karna68 said:
but wow, that's a lot of EXTRA water...
If you think about it in terms of how much of a mess it would be if it was on the floor, yes, that would be a lot of water.
But in the greater scheme of how much water an average household uses in a month, it's really just a drop in the proverbial bucket. I am used to working with the amount of water used in a month, so numbers like 400 gallons aren't very scary, but when you aren't used to this stuff, I can see where it could be stressful.
Your comments got me wondering just how expensive water really is up there, so I looked it up. According to the price structure in place as of January 1, 2006 for the Columbus water department, the first 5 CCF (CCF = 100 cubic feet) is the basic allotment. That works out to 3740 gallons. If you go over that, they charge per CCF, and that rate fluctuates depending on exactly where you live, but with sewer included, it seems to be about $3.99 per CCF if you live in Columbus proper). 1 CCF = 748 gallons.
It works out to about $2.13 for the 400 gallons you will use for water changes in a month, assuming that you are already over the original 5CCF. Of course they will bill you the entire $3.99 because they have no provision for billing fractions of a CCF. If you are not over the 5CCF basic allotment, it will add nothing to your bill.
Hope this helps put things in perspective a bit.
http://columbuswater.com/PDFs/2006RateChart.pdf