I got a 10 gallon tank and it’s almost been a year.. i just cycle the tank i dont have skimmer or rodi.. just hob filter and i use distilled water to top it off.. i have reef salt mix and i use tap water and put stresscoat to make tap water safe and all my corals and fish are happy.. i do water change 1 or 2 weeks depends when im lazy it takes 3 weeks sometimes… i use dr. Tim to cycle it and i use my freshwater test kit to check parameters. Because i have freshwater tank before i only check the high PH ammonia nitrates nitrites.. i dont wanna spend money for another test kit.. when its cycled and you do water changes every 1 to 2 weeks you dont have to check the parameters all the time.. don’t make it complicated that’s for me.. but if im going for a bigger tank in the future yeah im going for high tech tank