Salt Water Mixing Stations Let's See Them

[DarthReefer27]

Anyone here in Maryland know of a local place i can buy some storage tanks?

i checked around a little bit but could not find anywhere. i didn't mind paying ~200 for two 50 gallon drums but i was not going to pay another ~100 for shipping. i had asked around where to find some locally without any luck. i ended up getting the standard brute cans from Lowes. if you find anywhere, let me know.

 

[South City]

Craigslist is a great source for food grade plastic 55 gallon drums. Here in St Louis, you can regularly find them on there for around $15 to $20 a piece.

After a quick search, here's an example ad from the Baltimore area. There are many more.

https://baltimore.craigslist.org/grd/5298839054.html

Look for the white ones. I like them better since you can see the water level through the sides.

i checked around a little bit but could not find anywhere. i didn't mind paying ~200 for two 50 gallon drums but i was not going to pay another ~100 for shipping. i had asked around where to find some locally without any luck. i ended up getting the standard brute cans from Lowes. if you find anywhere, let me know.

 

[UFO8MyCow]

Contact the manufacturer and find out if they have any local distributors in your area. I got my norwesco tanks locally for cheaper than any of the online distributors

 

[Typlus5]

Here's a cart I made to eliminate carrying (and spilling) water. It's a Rubbermaid cart with two 15 gallon vessels.

 

[soulpatch]

Anyone here in Maryland know of a local place i can buy some storage tanks?

I just picked up a 35 gallon tank from Tractor supply for shy of 100 bucks. Has a top cap and a bulkhead already and for me the fact that it is a gorixontal leg stand makes things perfect. They have larger versions as well but for me the 35 was all I needed.

Here is the link:

http://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/leg-style-storage-tank-35-gal?cm_vc=-10005

 

[acidblondie]

I just got two of these......Free shipping

http://www.bayteccontainers.com/55-gallon-blemish-barrel-new-open-head-top.html

 

[delmo]

I can get blue hdpe 55 gallon barrels all the time. I have an extra one in my garage right now, but I imagine these are a pain to ship. Someone local want it?

 

[ceslane13]

How much and where in south florida are you located ?

 

[lnevo]

What's inside your brutes?

 

[don_chuwish]

Silly question maybe, but I'm trying to keep the plumbing simple so I have to ask. My setup will be stacked, a 55G Roto-Mold above a 35G Brute. The Brute itself will be 20" off the floor.
I have a Panworld 40PX for circulating/mixing in the Brute. But because of the elevation, I can probably get away with gravity feed to the sump for WC time. I'll have a valve in the recirculation loop that I can turn off, then another to redirect the flow to the sump.
So the question is, with the pump switched off, am I correct to assume that water will flow through it if I open a valve? It'd be nice to just have a valve at the end of the hose and open it without having to turn on the pump.

Thanks!
-D

 

[makers marc]

I have a question for all of you. I have a 75g SPS dominated tank and still lug around five 5 gallon jugs to the LFS to get RO water every 2 weeks. I don't mind too much, plus I use this as a chance to shop lol.

The main reason I haven't setup an auto water change system is limited space for an RO and saltwater mixing station. I read of people who do small water changes daily on their system, perhaps 2-3 gallons for a 75g. But, it looks like everyone uses large footprint brute trash cans or containers that need a storage room to hide the ugliness.

That being said, if I am only doing a 2-3 gallon water change I wondered why I can't just use 2 small 3 gallon containers for the mixing station and keep it under my stand? Has anyone done this and if not, is the only reason because you need to fit a powerhead to mix the saltwater in?

In a nutshell, I am wondering what is the smallest footprint automatic water change/saltwater mixing station y'all have seen?

 

[zachts]

Silly question maybe, but I'm trying to keep the plumbing simple so I have to ask. My setup will be stacked, a 55G Roto-Mold above a 35G Brute. The Brute itself will be 20" off the floor.
I have a Panworld 40PX for circulating/mixing in the Brute. But because of the elevation, I can probably get away with gravity feed to the sump for WC time. I'll have a valve in the recirculation loop that I can turn off, then another to redirect the flow to the sump.
So the question is, with the pump switched off, am I correct to assume that water will flow through it if I open a valve? It'd be nice to just have a valve at the end of the hose and open it without having to turn on the pump.

Thanks!
-D

You should 'T' off the loop before the pump intake for gravity draining to the sump. Generally it is not good to let water flow thu a pump with out the pump powered, it can damage some models, not sure specifically on the pan world but generally not recommended.

 

[zachts]

I have a question for all of you. I have a 75g SPS dominated tank and still lug around five 5 gallon jugs to the LFS to get RO water every 2 weeks. I don't mind too much, plus I use this as a chance to shop lol.

The main reason I haven't setup an auto water change system is limited space for an RO and saltwater mixing station. I read of people who do small water changes daily on their system, perhaps 2-3 gallons for a 75g. But, it looks like everyone uses large footprint brute trash cans or containers that need a storage room to hide the ugliness.

