Salt Water Mixing Stations Let's See Them

[Aesl1982]

 

[Mrramsey]

View attachment 278602

Looks good except for the plastic shelf its sitting on. I'd get some additional support under there before filling them up.

 

[Aesl1982]

I reinforced it with 2x4's

 

[hamed]

Hi all,

Any cool designs with having the mixing station circulating water from display tank?

 

[mrkalel]

Yeah I'm wondering too... Pretty much have everything to go...will be doing the stacking model.

Another thing... I am planning to split the output on my RODI and have 1 run to the top RODI 44gal Brute.
Second longer run to another top off container sitting next to my sump which is gravity to a dual shut off system and will have its own float shut off for the RODI.

Anyone see an issue having 2 separate containers running off the RODI and both having their own float switch?

 

[das75]

^ got a Tee off my ro/di to 2 float valves and no problems

 

[reelredfish]

Ok like the setups guys.

Here is my issue looking for your input. I am setting up new 180 in wall. I have converted our old wet bar to my fish room. With that said I wont have room for mixing station in there..

Garage is a good 75 to 100 feet away. I have a restroom behind the fish room and then our outside wall. Right onside t wall is the side of the house where have a large walk in storage building with no power or anything. We don't really use it much and I could clean out space for two tanks side by side. My only worry with this I have run lines through attic and from t eve to the shed. Living in north Texas our winters do get cold. Not sure about lines busting.

Or should I make the garage the best place for this?

Thoughts ideas???

 

[MikesReef83]

Are you guys just setting your heaters directly on the bottom of your salt barrels or are they suspended some how? The suction cups don't work. I'm afraid the heater will melt the plastic.

 

[ArmanS]

Question:

How are you all with tall tanks (6 footers here) attaching bulk heads to the bottom area (mine are not pre-installed)??

Seems I'll have to do a uniseal or something that doesn't require my hand reaching the bottom of the tank.

I put my bulkheads on my 80" tanks. What I did was put them backwards, so the part that you tighten I put on the outside of the tank, just drop the other side in and grab it after you cut your hole. Was very simple.

 

[ash7631]

I'm sorry if this has been answered previously, but for all of you that have your RO/DI systems set up with float switches, to top off containers, do your RO/DI systems do an automatic flush before starting to make good water? I really want to set up a new mixing station with a float switch, but my RO/DI system does about a 30 second flush prior to starting each run of good water.

Am I over thinking things? The flush only produces about 10-12 ounces of water, the TDS starts at about 40-50 PPM then goes down to 0 over about a 30 second period. Would that 10-12 ounces of ~30-40 TDS water be diluted enough through the production of say 25 gallons of 0 TDS water so that it doesnt really make an impact?

Thanks in advance for your input, I have delayed setting up a mixing station until I could figure out how this would work.

 

[cidbozek]

Fish closet

 

[cidbozek]

 

[1000rrstunna]

All these have inspired me to build one lots of great ideas and setups. It's gonna make life sooo easy

 

[mrkalel]

...about 1/2 way done... (There's been more progress since these crappy cell phone pic)

Installing in the laundry room in basement about 12' away from my "Sump Room" (the room under my basement stairs)...Main tank on first; sump & show 72gal fuge in basement.

Just tired lugging 5gal buckets around my basement for changes and been wanting to do this for a loong time.

System should be able to pump either fresh or salt over to the sump room. Also can dump contents to drain in case of contamination. It will have a spout to fill a 5gal bucket if needed. Water level on RODI Tank and both containers will have emergency overflows to drain built in.

Will have a split in my RODI unit to 1 float switch in the Top container and another float switch in a smaller Top Off container in the the Sump room.

There is a waste line coming from Sump room to dump old water (using main return pump to push it over).

Quick stats:

2 * 44gal Brutes
Pan World 50PX-X
Tons of unions and Ball valve unions.

FYI: My basement ceilings are only 7' high, and even then I'm pretty sure I could've fit 2 55Gal Brute's stacked...so for those worried about height requirements for stacking Brute's...don't.

Saltwater Mixing Station by MrKal_El, on Flickr

Saltwater mixing station by MrKal_El, on Flickr

 

[MikesReef83]

I'm sorry if this has been answered previously, but for all of you that have your RO/DI systems set up with float switches, to top off containers, do your RO/DI systems do an automatic flush before starting to make good water? I really want to set up a new mixing station with a float switch, but my RO/DI system does about a 30 second flush prior to starting each run of good water.

Am I over thinking things? The flush only produces about 10-12 ounces of water, the TDS starts at about 40-50 PPM then goes down to 0 over about a 30 second period. Would that 10-12 ounces of ~30-40 TDS water be diluted enough through the production of say 25 gallons of 0 TDS water so that it doesnt really make an impact?

Thanks in advance for your input, I have delayed setting up a mixing station until I could figure out how this would work.

+1 I am also curious about this since I have had my RO/DI unit sit for some time now with water i cartidges and i'm planning on doing my first fill up. I was wondering if I should put a small bucket under the float valve to catch the first few gallons until it hits 0 TDS.

 

[marty9876]

I use a 3-way valve on the output and monitor a tads meter until it's where I want it. If your using dI resin that would catch the startup spike ( and exhaust your resin faster). You could use a 3 way valve to prolong your resin some. I don't use resin.

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/3-way-ball-valve-with-john-guest-1-4-push-connect.html

 

[reelredfish]

Alright I need all the good people on RC to analyze this design. I have to give credit to reefergill on youtube for the basic design and I just modified it a bit.

Goals
1. Have the ability to pump fresh or salt water from my station in my garage to my tank in my living room(50 ft)

2. Use only 1 pump in the design.

3. Ability to gravity feed small amounts of fresh RO for mixing food or supplements.

4. Be able to fully drain containers(both barrels are raise to allow bulkheads on the bottom of the barrels. Thank you reefgill or whoever else has done this design)

5. Gravity backup if pump failed.



Ok will this work? What have I missed?

View attachment 266385

Ok so did you do this if so how is it working out? Cause I do not have room in my small fish room for mixing station. So it is either in the garage about same distance you mention maybe a little further or through the outside wall and in a storage building on the side of the house. Then I worry about cold winter time and so fourth.

 

[reelredfish]

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.

Did you ever complete this? If so how is it working I am trying to do kinda the same thing now. I don't have room in my small fish room for tanks.

 

[ElmoC]

Just came across this thread and see it is still active. So here are a couple pictures of my monstrosity...

Living in an apartment doesn't leave much room so you do what you have to. I hope I don't get in trouble for this but my complete write-up on the project is at another web site...

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/345758-my-apartment-water-tower/

 

[kc350twin]

ElmoC

Great use of space!