For the last few years I've been changing water dilligently every month (or so) of about 20% of my 75 gallon tank.
The process is labor intensive, blocks up the kitchen (wife aggro), and can be messy at times.
My current process consists of:
3 5 Gallon 'paint buckets' I got at Home Depot
3 small heaters, 3 small powerheads.
HiS 60 GPD water filter (mounted under kitchen sink)
I fill the three buckets, this can take a day or so to get the 15 gallons of water especially in the Winter when the water is clod which slows down the water filter. We add in the salt, let the pumps stir them between 24 - 72 hours. the variable is more of where this turns into the chore part and I let them sit on the kitchen counter evaporating off a bit because I don't 'feel like doing it' .
Knowing I'm only going to improve my procastination skills I was wondering if there were any other options I might look at.
What other options has anyone done then this entirely manual method? My 75 gallon tank is about three years old and everything is hung on it, as it has no internal overflows. I've been debating getting a 125 or so gallon 'reef' tank and migrating the rock over into it due to my fish passing away a few months ago. Right now I've got rock, some sand, and that's aboutit. Ididn't do any coral/anemonaes so it's an empty reef right now. I was wondering if I put in a larger tank, if there were any things I could look at that might be able to lower the labor of the water changes.
Thanks for the ideas.
Tom
The process is labor intensive, blocks up the kitchen (wife aggro), and can be messy at times.
My current process consists of:
3 5 Gallon 'paint buckets' I got at Home Depot
3 small heaters, 3 small powerheads.
HiS 60 GPD water filter (mounted under kitchen sink)
I fill the three buckets, this can take a day or so to get the 15 gallons of water especially in the Winter when the water is clod which slows down the water filter. We add in the salt, let the pumps stir them between 24 - 72 hours. the variable is more of where this turns into the chore part and I let them sit on the kitchen counter evaporating off a bit because I don't 'feel like doing it' .
Knowing I'm only going to improve my procastination skills I was wondering if there were any other options I might look at.
What other options has anyone done then this entirely manual method? My 75 gallon tank is about three years old and everything is hung on it, as it has no internal overflows. I've been debating getting a 125 or so gallon 'reef' tank and migrating the rock over into it due to my fish passing away a few months ago. Right now I've got rock, some sand, and that's aboutit. Ididn't do any coral/anemonaes so it's an empty reef right now. I was wondering if I put in a larger tank, if there were any things I could look at that might be able to lower the labor of the water changes.
Thanks for the ideas.
Tom