Salt Virgin Needs Advice

[NewGuy]

Hi thanks for the replies.

Does anyone know if any of the retailers in the lower mainland carry the Hydor Seltz line?

I obviously want to go T5HO and I have looked into it but its still pricey unless I find a cheap used setup. For a 4 lamp setup the bulbs alone will be around $120 after tax not to mention the ballasts and endcaps. I know that I can overdrive 4 T8 lamps for around $70 in ballasts. It all depends on whether such lamps exist and how much they cost. I believe that 4 T8 lamps overdriven 2X (or more with another $35 dollar ballast) will be reasonably close in lighting to T5HO especially when no individual reflectors are involved.

As for the DSB I really dont know what to do yet. I have read the information available and the science seems reasonable. Since I have zero experience I might just go ahead and try it to experiment a bit. I doubt that if I do decide to go ahead that this system will remain untouched over the longrun.

Also I want to do the least amount of waterchanges possible since salt is expensive . I will also be using TAPWATER DUM DUM DUUUUUM!!. Vancouver water is really quite pure. If you look at the reports nitrates are usually below 0.1ppm and phosphate is undetectable by analytical methods so I believe it to be "good enough for now".