Salt Water Mixing Stations Let's See Them

[tallball158]

That's a nice set up, I like how it is hidden in a closet!

[Dustin1300]

Originally Posted by HPballer76

And it's plumbed up to my renew system under my tank.

Just curious why your top off is in your skimmer section of sump? Looks like your levels would fluctuate a lot and that skimmer would not perform very well.

[HPballer76]

Originally Posted by Dustin1300

Just curious why your top off is in your skimmer section of sump? Looks like your levels would fluctuate a lot and that skimmer would not perform very well.

It isn't lol. My top off is in the return section which is directly behind the skimmer in the 3rd pic.

[Dustin1300]

Originally Posted by HPballer76

It isn't lol. My top off is in the return section which is directly behind the skimmer in the 3rd pic.

Gotcha! Now let's see more water mixing stations.

I've still not hooked up any tubing on mine down in basement but was curious what others use for tubing that's flexible but does not kink? I'm using liter meter for auto water changes but would still like to use the pressurized pipes I ran to fish room for emergency changes, rinse/fills of ro/di and so forth. Would really like something that'd stretch 20-30 ft and wraps back up nicely. Keep thinking our coiled garden houses would be ideal but brass does not fit with reefs! Any coiled hoses anyone can think of that'd be safe?!

[Larz_1]

Originally Posted by Da Maui life

My Low tech ultra low cost saltwater mixing station.


Mixed by mother nature, piped and filtered free of charge by Maui Ocean Center.


This area by the saltwater fill station holds the QT tanks the big round one has some sharks and sting rays, the other ones have turtles, corals and other things not sure what was in them, water was very dark. I'll try and post more photos in the appropriate forum.

That's awesome!
We love the Maui Ocean Center and always have to go when we get to visit Maui.
I would LOVE to see some of the behind-the-scenes plumbing and such.

[ReeferGil]

Not to get off topic, but how often do you guys clean out your storage containers, especially the salt mix container. After time, mine builds up with a white substance that adheres to the inside of the container. Just curious if you guys use distilled vinegar to clean them out and if so, what's the ratio vinegar to water? Overnight with pump do the trick?

[Toomnymods]

just finished mine this weekend in the garage..

[tallball158]

Very nice! I really like the epoxy floor, it makes it look very clean!

[Toomnymods]

Originally Posted by tallball158

Very nice! I really like the epoxy floor, it makes it look very clean!

Ya i used valspar garage floor coating, just make sure you etch the concrete first or it wont last more than a few months before chipping

[TommyP]

This thread is awesome. I believe this is my first post but that's fine. Been working on my tank. I am tired of lugging containers of water upstairs to my bedroom from outside the garage to fill my small 6-7g containter for my top off reservoir. My tank is a 55g reef. I was planning on getting a brute pail and just throwing an old powerhead in there with a heater and on my day off, just filling it up as needed. At that point, siphon or pump some water out into my storage container, drag it through the office upstairs to my room then change the water and drag the water down and empty it by the curb. Is there an easy way to run some sort of hose upstairs to just fill the water for my ato and also just fill my saltwater bucket to make this less painful? How big of a pump would I need? Thanks.

[TommyP]

Btw I wouldn't mind mixing the water upstairs when I do the change the same day but just looking for a simplier way to get the water to the 2nd floor? I actually have a window too I can throw a hose up but that's a LOT of head loss.

[awais98]

Originally Posted by Dustin1300

Keep thinking our coiled garden houses would be ideal but brass does not fit with reefs! Any coiled hoses anyone can think of that'd be safe?!

You can cut the brass ends and put in plastic repair male and females ends available at lowes.

