Salt Water Mixing Stations Let's See Them

[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.

 

[Hartdude]

Quick question. Why does everybody have a separate RO storage tank?

I do the following:
1. Fill mix tank directly with RO.
2. When mix tank is full with fresh RO add salt.
3. Salt mixes for x period of time (days to weeks) Mag pump heater and airstone.
4. Pump water out of mix tank to sump for water changes.
5. Fill mix tank with RO and start all over again.

I just dont see the need for the additional RO storage tank. ???

I have two tanks so I can have both FW and SW ready at a moments notice. I need FW for top-offs, mixing Kalk, etc. I need SW for waterchanges. It's always good to keep a backstock of water for emergency changes and the things you don't/can't forsee.

Edit: I didn't see the response above already. Sorry.

 

[captain7359]

Here's what I've got rigged up.

My ro/di goes into the left barrel via the white poly line. The red tubing coming out goes to my dosing pump which feed my kalk reactor for all my topoff water.
With one bag of salt I can mix up a 45 gallon change or max it out at a 55 gallon change. Between filling, mixing, draining, and refilling a 55 gallon change took me less than 30 minutes combined over the last 2 days.

With the bottom left valve I can pull ro/di water and pump it into the right mixing barrel. Close the ro valve and open the bottom right and top valve on the salt barrel and I can recirculate for mixing and heating.


With the bottom middle valve I can hook the vinyl tubing up via the union and pull water from any one of my 3 tanks in the sump system or my 40 frag tank and pump it right to the sewer drain.

Above the topmost tee and valve at the ceiling are the last pair of valves that either let me pump tank water to the sewer or back to the sumps with fresh mix.

I've got to add one more valve on the discharge of the pump to allow me to pump just ro for random use.

Besides the spare ro valve the only regret I have is not putting the middle valve coming off the bottom of the pipe so I could use it as a drain for the pump when I've got to pull it.

And here's my double ro setup that feeds it all.

 

[lwolfe44]

trying to talk the wife into one of those reef sheds....lol

 

[johnd651]

i love all the pictures...if only i had the room, time, and money

well, this is all I have for a poor college student, renting an apartment

its a bucket, with a heater, and 160gph submersible pump.

ahh....dreaming about a shed or garage like that

 

[psteeleb]

normally I'll have water from the main return flow into this tank and overflow back to the sump

when it's time for a water change I shut off the flow, put a plug in the overflow and this tank becomes issolated from the system

then I'll pump out the water and refill the tank with RO/DI, mix the salt, let it run for 24 hours, check parameters and if everything is good, open the valve and start the flow again

 

[connecticut cichlids]

very nice guys......i love seeing all the different setups that we are using

 

[jimzin15754]

This is a great thread! I am totally impressed with all the ingenous plumbing you all have come up with to make life easier! I think Im gonna have to start doing my water changes from the basement instead of lugging buckets and dripping all over the place!

 

[mklukas]

Bumping this back up. I'd love to see some more setups as I've been spending some time planning out how I want to handle water changes when I eventually get another tank setup. Some of these systems are simply wonderful!

It would be really nice to see some setups from more space-limited folks.

 

[cmacld]

i dont know what counts as limited space..
but here is mine. the drawing doesnt show the closed loop which is used to churn the salt.
it is very simple and gravity fed. just takes a couple minutes for a water change.
i just drain some water into my mixing tank from the RO tank. Add salt..wait for salt to mix..
then i shut down my system, allowing my return section to fill up fully, i then turn a valve which drains my return section.
once empty, i turn another valve to add the new batch of SW to the return tank.
restart... rinse and repeat!

 

[HumbleLobster]

Bump to the top for some more setups!

 

[MATT CLOWNS]

Salt mixage

Salt mixage

Ok mine got down sized but here it is

 

[MATT CLOWNS]

It is hard to shower around. Lol. We just never that shower that one

 

[bwiele]

I love this thread too. I'm definitely going to plagiarize a number of these ideas for the finishing touch on the "chore minimization" aspect of water changes, for which I've already used PEX tubing to run waste and refill lines to my basement. Keep 'em coming!

 

[Hartdude]

It is hard to shower around. Lol. We just never that shower that one

Brave, brave man you are. My wife would have my @$$ if I took over a bathtub for my RO setup!!

 

[kc350twin]

Ha. Ha. Funny.

Last week I was lucky enough to witness Los's water change station. It was very well thought out and super easy to do a water change and all with out shutting down the system.

Thanks for inviting me over Los.


Kc3

 

[colombiano81]

i've heard/read the same about brute cans leaching phosphates. I use a brute can for mixing SW and haven't noticed any PO4 issues yet. Has anyone else had any success/failure with this?

 

[shikhyung]

I am currious about premix station, how long these water last and do you have the pump to circulate them? Because, sometimes I over mixed , have some left, the week after, when cleaned the bucket, I found some kinds of brown algea at the bottom.

 

[kc350twin]

I would definitly have a pump to circulate the water and a heater in there. As long as you have that it should last a while.

 

[kc350twin]

i've heard/read the same about brute cans leaching phosphates. I use a brute can for mixing SW and haven't noticed any PO4 issues yet. Has anyone else had any success/failure with this?

I have read a few threads on this topic and the affected people have been very minor. Most people that use these cans report no negative affects from them. There are other options but not as cheap as them. Let us know if you have problems.