Salt Water Mixing Stations Let's See Them

[adamwheel]

Good ideas. Thanks.

I am using 1" PVC so was hoping to step down to 3/4" for barb/hose. I ended up ordering these:
http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=23027&catid=926&clickid=searchresults

Again, thanks for the replies. This thread has been very helpful.

I'll post some pics soon.

Cheers,

Adam

 

[lnevo]

Ok question for those using Brutes. I have my mixing station pump setup externally and so I only have one wire coming out of the brute for my heater. The problem is that the wire is up and over the top and it causes the lid to not site perfectly. This in turn causes water to drip out from another side of the lid which makes a mess and wreaks havoc on my salinity.

I know its an easy fix but should I notch the lid to accommodate or should I drill a hole on top/side to run the heater wire through? Thanks in advance.

 

[mpjones]

I know its an easy fix but should I notch the lid to accommodate or should I drill a hole on top/side to run the heater wire through?

I'd notch a small hole in the side for the wire. You could also use a grommet or use silicone to seal around it? I used silicone on my brute.

 

[rfgonzo]

On this new setup I was getting tired over the years of lifting 5 gal jugs to add water. In this setup water enters the ro/di then into the top brute, I can drain the top brute into the bottom brute and mix my salt then after mixing I turn a valve and I have a auto water change. From the top brute I have another valve that will go into my topoff chamber. In this photo to the left you will see my refuge, this is where I do a 25% water change I flip a valve and water will drain from the refuge right to my laundry tub. I get the same change everytime.

 

[rfgonzo]

sorry missed the attachment,

 

[dukduk]

Any thoughts on a check valve on the rodi intake side of the tee to keep sw from contaminating the tank?

 

[btucker7587]

My station...

Use NSW for my tank.

 

[JBOD77]

maybe i missed it....i tried searching this thread but didn't find what i was looking for... do you all NOT circulate your rodi water? i get that the pump will circ the salt mix, but i don't see any powerheads or heaters in any of these setups? i currently have 2 brute cans, a 32g for RODI and a 55g for mix. i typically let my water stay for extended periods of time. 32g i use for a tunze ATO. 55g i mix when i need it. i would love to do a system like this but curious to see what others do or don't do for circulation and heat......

 

[das75]

once my barrel is full I turn on the heater and power head to circulate, salt comes later.

 

[dlai531]

I only have a pump to circulate the salt side... should i also be re-circulating the RO/DI side?

 

[DM1975]

I have a power head I use to circulate my salt. I do plan on adding a heater but when I change my 10% in my 125g tank it really doesn't drop my temp by much at all. I don't circulate or heat my fresh water as I don't see a reason to.

 

[rfgonzo]

No powerhead or heater on my ro/di, only when mixing salt.

 

[Sethjamto]

So I finally got to plumbing up my SW mixing station. All drums are 30g's each in the pics below. The top is RO run on a float valve to automatically shut off and stay full. It drains to the bottom left with the valve under it. Here I add my salt to mix with the Sicce 3.0 pump between both bottom drums. I can isolate both bottom drums and use just one or the other, or both, for a total of 60g's of SW. This will help when I'm filling my 300g that I'm building. The only thing I have left is punch another hole in the RODI drum with another Uniseal I have and add another valve (that I forgot to get today at Lowes....I'll do that in the morning) so that I can drain off RODI to my 5g bucket for my ATO on my current 90g tank.

Once the 300g is set up, I'm going to incorporate a continuous water change system with a Litermeter III. I will run it through the attic and have it take SW from the bottom right drum at a rate of 1.5-2g's a day. In the meantime, I have a hose connection between both bottom drums that you can see that I'll connect a hose to and run it from the garage into the house to do my WC's on my current 90g tank.

It's fairly cold outside right now and that's why the pump sits at an angle. The clear flexible hose isn't so flexible right now. Once it warms up some and I flow some water through it, I'm sure it'll straighten out and stay that way after a while which will let the pump sit flatter.

Once I get the Litermeter running I won't be concerned with a heater as the continuous water change at a 1.5-2g rate a day through the attic won't affect tank temps on a 300g system. In the meantime I'll drop a spare heater into the bottom left drum to preheat the SW before I do WC's on my 90DT.

 

[trinidiver]

nice build

 

[lnevo]

For those that have asked, there is no need to circulate RO/DI. The purpose of circulating the salt water is for mixing and keeping it aerated. RO/DI getting used for top off doesn't really need aeration.

For those with Brutes, i have another question, i made a notch for the heater cable and the lid still doesn't sit flush I guess and so condensation is still coming through, any ideas?

 

[rfgonzo]

You could put a strip of sticky back foam around the lip of your brute to help seal it.

 

[lnevo]

You could put a strip of sticky back foam around the lip of your brute to help seal it.

I tried that but then the lid didn't fit, it was too tight that was around the outside of the lip. I may look for some weatherstripping i can put on the top of the lip or on then lid itself. Maybe i just have a bad lid, my rodi one doesn't have this problem, but water also isn't circulating inside like the salt one...

 

[JBOD77]

For those with Brutes, i have another question, i made a notch for the heater cable and the lid still doesn't sit flush I guess and so condensation is still coming through, any ideas?

I drilled a hole on the side of the brute can large enough to pass the plug through. Works for me

 

[ojedahouse]

thanks for sharing the photos of your salt mixing station, I have a question? My mixing station is almost the same as yours, I am getting ready to add the hard plumbing to get the salt and Ro water from the station to the tank room, it will need to go up into the attic about 9 feet high, travel about 30 feet and then come down to the sump. what sizr pump are you using? and my bigger question is when doing your water change how do you get the water from your tank out to your drain line??

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Joe Ojeda
Pinole calif
120 gal reef
60 gal sump

 

[Sethjamto]

For now I'll be running a garden type hose with the metal ends cut off and replaced with plastic ones from the garage into the house. When I'm done, I'll just coil the hose back up in the garage. The pump is a Sicce 3.0, so it won't move the water real fast, but MUCH faster than lugging 5g's at a time back and forth! The final design I will add a Litermeter III to the system and pump the water through the attic like you want to do. This will be for daily water changes though at a rate of a 2 or so gallons a day. If you are wanting to do 20% changes at a time, you'll need to find a large pump that can move a fair amount of water at a 9-10ft head height. You could go with a used Reeflo Dart pump for this. Use it to mix your water between tanks in the garage, then open/close valves to have it pump to your tank through the attic. At a 10ft height the Darts still move 1500g's an hour. You can find the used Darts in the classified here for $125-ish. On a 120g tank, if you are doing about 25g water changes, that equates to about a minute with the Dart to refill the tank after draining out 25g's. Pretty quick if you ask me!

As for the draining of old water, right now I'll siphon it out of the tank into a brute on wheels and bring it out to the end of the driveway to dump so it doesn't kill the grass. The final design will use the Litermeter. The old tank water will come back through the attic and drop down into the laundry room and dump into the washing machine drain line. This will all be done with 1/4" RO tubing that the Litermeter uses.