[Kdawg_69]

Originally Posted by awais98

You can cut the brass ends and put in plastic repair male and females ends available at lowes.

or get a RV food safe hose from a RV shop thats what we did

[awais98]

Water change made easy, just turning 3 knobs total.
1 knob from the return line manifold to get the water out to the drain.
Another knob to open the new saltwater from the brute to the tank
3rd to shut the continious recirc mixer knob in the brute can.
See Pics

[MikesReef83]

Originally Posted by jefferskn

Here are some pics of mine. My 120 gallon reef tank is directly above the area in the basement where I have my saltwater mixing station. When I do water changes I shut down my return pump which drains back into my sump until my sump is just about full. I control how much water goes into the sump when the power is off based on how low I positioned the return locline. I than open some valves and the water drains out of my sump via siphon/gravity. Once the sump is empty, I turn some valves and pump mixed water back into my sump. I have a valve located on this line next to my sump so once the water is back to where I want it, I turn the valve and than go downstairs and turn off the pump. I can also pump water from the RO tank over to the mixing tank by using valves. I use the last barrel on the right for my water to drain into from my sump and than it drains much slower into a floor drain in the basement.

Hey, I seen your water station in the thread and it is a great setup. In fact, I'm going to mock your setup when my 90g is going.

I had a question though.

If you had a reservoir set up next to your dt tank upstairs. Could you use the same line running up through the floor to refill your top off reservoir also? Or would running ro/do water through the same line going through the floor no be a good idea?

This would make it easier so you wouldn't have to fill a 5 gallon container for your top off downstairs and lug it up stairs and also without having to drill two holes in the floor.

[brvheart]

Couple general questions:

Does anybody keep the RO/DI pressurized? Meaning the valve feeding the RO/DI is on and flow is controlled by John Guest type ball valves on the output side. I imagine it would work as the valves are rated at 150psi and the pressure going into the RO/DI is 50-60psi.

Also, does salt need to be stored in a food-safe container like water? The 200 gallon IO salt is on sale all over for $40 but it comes in bags. I'd like to keep it in a standard Home Depot bucket if I can..

[woodnaquanut]

Not sure why you'd want to control outflow. RO/DI already has a flow restrictor on the waste side. If you restrict the output you'd loose more water to waste. A float valve shuts off flow completely if you have a auto shutoff on the RO/DI filter.

HD buckets? You don't have a pile of old salt buckets out in the yard? What's wrong with you? I'd still leave the salt in a bag for extra moisture protection. That could be put in any bucket you want.

Originally Posted by brvheart

Couple general questions:

Does anybody keep the RO/DI pressurized? Meaning the valve feeding the RO/DI is on and flow is controlled by John Guest type ball valves on the output side. I imagine it would work as the valves are rated at 150psi and the pressure going into the RO/DI is 50-60psi.

Also, does salt need to be stored in a food-safe container like water? The 200 gallon IO salt is on sale all over for $40 but it comes in bags. I'd like to keep it in a standard Home Depot bucket if I can..

[brvheart]

Originally Posted by woodnaquanut

Not sure why you'd want to control outflow. RO/DI already has a flow restrictor on the waste side. If you restrict the output you'd loose more water to waste. A float valve shuts off flow completely if you have a auto shutoff on the RO/DI filter.

I'm not trying to control outflow.. I would like to run 1/4" RO tubing about 15' to my kitchen under the sink where I can fill an ATO container a couple times a week. The reason I would use a valve to control output is simply for the situation where I would turn off the water in the kitchen (rather than at the RO/DI supply line) which would leave the RO/DI pressurized and producing waste water. This would only happen for 30 minutes or so. I can't think of any harm it would cause.

Originally Posted by woodnaquanut

HD buckets? You don't have a pile of old salt buckets out in the yard? What's wrong with you? I'd still leave the salt in a bag for extra moisture protection. That could be put in any bucket you want.

Nope, I don't. Is there a problem storing salt directly in a non-food grade bucket? Not a terribly big deal as they're $5-6 at HD, but I happen to have a lot of standard Homer HD buckets lying around.

[jscarlata]

I found a great air/water tight storage bin for salt at the container store. I use esv salt and i hated using the boxes and bags.. This plastic storage bin was an ace purchase...

