I remember a while back seeing a kit that would attach a large dump bottle to the maintenance tank.
It was a tube, bottle and a barbed fitting. You would drill a whole into the tank near the bottom of the handle and attach the fitting, tubing and bottle.
The ink would drain into the collection bottle and when the tank read full, you would reset the chip. The ink would be dumped down the drain.
I think it was an ingenious solution rather then buying more tanks or replacing the pads.
But i cant remember where i saw it (damn!). The parts are available at home depot (except the chip resetter), it would cost maybe $10 or $20.
My plan is to do this to my 9880 one day and forgo anymore maintenance tanks.