faster (because who ever designed my fish tank stand failed in math and design horribly), because the stand is not very tall. So with a 40 breeder in there, I literally had to fill up a normal pitcher of saltwater and dump it in. So it saved time and lots of money, and sorry when you just shy of 90 pounds a 45 pound jug times 12 to load and unload really isn’t fun at all.
The cons well I have successfully addicted my tank to alcohol or aka nopox (and I’m a medical professional, how does that work knowing I had to say the Hippocratic oath?) hey let’s get your fish and corals addicted to drugs you will go far in life (lol) but yeah it’s extremely unwise to stop dosing it. Secondly I lose trace elements so I have to dose those as well, and if my math is right (which it always is), have to dose that correctly and keep records where calcium levels are because they are based on that. (I don’t use any dosers either, apex (simple system errrrrr sorta). Another con is I can risk bottoming my tank to low so I actually need to test weekly which I do with api. Now I know they are not spot on accurate but as long as I stay above 2 yay. Phosphates are pretty low as well, but I will say seeing some hair algae and or turf alage means I haven’t stripped my water to clean. Another con is you simply can’t forget, (in theory you can if the tank swings a little it’s fine), but again not ideal.
The meh(s) I haven’t seen any per say negative effects from my coral or fish if anything they do better. My skimmer is just obnoxious at times. Normally I can set it and it stays and other times it drops way down, or over flows. Yet, I haven’t changed anything for it to do so. I do feed frozen food with garlic guard and probiatic flakes. One it’s a little better for the fish and two it makes where I’m certain my corals don’t starve. I do (and need to actually) spot feed corals about once a week. It’s nice to know they have food because of this method. In all I spend maybe 20 min a day on my tank and on the weekend when I go through things about an hour. Before water changes was a long long exhausting day for me. I have also learned that when I have done changes (aka routine or methods), sometimes they backfire, so as of the moment things work well.
Yes I could make a water changing station, etc etc, but my house just makes it odd. More than enough room but I have three steps from my garage floor to the garage house door. Then my tank is on the far side of my living room, on hard wood floors. It’s not super easy carry five gallons, could I see myself pushing a large rubber bin with 30-60 in it or 50 who knows.
Getting the water out of the tank isn’t terrible, siphon and bucket. Tried the hose to the kitchen sink and interesting enough like my old house, the ends would unscrew, these do not. But again moving 12 five gallon buckets across my home out the garage and down the drive way kinda sucks.