[connecticut cichlids]

Originally Posted by Toomnymods

just finished mine this weekend in the garage..

Those are very nice storage drums...

[brvheart]

Surprised there aren't more gravity fed systems up here.. I think 2 of the systems here have been gravity fed, out of 545 posts :0

I just finished mine this weekend. Could include pics but it's pretty simple. RO/DI under kitchen sink feeding to basement below into freshwater Brute. Freshwater Brute dumps into saltwater (mixing) Brute. Saltwater Brute dumps into water change buckets.
I love the fact that there is nothing to fail and replace. Of course I have to use a powerhead and heater, but they're easy to replace if necessary. And my basement is so primitive it has a pull string at the door to turn the light on. I just wired the powerhead and heater onto the pull string so all I have to do to mix and heat the water is pull the string. Obviously a timer would work, but this setup is very functional for my needs.

[Dustin1300]

Originally Posted by brvheart

Surprised there aren't more gravity fed systems up here.. I think 2 of the systems here have been gravity fed, out of 545 posts :0

I just finished mine this weekend. Could include pics but it's pretty simple. RO/DI under kitchen sink feeding to basement below into freshwater Brute. Freshwater Brute dumps into saltwater (mixing) Brute. Saltwater Brute dumps into water change buckets.
I love the fact that there is nothing to fail and replace. Of course I have to use a powerhead and heater, but they're easy to replace if necessary. And my basement is so primitive it has a pull string at the door to turn the light on. I just wired the powerhead and heater onto the pull string so all I have to do to mix and heat the water is pull the string. Obviously a timer would work, but this setup is very functional for my needs.

Guess I don't have 15 foot ceilings to stack them!

[brvheart]

A quick note to those who previously asked about mixing salt in the saltwater container. The answer was "You'll get a feel for it" or "Ahh just wing it" or "Just taste it" (ok made that one up). Here's what I do:

A) I highly suggest installing the water level viewing tubes. I found a very nice low profile way of installing them, and it totals $2 in parts from HD per container. (This is obviously unnecessary with the semi-transparent containers)
B) Using the level viewing tubes, once you mark the gallon level indicators, just mix in enough salt to account for the volume of water added to the mix container. For example, I always do 5g increments. If I have 15 gallons in the FW container, I'll drop the level from 15 to 5 gallons, which obviously dumps 10 gallons of new FW into the SW mix container. If you know your salt scoop per gallon, add the necessary amount. For me, if I drop 10 gallons, I would add 5 cups of salt (1/2 cup per gallon using IO). It doesn't matter how much is in your SW container already, you're keeping your salinity the same. This 5g increment works well for me because that represents a full water change for my little nano.

Obviously this is super simple common sense kind of stuff, but if you're in the early stages of trying to figure out a water change system and you're clueless like I was, this can be helpful.

[brvheart]

Originally Posted by Dustin1300

Guess I don't have 15 foot ceilings to stack them!

I hear you, but it depends on the size/shape containers you're using. I was able to pull it off easily using the samller Brutes. I can barely stand up straight in my basement and I'm 6'2". You could just pull it off with 9' ceilings if using the 32g Brutes.

In fact, I'm pretty curious about this one.. This is on page 2 of this thread, post 41. He has both containers side by side. The FW feeds into the SW container on the bottom via a check valve. Only pump seems to be on the output. I don't understand how this works without a pump in the FW container..

Originally Posted by Hartdude

Here's mine. I have two containers, the one on the left is the freshwater, the one on the right is the saltwater. They are linked in the middle with a check valve that only allows the water to flow from left to right. In the SW container, I have a airstone, and two Koralias for circulation. Exiting the SW container, I have a Mag 12 to pump it all upstairs (I connect a Python hose). Rudimentary, but serves the purpose.

[deeAnnMG]

Great thread. It has inspired me to do... IDK, something more / easier than the bucket hauling I have been doing. I'm going to think on it, maybe start this weekend. Thanks!