camnbron Posted April 6, 2008 Report Share Posted April 6, 2008 following on from Candys post in the Takapuna water subject, it would be interesting to see the overall cost of going ASW. Of the two (ASW and NSW) it would be the cleaner - less unknown variables compared to getting NSW from the boat ramp/beach/harbour/side of the boat. But then you would have to look at the cost/benefit of it especially if you live within a minute or two of the sea. From what I understand there are a number of steps and requirements involved to do it correctly You need: Artificial salt mix - Redsea, Instant ocean Good quality water - RODI unit Big container - drum for mixing salt/storing salt Heater - to aid in mixing How long would the filters on the RODI unit last when using it for both top-up and ASW mixing? Do people buy the salt in bulk to reduce costs or group buy? I've gone NSW but I still have some ASW squirrelled away "just in case" Thoughts? Views? I did a search of the section and came up with these previous discussions: Stupid Beginner Questions Topic tends to drift a little biggest disadvantage of NSW Whoops!!! NSW around NZ Little bit of info there No doubt there are other ones too but thats all I could find at the moment Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livingart Posted April 6, 2008 Report Share Posted April 6, 2008 it would cost me 1,780 dollars to do a complete ASW water change on the big tank that is at wholesale rate too costs about 40$ and 2 hours to do nsw Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drifty Posted April 6, 2008 Report Share Posted April 6, 2008 It costs me $120 for 700l of asw. I do a 50l change per month. So plz correct me if I am wrong but it costs me $120 for 14 m onths worth of water. I dont use a heater for the water as I find the pump heats the water enough. I have an RODI unit already but yes I do use more di resin which probably costs me an extra $80 for those 14 months. So I am guessing it costs me $200 for 14months of water changes. Given that I live a 1.5 hour round trip from takapuna and have 2 young children so spare time is limited I just cant see myself ever swithcing to nsw. Having said that my tank is only 450l total volume, if I had a much larger tank I would probably use nsw Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolliolli Posted April 6, 2008 Report Share Posted April 6, 2008 i use asw and use the same 150L plastic drum for mixing my asw as i do for my freshwater topoffs (ie ive worked out a plan so that by the time it comes round to do a water change i should have the required amount of freshwater in the barrel for the water change). I buy the 25Kg Red sea salt mix which costs $127, doing 15% water changes fortnightly on a 400L tank it lasts around 5 months so around $6.30 a week which i don't think is too bad. i was using tap water only for both top ups and salt mixing but now am using straight DI so i haven't worked out how long it will take before the DI runs out (but replacement DI resin was only $11US so its a pretty small amount) i also heat my asw and run a small powerhead Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camnbron Posted April 6, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 6, 2008 In addition to water changes do you guys do dailyish tank syphoning? I syphon out around 3L every second day, cleaning out crud and stuff. for me its: 44L fortnightly (10%) *25=1100 3L every second day *182=546 So 1646L/year of NSW Plus Top-up water 2L/day =730L Man the amounts of water I go through starts to add up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drifty Posted April 6, 2008 Report Share Posted April 6, 2008 I havent put my hands in my tank for 3 weeks, my sump is different... Only time I am in tank is to vacuum sand and place the odd coral etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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