Saving money

[Pufferfish88]

Well that doesn't mean I shouldn't try to be smart about it and conserve it when I can.

[jdak]

SW puffer tanks still need bigger water changes than regular SW tanks.

[Pufferfish88]

Yeah cool! You guys have answered my questions thanks.

[Rusty]

Well that doesn't mean I shouldn't try to be smart about it and conserve it when I can.

indeed

[Mek0ng]

How good your skimming is working will be a significant part of if your water changes are reduced enough to save you money in the first couple years of the changeover. With very good skimmer removing the dissolves wastes _and_ a good way of dealing with nitrates(deep sand bed, vitamin C dosing, denitrators, purigen, other...) you can actually get water changes down to 25% every other week even in a messy puffer tank.

Just food for thought, but a DSB on a large fish load tank is a very bad idea. Waste will get trapped in the sand bed and quickly turn bad. On the other hand a remote DSB, prefiltered, would be a good idea. Search 5g bucket RDSB for more info.

But +1 on a GOOD skimmer being worth it. IME GOOD skimmers are not HOB, but then again I haven't tried some of the new ones $300+, In that price range I recommend my customers to just get a sump.

[Pufferfish88]

Haha yeah I see people who have sumps bigger than my tank (29g) so I thought I would just stick to a HoB.

[Nick]

Yes, from what I have seen, DSB work best in a refugium.

[Mek0ng]

Yes, from what I have seen, DSB work best in a refugium.

Even better in a unlit container so that algae and bacteria don't grow over the surface, then have a separate container for growing chaeto