That being said, if I am only doing a 2-3 gallon water change I wondered why I can't just use 2 small 3 gallon containers for the mixing station and keep it under my stand? Has anyone done this and if not, is the only reason because you need to fit a powerhead to mix the saltwater in?

In a nutshell, I am wondering what is the smallest footprint automatic water change/saltwater mixing station y'all have seen?

Someone posted a very small one way back, maybe 3-5gal using I think it was dog food containers.

No size limitation for making it work, just have to fit in all the needed components.

 

[40gal]

Just returned home today to find my garage flooded. No big deal, but the cord form my submerged mag-drive pump bumped up against my manual float valve so the RO/DI never shutoff.

I currently have it just running through the top of my brute container with the lid sort of locking it in place. Does anyone make any sort of bulkhead fitting that I could run the power cord through that is watertight? I had it plumbed externally previously, but had slow leaking issues and not sure I want to go that route again.

 

[don_chuwish]

You should 'T' off the loop before the pump intake for gravity draining to the sump. Generally it is not good to let water flow thu a pump with out the pump powered, it can damage some models, not sure specifically on the pan world but generally not recommended.

Thanks!

 

[soulpatch]

Well the platform for the water station was built but tonight I added in the pump and lines for the water change. So the pump can suck water into the container from my brute which will be going on the bottom of the stand once I move my RODI system which should happen this weekend sometime. The pump will also mix inside the container and pump water back into my tank.



So in the pic above you can see my valves. TO pull water up from the brute that will be underneath I simply plug that line with the banjo camber outlet into the outlet at the bottom where the hose is currently plugged in. I prime the pump and then turn it on.

To suck water out of the tank I leave the valve on the bulkhead closed and swap out the top union with the one shown in the third pic below which will be connected to a hose line. That will go to my drain.

I simply flip the camber and turn the two bottom valves to refill the tank.



Close up of the camber unions. These are awesome and witht he flip of those two handles I have water tight seal.



This shows the other conection I will swap in when doing water changes.


I wanted the top to be union so I can put the lid on my holding tank. I have yet to decide if I will tap the lid to run the 1" pvc through it or leave it as is and only drill holes in the lid for a heater and power head.

The whole thing is on wheels that support well over the weight this will ever be. I will be putting a power strip on the underside to plug the pump, heater, and powerhead into. I might get fancy and put a small dj unit on it to individually control each plug but that will be in the future as money is going elsewhere right now.

 

[dpulve]

couple of questions

couple of questions

Damn there is a lot of info and different setups in this thread I have a couple NOOB questions just to ensure that I get mine right and understand.

1. The reason for two containers is one for RO/DI water that you keep full then pump/gravity over to salt container.

2. You plumb up pump to recirculate water in salt container and to also possible send to tank. Basic plump job to pull from bottom and discharge thru top of container to mix.

3. Your RO/DI container you can create to be an ATO type system so that your RO/DI automatically shuts off.

Not to difficult but I just wanted to make sure I'm not missing something before I start making mine.

 

[UFO8MyCow]

Here is mine. It is 2 35 gallon leg tanks. The top one is rodi and is automatically filled with the apex and the bottom one is NSW that is also hooked up to the apex. With a heater and powerhead in the lower tank to mix NSW. I have a 180 gph diaphragm pump to move the nsw to the main display upstairs.

 

[makers marc]

Im doing some research on an autowater change system before I upgrade to an 8 foot 240 gallon in 6 months. This thread is great, as I get to see what works for other people. The main reason I haven't upgraded is I haven't figured out how to integrate an autowater change system, or frankly any method that prevents me from lugging 5 gallon buckets back and forth. These are my main obstacles, please chime in if you can.

Obstacle #1: Lack of Space for storage/mixing tanks, no floor drain for wastewater
-My tank is located in our formal dining room and does not have space for storage containers in that room. There also is no floor drain. Tank is against an outside perimeter wall which is 20 feet above my backyard lawn (inverted floorplan). Garage is too far away and since there's no attic above, I don't know how id pump to/from the garage anyway. The room below the tank is the master bathroom.

Option#1 Place the storage containers and RODI unit outside, directly below the tank in the backyard right by the A/C condenser. Would this work in TX heat? What happens during freezes?

Option#2: Find a small footprint setup and put it under the stand. Maybe do a 2% change daily, so all I need are 2 5 gallon buckets underneath?

Option#3: Forget water changes and find a mentor who runs a SPS tank with no changes


Any other suggestions y'all can think of? How expensive is it for a plumber to come in and install a water line to the formal dining room, and install a floor drain that maybe leads to my master bathroom below?

 

[UFO8MyCow]

You could put the ro/di unit and a dual head Masterflex pump under the bathroom sink and a little space to hold a 20 gallon tank that you can use for saltwater and maybe a small tank for top off water
You would need to run a couple small 3/8 and quarter inch water lines

You could use an in the wall drill bit like this. they make an extension they can get you another four feet. Then you would just have to install some low voltage old work boxes and blank cover plates
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0..._m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0QZ7DQ9CG73095FYA4VQ