Why DSR ?

[glennf]

What are the reasons to choose for DSR ?
Isn't it a lot of work ?

it sound like a lot of work, but it isn't.
it's working with the brain, instead of Physical labour.
There are a few reasons why it could workout better for someone (or not), it also depend your setup and available space.

here is just a summary of do and don't

Don't :
- When you have a nice running tank and you are happy with what your doing. (why change a winning team)
- When you have plenty of space to have a (semi) automated WC installation .(i have never done it, but it sounds easy enough)
- When you hate water testing or can't intepret the colors of the tests. (some people can't read colors)
- when you don't want to think, but just do the routine. (physical routines are always easier to learn)
- When you have plenty of cash to spend for maintenance
- when you love the simplicity of waterchanges.
- when you believe WC is the best for your tank.

To consider:
- when you don't hate water testing
- when you have problems maintaining water quality
- when you want to learn more about saltwater management and therefore more prepared when you encounter problems.
- when you have limited space available. (making a auto WC installation impossible)
- when when you hate the WC routine ( preparing, messing water on the floor and cleaning up afterwards)
- Cheaper for larger systems (>500l) because you safe on reefsalt (depending on the country and price of salt)
- Ecological, because you don't unnecessary waste valuable resources down the drain.(shipping/reefsalt, water, heating)
- when you think testing and understanding the dynamics of saltwater and saltwater management is fun.
- when you like to learn more about tweaking with water parameters and how corals react to that.

[glennf]

This is a typical routine for a (my) tank running DSR:

Regular maintenance:
Daily: Feeding the fish twice - 2x 10 minutes
Every other day: Cleaning the display with a magnet - 5 minutes
Every 3-5 days: Replacing the filterwool on the power filter - 10 munutes
Every week: Testing Alk, Ca, PO4  - 15 minutes - adjusting elements may require 15 minutes more. Adjusting dosing unit may require 5 minutes more.
Every 3-4 weeks: Testing Mg, K, Sr, B, I - 30 minutes - adjusting elements may require 20 minutes more. Adjusting dosing unit may require 5 minutes more.
Every 2 weeks: Cleaning the lamps with RO water - 30 minutes
Every other month: cleaning the surface skimmer comb - 10 minutes
Every other month: disassembling/cleaning the skimmer and  replacing the air woods - 30 minutes

Irregular maintenance:
once in a while: setting a coral straight of removing sand from the top (due to the gobys, average 2 minutes per day)
once in 4-5 weeks: cleaning the display with a towel - 15 minutes
every other month:  Fragging: ~2 hour - spilling about ~10 liter water
once every other month: siphoning the substrate and eventual cyano - 1 hour  ~20 liter water spilled
every 4-6 months: cleaning all pumps with muriatric acid - 2-3 hours
every 6-8 months: gradually replacement  of all 14 T5 Bulbs - 2 hours, because i use shrink sleeves.