"This is all going to sound a bit insane, and I know I'm going to take some heat for it, because it really isn't that much effort involved in doing a weekly water change. The way I justify it is, now I have an extra hour a week to spend with my wife and daughter. I needed to prove to myself that it could work. What I realized is that there are quite a few ways to skin a cat."
The way I looked at it, being automated, I no longer have to REMEMBER to do it. Or make sure I have the time.
My setup is nearly identical, with 2 exceptions. First, I have a $40 solenoid on the drain line. I go down to 3/8 tube for the drain, so it takes much longer to drain enough water out of my 150 gal tank. I timed filling a gallon jug and did some quick multiplication.
Second, I don't use RO, so the solenoid for that is just hooked to the water supply (just like an icemaker). That's controlled by a float valve in the tank. So I kill two birds at the same time. Autotopoff and water change. The drain solenoid is on a timer, right now I do once a week. I'm considering a little less per change, but going twice a week.
Dechlor? Don't know what to say. I've had freshwater tanks for many years and never used it. Haven't seen problems yet.
And the way mine is now, it takes about 2 hours to change 40 gallons, so the new water is going in farily slowly. I believe chlorine will disapate on it's own fairly quickly.
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