Salt Water Mixing Stations Let's See Them

I stole a lot of ideas from you guys, but here's my first attempt:

Pump: panworld 50px 590 gph
3/4 in PVC and fittings

This is "hopefully" what my system will be able to do.
  • Hold 30 gallons of RO/DI water
  • Pump RO/DI water to my top off container.
  • Recirculate RO/DI water
  • Pump 28 gallons from 1st can into salt water can.
  • Recirculate and mix salt indefinitely
  • Pump saltwater through 3/4" tube to do water changes

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dogstar74 said:
It should work fine, but I would steer you toward the drinking water hoses. They have stainless steel ends, and the white plastic is made for filling your RV's drinking water so it doesn't leach anything out. You may want to look into those. I would still do as suggested above and replace the ends with nylon barbed fittings.
Click to expand...

+1

DONOT use garden hose!!! I did that many many years ago on my freshwater tank when I was a noob!! For some reason whenever I changed my water my fish kept dying! And I never understood it until I got the plastic hose when things changed!
After doing some investigation, I found out the garden hose use asphalt based product.
Now my tank is about 50 ft away from the saltwater prep station. I an using the RV hose (white with blue line) with nickel plated ends. There is a pictures of the hose.

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Made4water said:
Has anyone ever used a cone bottom container like this one to mix salt? Pros, cons?

Thanks

http://www.tank-depot.com/productdetails.aspx?part=A-INFD60-30
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There is nothing wrong with using that tank if you want, but the cost is unnecessary. There is nothing wrong with leaving a couple of oz of water in the bottom of a barrel shaped container. And you can keep less water in those cone bottoms and it uses up the same floor space as a cylinder. So you're not getting the best use of space. But if you have a NEED for a cone bottom tank, there would be nothing wrong with them. Also, you NEED to buy the stand where as any old shelf will hold a cylinder.

Aaron
 
This was my first setup...
shed.jpg


RODI-AND-MIXING-TANK3.jpg


Then the Napoleon complex kicked in and the rubbermaid shed was replaced along with the water containers.
DSC01265.jpg



The container on the left is for RODI water. The one on the right is my Saltwater mixing and storage container. Both are 100G. Its all plumbed to the tank with an ATO thats controlled by my Apex and automatic water change system controlled by a Litermeter 3.
DSC01266.jpg


DSC01268.jpg
 
schoolisbad1 said:
Hey guys, I'm building my first RO/DI station right now, does the RO/DI unit have to be above the container? whats the benefits...
Click to expand...

I have my DI canister sitting on a platform at the same level as the base of my RO/DI water container. The purified water goes into the side of the container near the top with no problems. I prefer it like that because my TDS meter is mounted to the DI canister. If it was up high I wouldn't be able to turn on the meter or read it very easily.

I just built it last weekend. I've taken some pics and hope to upload them later.
 
I snagged a pair of 3/4" uniseals a few weeks back. I have a ~50 gallon food grade barrel for storing RODI, and a Brute bin wrapped in a hot water heater insulation blanket for mixing salt water. I'll likely hook them up together with a Mag7 pump.

When I manage to get some time... after finishing the new tank stand, hood,etc.. I plan to build a frame to hold them both. Not sure yet if I will stack one on top of the other, or go side by side.
 
I was inspired by this thread to build my own water mixing station.

IMG_0177.jpg~original


The top container holds the RO/DI water. The bottom containers are both for salt. Plus the platform gives me storage. I attach a hose to the RO/DI container to gravity feed the saltwater containers.

IMG_0179.jpg~original


The two saltwater containers are plumbed so I can recirculate water in one or both containers, transfer water from one container to the other or pump water via a 50' hose from one or both containers to the DT. All the red valves are also unions so I can disconnect either saltwater tank for cleaning. And having two tanks assures me of having saltwater at all times.

IMG_0178.jpg~original
 
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The salt mixing tank is a US plastics 50 gallon. I first started by dumping a 50 gallon bag of instance ocean in and then started filling. After mixing and hitting 1.026 i then marked it and then put in a float valve that will fill to the correct level each time. A 50 gallon bag of IO yields just over 45 gallons. The water line is a little high in this photo because i forgot to add the salt until after the container had filled.
Mixing is done via closed loop and a Iwaki MD70. A garden hose adapter has been since fitted to the free side of the pumps output so as to quickly replenish the water from my sump during water changes.

The one on the right is a US plastics 16 gallon that gravity feeds a float valve in my sump and there is a solenoid on a timer that refills the top off water.
IMG_6988.jpg

IMG_6989.jpg


Edit: After read a few thread up on this page it looks like i need to find a new garden hose. I havent seen any ill effects but hey, why chance it.
 
