Building a Mixing Station Looking for Advice

[josephxsxn]

Hi everyone, my tanks from poly-mart just arrived today, and after removing the door I got them into my basement. These are 3 150 gallon containers with bulkheads and lids. All in all I would like to have 1 be RODI, 1 Mixing, and 1 Preheated SW. A problem I need to solve for is pumping water up a flight of stairs possibly, I am willing to spent $$$ to buy quality components to make this happen.

I am mostly looking for Pump recommendations and plumbing best practices.

One I was modeling after is located here , he has plenty of ball values and unions everywhere.
http://s48.photobucket.com/user/Jar...F-4496-B90C-DC564615CBF7_zpsbb3eyd9z.png.html

#Container
1.0" Top Bulkhead
1.5" Bottom Bulkhead
http://www.tanksforless.com/p/658/polymart-150gallon-plastic-water-storage-tank

 

[biecacka]

Look into iwaki or panworld pumps. They are pressure rated and will be more than enough for what you want out of them.

Corey

 

[homer1475]

No idea on what pump, but in the DIY section there is an entire thread devoted to mixing stations and how to set them up.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1711626

Have a read through that, I'm sure you'll find what your looking for. It's only 72 pages long with lots of pictures.

FWIW, most of us only use 2 barrels. Unless its super cold where your storing, or doing very large water changes. There is really no need to heat the water. Not exactly sure why you think you need 2 to mix in unless your tank is much larger then the volume o the container?

 

[josephxsxn]

Thanks for the pump recommendations biecacka, and for the link Homer, I was a bit blind and didnt think about diy for some reason!

I have multiple tanks that this system will support totaling about 330 gallons today with plenty of other unfilled tanks to boot. From a planning aspect I am into redundancy and worse case planning, if one tank is RO water I am 30 gallons short of a 100% change on everything currently running (I hope I never have to.) Was only thinking of preheating 1 - 150 gallon drum as its larger than any 1 tank individually that I am running, its about 64f in the storage location during winter. Long term I wanted room to grow as I finally found a local supply of some 300+ gallon tanks . Today I have been supporting all of these tanks with small 4 gallon water changes through the week for the last year+ and decided that it was time to get alot more serious as it was the last major gap in my equipment.

I should also add the dedicated RO tank will have a feed off to the indoor garden...

 

[PhishyRupert]

I agree with the recommendation of the panworld style pumps. I’m not sure how much power or hear you have but some of the super large water blasters or sicce pumps may work as well.

 

[mrsixstrings12]

I have a waveline pump as my main return from my basement. Its been working for almost half a year now. No complaints so far. Max height is 16' I believe.

 

[outy]

There is really no need to heat the water.

That's just not true.

If you do small water changes you can get away with it.

I do 100G water changes and , the stock tank is more or less in a unheated basement.

With such large tanks, as OP has, its a probably a smart thing to do in this case.

 

[outy]

I am mostly looking for Pump recommendations and plumbing best practices.

I use an Iwaki md55 for my basement 100g stock tank for mixing.

The good thing is it is all 1" pvc plumbing.

You can heat up this pipe with a heat gun and make your own curves that wont reduce flow. This works so much better then 90's or 45's

Not sure what other advise you might need, other than keeping your gate valves close to unions.

It would be great if you could plumb the return through the floor, instead of running pvc with unions like you did with your hose.

I have my 100g sump plumbed through the floor so all water changes are done in one room, so I don't have to deal with head height for water changes. I have 100G water changes done now in 10 minutes, which includes draining the sump and refilling.

 

[homer1475]

Unless its super cold where your storing, or doing very large water changes. There is really no need to heat the water. Not exactly sure why you think you need 2 to mix in unless your tank is much larger then the volume o the container?

That's just not true.

If you do small water changes you can get away with it.

I do 100G water changes and , the stock tank is more or less in a unheated basement.

With such large tanks, as OP has, its a probably a smart thing to do in this case.

If your going to quote me, at least use the entire quote. I said the exact same thing as you if you read the entire post.