I've read on wwmedia that you should aerate and buffer your RO/DI water after it comes out into your container: true? It sort of makes sense I guess: a cheap powerhead in the garbage can will aerate (adding oxygen and removing carbon dioxide), and it can't hurt to buffer water change water (though I question the point of doing this to topoff water) since RO/DI water will basically be super duper soft.
Why only 24 hours? I've heard that it can sit in the dark for weeks, once mixed. And if you add a powerhead to your garbage can...? Also, how do you work unsalted topoff water vs salted water change water?
And how can you be sure that your trash cans won't have antibacterial/mold/mildew compounds in the plastic? I know that anything "food safe" will work, but I've never seen anyone eat out of a garbage can and so I've never seen any garbage can with this written on it.
I know that those cheap kiddie swimming pools are death to fish for precisely this reason: they have antifungal stuff right in the plastic that leeches into the water and kills fish over time.
I'm currently the owner of three 5gal buckets for my 55gal water changes (a full 5 gal is about as much as I can lift safely with some control). I use two for mixing water and one for waste water. For topoff I siphon right into the sump, and for water changes I siphon out about 10 gal (5 gal into my waste bucket, dump, 5 more gal, dump) and then replace the water with my two premixed 5 gals. I got the 5gals cheap at a ***** that was going out of biz.
My future plans will involve getting an ro/di and then using the garbage can method if I can find one that's safe. Not sure how I'll work topoff vs. salted water. What I'd like to do is drill some holes into my floor to my basement so that I can attach a permanent waste water siphon line (and thus not have to carry buckets of waste water down to the basement sink) and maybe even get a pump to pump up water from the basement and into the tank (I can switch off the source from using salted vs. unsalted topoff water as needed). Ultimately, I'd like to put my entire sump in the basement, taking the noise of the pumps out of our dining room entirely, leaving only the noise of the overflow/drain. This will, of course, require getting a fairly strong pump, since it will add at least seven vertical feet to the return line length.
I haven't sold the wife on drilling holes in the floor though.
My next step will be to convince her to at least let me punch a hole in the wall for a sort of "water outlet."
