Mixing Station, Why 2 containers?

[pring51]

Hey all, this is my first post but been reading the forums for a little while now.

I am designing my mixing station and every one that I see out there has 2 containers for fresh RODI water and mixed water. Is it ok to only have one?

My plan is to reuse an 55 gallon wine barrel and line it with a food grade liner, plumb it with a bottom and top pipe for mixing and have an adapter at the top for the RO line. (it's not near the source.) After it's filled, I would add the salt and test the salinity till it was good then leave it till I need it. I would then refill as needed and add salt as needed.

Any thoughts? Thank you.

[homer1475]

Should work just fine.

My mixing station also has 2 barrels. My reasoning is I need RO/DI water for topoffs, cleaning equipment, rinsing media, etc, etc. So I have a barrel of plain water just for those things.

Also if I need to make a huge water change in a hurry for some reason, I have 2 barrels worth of water, one ready to go(already has salt in it), and one I could have ready in a couple hours. With these 2 barrels I can do a 100% WC if I ever needed to.

[ReefsandGeeks]

+1 to having 2 barrels. The second is for RODI, and IMO is more important than having mixed saltwater on hand. Not that just one barrel wouldn't work, I think it would work fine for a salt mixing barrel. Too bad you don't have 2 barrels you can use. need to start drinking more wine!

[sde1500]

Yep 1 top off water, 1 salt water for water changes. What do you do for top off?

[ericarenee]

My Mixing station has 3 55 gallon tanks.. one for ro/di water and two for mixing salt.. I always keep 50 to 70 gallons of salt water at all times.. when i do water changes on all the tanks at once it takes all 150 gallons..


We Are known as the Fish Ladies to the Neighbors..

[dj98ram]

+1 on two barrels. I also use RO/DI water to clean misc supplies, as well as use it to fill drinking bottles. It is gravity fed to the saltwater barrel, so if I need to quickly make a new batch of saltwater it helps with the initial mixing.

[marper331]

How big is your tank? I use a 20 gallon barrel for mixing salt water and 5 gallon poly containers for top off water. My system is 90 gallons and I make new saltwater whenever I do my water changes.

[pring51]

I have just a 72 gallon bowfront atm. I have plenty of 5 gallon buckets but thats a PITA. I have more than one wine barrel but space is the issue. I was going for something sort of decorative so that you would never that that it had function. I like the idea of always having RODI water on hand for washing and the like. Maybe i'll keep the 55 gallon fully mixed and have a 5 gallon for washing.

Thanks for all the replies. When I start the building of it, I'll post some pics.

[EnderG60]

A few reasons actually.

It allows you to have both fresh and salt on hand for whatever you need it for.
It allows you to double the available water you have for a large water change.(you can make on barrel of salt and use it then make the fresh into salt and you have a much larger water change available)
It allows you to have salt mixed and ready a day or more prior to use so the salinity and temp is correct for sure.

The only real downside is needing more space.

[Elricsfate]

I only have room for one container atm myself. So, I have an ATO reservoir plumbed into the line, with float switches that keep it full of RODI water which is then moved to the tank by an Osmolator,, and a 50 gallon container elsewhere in the house that fills with RODI that I mix with salt. I guess until I put the salt in it it's still RODI water that I could use for the other things folks mentioned.

[DEadsCSU]

Is there a best practice to automate the mixing of salt and RODI water in the second tank most of you have? Hand stir vs pump vs mixing blade connected to a motor, etc.

[ericarenee]

Is there a best practice to automate the mixing of salt and RODI water in the second tank most of you have? Hand stir vs pump vs mixing blade connected to a motor, etc.

MY PUMP Pulls water from the bottom of the tank and drops it back into the top

[DEadsCSU]

MY PUMP Pulls water from the bottom of the tank and drops it back into the top



That seems to be the most common way I've seen them plumbed.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[KRBNSOL]

Check for an existing thread on water change stations. Lots of good ideas there. Pulling water from the bottom and return to the top is most common. I added an extension and a 45 at the end to force the return to churn/stir the water.

Found the thread. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1711626

[tkeracer619]

My water supply uses chloramines and while I have made a lot of effort to eradicate and treat them with my RODI it still comforts me to have a mixed bed DI chamber running on a recirc loop on my RODI storage tank. I use an eheim 1260 to circulate the water through the loop.

[jacksonpt]

I have kind of a hybrid setup... I have 2 tanks, but they are fully independent of each other. My SW tank is much like what you described in your original post and it works perfectly well.

IMO, having an RO/DI tank is far less important than a SW tank, especially for smaller systems.