[burgerchow]

Originally Posted by mike31154

By design any automatic water change set up will involve quite a few components and be relatively complex with controllers, pumps, timers, switches, relays etc. All this complexity means more failure modes, more things to potentially go wrong. Makes no sense to me to spend the money on such complexity for a simple task like a water change on a small tank. In the end, you still have to mix the new salt water manually, so how much more time does it take to scoop some water out of your display or sump & replace it manually? I have seen threads on other forums where individuals are working on methods of mixing up new salt water automatically, but they usually end somewhere along the line when the poster realizes just how hard it is to get a consistent mix using machinery. Even on a larger system I would be hesitant to let an auto water change system run unsupervised. I would look at it more as a labour saving device to minimize the manual water hauling by using pumps to transfer water on larger systems, but would still control the pumps manually for peace of mind. But that's just me & yes, I still haul buckets of new salt water from the basement up to my display for water changes. For me it's part of the deal of owning a SW tank & I don't mind too much since I'm on a less frequent, larger volume water change schedule.

Totally agree. I still lug up 25 gallons of water from basement to main floor every water change. Less plumbing = less chance of disaster