Mixing station in closest or garage ?

[fltekdiver]

I live in Florida, and my garage is hot in the summer months, I'm not so much worried about the winter cause I can heat the water I'm mixing

Right now my 55 gallon containers are in the garage. The last few water changes, the temp going into the tank is 87-88 from the mixing station. The DT climbs to about 85, then goes back down. I normally run my DT around 79 in the summer months

I have a closest in the bedroom where my 180 is, I'm thinking of moving my SW container and RO-DI into the house into the closet next to the tank

I have a hose bib right outside that wall I can get water in, wasted water only thing I could do is run the line back outside and drip on the grass

My RO-DI has a auto shut off and I have a float valve that shuts it off, which hasn't failed yet in my mixing container.

The run from my garage to my DT is currently 50' . I also have a 60 gallon rimless SW tank in another room on that side of the house

By moving everything into the closet, my mixing station would be a few feet from the DT tank, making SW changes much easier. For my other tank in the other room I could simply pump it from the container using a RV drinkable hose over 20' into the other room , making it real easy

Right now I wheel containers full of water through the whole house everytime I do a water change, which is every 2 weeks

What are your thoughts about moving everything into the house?

[jamiepm]

If I could move it all inside, I would. I would make sure to have a wet alarm on the closet floor.

[fltekdiver]

Maybe a leak dectection hooked up to my Apex right next to it?

[DrBoxedWine]

Can I ask what kind of wheels you use? I'm about to set up a new tank and i'm worried that the standard wheels you get on a brute container will damage the wood floors. And as for your question, depends how much you trust the float valve I suppose! I always love the idea of garages since the damage potential is so much less, but that's pretty big temperature swing, i'd think fixing that would be good.

[DANNY G2004]

Is the garage door insulated? And what type of door is it

[whiteshark]

Maybe a leak dectection hooked up to my Apex right next to it?

Yup. It would probably be good to get that container off the wheels too. There have been some examples recently of those wheels failing and water ending up everywhere.

[Portsie]

I'd keep it in the garage if it was me. Maybe wheel the salt tub in the day before a water change to let it cool down a bit.

[fltekdiver]

I use the circle dolly made for the brute trash cans. My mixing barrel is a 55 gallon drum. My RO containter is a 32 gallon brutt trash can.
I have another container I pump the water into, roll it from the garage, up over a step into the kitchen, role it through the hallway, and 1/2 of my livingroom, into the office where my 180 is. Pump it up into the tank. The wheels don't do any damage, rolling over the lamanite floors.
I agree about the flooding, that's why its been in the garage since I first started the hobby last year. But I'm getting a 5 plus degree swing every time I do a water change

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[fltekdiver]

The mixing containers not on wheels. I can't bring the water in a day before, I can only bring in 15 gallons max each time , because I have to lift the container and dolly over a steep from the garage going into the house. It takes me several trips back and forth right now
I could pump the water from the garage into a container in the cloest a few days before I guess. The container is cheap, like $20 .


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[Owensue]

Take some milk jugs and make large ice blocks to cool the water before bringing it in.

Or freeze say 2 gallons of salt water each time and drop that in the morning you plan to do the water change.

[ALH]

Or you could keep the water in the garage and just do small daily changes. That would minimize temp fluctuations

[fltekdiver]

Seems everyone's against putting it in the closest? Any reason why?

Between a 180 reef tank, and a 60 rimless, I'm changing 55 gallons every 10 days to 14 days.

If it were in the closet, it would be a few feet away from my 180

Only other option would be pump it into another 55 in the closest till I'm ready to do a water change

[LJLKRL]

I live in Louisiana, and have a similar setup for my mixing station, except no wheels on my brute can.
I have a 55 gallon DT, so I fill enough 5 gallon buckets to do the change then bring them in the house and let them start to cool down. When the temp in one of the buckets reaches the temp in my DT, I do the change.
I put a pump in one of the buckets and pour the new water into that one bucket.
I usually only change 20 or 25 gallons at a time though.

If I had an available closet in the house I would use it to store my water in. I see no problem at all with that.

[fltekdiver]

Once again, nothing has wheels under it. I have a 18 gallon conrainer, that I put over the wheels, role it into the house. It takes me 5 plus trips going it this way. Only way I could let it cool down would be to have a 55 in my cloest, pump it from the garage to the cloest next to the 180. Let it cool down for several days
Seems like still allot of work.
I think I'm going to just move it all into the cloest, next to the tank and be done

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[Texas Paul]

I debated the same thing not too long ago. I managed to find a 26 gal container that would fit in some cabinetry in an already very crowded mechanical room. I'm glad I did. Easy to fill up with RODI, easy to mix with an external circulation pump, and easy to pump into the tank. My initial plan was to have the mixing station in the garage as well.....If you are worried and want a more robust container, take a look at RomoTech tanks. Super sturdy and very stable - they come with sturdy bulkheads already attached, and the plastic can be drilled and regular bulkheads installed if needed. Makes water changes so much easier.

[fltekdiver]

Thanks,

I appreciate the input

I just filled 2 - 18 gallon containers for this times water change, and moved them into the fishroom for overnight. Problem is, their 18 gallons, but I can only fill them 3/4 way high, so the water doesn't spill getting it over the step into the house

So at least 30 gallons is getting to room temp, I'm still short 25 gallons between the 2 tanks, but the temp swing willn't be so bad on 25 gallons vs 55