Hawkdl2 said:
Manual water changes should be a thing of the past. Sophisticated controllers are only a couple of hundred dollars and allow hands-off continual or frequent low volume water changes. It is easy to program and requires nothing more than a couple of float switches and two peristaltic pumps. Mine is set up to exchange about 1.5 gal 4 times per week in a ~120 gal system, though I can set it to exchange any number of times per day or week at up to about 3 or 4 gal at a time (up to the practical head room in the sump). Low volume frequent exchanges means no heater in the NSW tank (less $$$), no PVC plumbing all over the house, no large pumps, no ph, alk, cal or temp swings in the tank, and I don't have to be anywhere near the tank when they happen - i.e. they continue during vacations, etc.

My station is ~70ft away in my garage.

remoteSW.jpg


I'm working on a salt hopper so I can program the system to also automatically make NSW, based on conductivity, but until I figure that out, I still have to make NSW once a month.

The system is controllable at the tank or through by cell phone while I'm in the garage or away on vacation.

90standelectronicsbaycloseup.jpg
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Did your ever build that automatic saltwater mixing system? I have a similar setup where my apex controller automatically pumps a small amount of new saltwater into my aquarium on a regular basis. The excess water overflows into a floor drain. The salinity is regulated by my conductivity probe and an electronic solenoid valve which maintains my salinity within .1 PPT. Currently I manually mix up saltwater and store it in a plastic trash can. This system requires me to manually mix up saltwater more often than I would like and I am looking to further automate my system. I have thought about getting a very large, 200 gallon water tank and mix up an entire bucket of salt at once. This would take up a lot of space and would result in saltwater sitting around for quite some time. I have been trying to come up with a system where a second conductivity probe would monitor the salinity of my storage tank and mechanically add salt slowly until it reaches the target level. Additionally, I would have a float valve on the tank so fresh RO water is constantly added as saltwater is removed for use. The resulting drop in salinity would trigger the mechanical salt dosing to continue. The only part I cannot figure out is how to build the hopper system for adding the salt. It needs to be highly resistant to corrosion, able to be controlled by my apex controller, well sealed to prevent the salt turning into a solid block from moisture in the air, and also able to distribute salt very slowly so that by the time it mixes it hasn't already dumped in way too much salt.

Any ideas?
 
slief said:
This was my first setup...
shed.jpg


RODI-AND-MIXING-TANK3.jpg


Then the Napoleon complex kicked in and the rubbermaid shed was replaced along with the water containers.
DSC01265.jpg



The container on the left is for RODI water. The one on the right is my Saltwater mixing and storage container. Both are 100G. Its all plumbed to the tank with an ATO thats controlled by my Apex and automatic water change system controlled by a Litermeter 3.
DSC01266.jpg


DSC01268.jpg
Click to expand...

That my friend is one heck of a Napoleon complex!!!
 
I built a gravity based system that uses two pneumatic pinch valves to control the salt flow from the salt hopper down to a mixing vat using a Apex as the main controller. The workflow is:

Water exchange changes out x gallons of water per day. Low water in the salt vat has the apex shut down the water exchange pumps along with the circulation pump in the salt vat. Apex turns on a series of solenoid valves that route RO/DI water to the vat that is low, in this case the salt vat, while monitoring TDS (if TDS goes above 0 the system is shut down and I get a email/alarm). After the vat is filled all the way the circulation pump comes back on along with a high gph mixing pump. During this time the pinch valves add half a cup of salt at a time, done over the course of a few hours. So the apex is set to turn them on/off just enough times to get the vat to 35.0 salinity, which is verified via a conductivity probe. If for some reason the salinity does not hit the spread I have it set to the system will add a few more half cups of salt. If after that the salinity is not correct the system shuts down and I get a email/alarm.

Once the target salinity has been hit the circulation & mixing pumps stay on for an hour and half, then the mixing pump shuts off and the water exchange pumps come back on, until the process repeats itself.


FileMan44 said:
Did your ever build that automatic saltwater mixing system? I have a similar setup where my apex controller automatically pumps a small amount of new saltwater into my aquarium on a regular basis. The excess water overflows into a floor drain. The salinity is regulated by my conductivity probe and an electronic solenoid valve which maintains my salinity within .1 PPT. Currently I manually mix up saltwater and store it in a plastic trash can. This system requires me to manually mix up saltwater more often than I would like and I am looking to further automate my system. I have thought about getting a very large, 200 gallon water tank and mix up an entire bucket of salt at once. This would take up a lot of space and would result in saltwater sitting around for quite some time. I have been trying to come up with a system where a second conductivity probe would monitor the salinity of my storage tank and mechanically add salt slowly until it reaches the target level. Additionally, I would have a float valve on the tank so fresh RO water is constantly added as saltwater is removed for use. The resulting drop in salinity would trigger the mechanical salt dosing to continue. The only part I cannot figure out is how to build the hopper system for adding the salt. It needs to be highly resistant to corrosion, able to be controlled by my apex controller, well sealed to prevent the salt turning into a solid block from moisture in the air, and also able to distribute salt very slowly so that by the time it mixes it hasn't already dumped in way too much salt.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...
 
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