Wasted water solution

[wookie]

Hi,

First post. Nice forum!!

I've got a 55 gallon brackish water tank housing three puffers (2 GSPs and one F8) and three Mono's (yellow/black/silver ones) and one pathetic piece of live rock (that stuff is expensive so I only got one sad chunk for now).

I have a Eheim professional filter.

I have one $50 powerhead.

What I'm wondering is how to not waste 5 gallons of water a week doing water changes? I hate pulling out 5 gallons and dumping it down the toilet. It probably also costs a lot.

What I was thinking about was setting up a mangrove farm to push the water through every week. By push I mean buckets as I'm not savvy nor financially able to set up much else than I've got going at the moment.

My plan was to get three 5 gallon vases with a bunch of mangroves in each and have them being emptied at one week intervals so each 5 gallons sits with the mangroves for three weeks. Or something bigger like a 15 gallon vase and just take out 5 gallons a week and replace with the dirty water.

Am I nuts? Does this make any sense?

I need some decorations around the house - so I thought some clear planters or vases or something would be decorative. I don't really want another aquarium sitting by a window just for plants. I think it looks "to aquariumy" however if I can't find anything I might just end up doing that. However, to avoid that I'd like vases or decorative items to look more attractive.

What I think would be really cool is a long glass vase like this



But obviously a bit bigger as the volume of that one is only 2.6 gallons.

Is this a ridiculous idea? Any suggestions?

Thanks