I've also gone the route of more manual husbandry - no auto-anything. I made a Kalk dripper from a 1 gal milk jug, some tubing and a stopcock, I do the top offs myself or have a friend come in to add water when I am away. No other fancy equipment or other dosing except I do plan to put a TLF phosban reactor on the new tank. I have a battery backup airstone that kept everything going when we lost power for a few days last summer with Irene and I am ecstatic that my new house has a generator, just in case.
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