Salt Water Mixing Stations Let's See Them

I set up a 2nd water mixing station in my garage - similar design to my first one: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2480980

Started last week by plumbing in the drain side of the laundry tub. I wanted a way to tee off the standpipe I had for the laundry for the laundry tub drain. I'm a pro at PVC - but this drain plumbing isn't quite like gluing pvc together - as it has those compression fittings. Also, the existing standpipe already had a trap - and I couldn't use the supplied piping as that would result in a double trap. Easier than I thought with a trip to home depot. Ended up using an end outlet to make it work.

On Saturday - it was working on the copper soldering. I already had feeds in the garage outside the wall for the laundry - so I didn't think it was going to be as hard as it turned out. I had a 3/4" tiny outlet for the cold water and had 1/2" for the hot water. For some reason, the previous homeowner tied into the hot water to feed the refrigerator ice maker. I had switched it over to the cold with the funky contraption / garden hose wye you see on the valve on the right in the pics below.

The hot side went in like a breeze. the cold side - i probably spent a good 4 hours soldering and re-soldering. I had a lot of trouble getting the solder to stick to the 3/4" x 1/2" 90 / pipe. 2 trips to home depot to replace bent fittings. Turned out to just be a cleaning issue with the pipe I guess. Got it to stick around 9 PM that night. That made for a long long day.

Started plumbing up the fresh and saltwater containers on Sunday. Finished that up on Monday. Got them from Glenn Industries (of course). He's down on automobile blvd just off of Ulmerton (South of St Pete / Clearwater airport).

the spectrapure came in on Tuesday night - so I started getting that ready.

Glued foam to the back steel plate to dampen vibrations. Drilled all the bulkheads required for the fresh water tank (two floats, one flush, and one input). The input has a redundant float valve to stop the water from overflowing.

The glue was set by wedensday night - so I mounted everything up and started making water.

Water mixing station: Overall
2016_06_09_300_Water_Station_3.jpg


My crappy copper work:
2016_06_09_300_Water_Station_4.jpg


Spectrapure UHE 100:
2016_06_09_300_Water_Station_2.jpg


Plumbing for the water mixing station:
2016_06_09_300_Water_Station_1.jpg
 
Where do you guys keep these stations? I want to build up a station but it would be in the garage. And I've been debating if the temp differential of my garage in Oklahoma throughout the year would cause any problems.

I already make RO so mixing salt should be happening also.
 
my first one is in my bedroom closet. 2nd one is in my garage. Florida has some extreme heat in the summers - but if you do water changes in the morning - the water temperature should be fine.

The key is - where is water convenient to you to work with? The bedroom closet water change: the bathroom is on the other side of the wall - so I just tied into the bathroom plumbing for the laundry tub. From there - everything else is easy.
 
That's how my tank is right now. It's on the other side of the wall from my laundry room, so my ro filter is in thell landry room with a line running through the wall into the living room where I have a small holding tank hidden under a table for my ATO. But my laundry room isn't big enough for a changing station.

My garage is on the other side of the laundry room so getting ro to the garage is simple. But plumbing back from the garage to the living room for fresh salt seems to be a big chore, especially when I throw in the twist this in a rent house.
 
I'm working on finalizing my saltwater mixing station, and I don't think I've seen what type of fitting you guys are using inside the saltwater tank for mixing. I have my bulkhead drilled and placed but didn't know if people just let the pump run directly into the container, or if they use a couple fitting to put the flow in a specific spot, and I even thought about using a piece of pvc with a cap and then drilling small holes down it so it could have pressure. Just need some help in this area. Thanks
 
I'm working on finalizing my saltwater mixing station, and I don't think I've seen what type of fitting you guys are using inside the saltwater tank for mixing.
Click to expand...

None really - only downward pointed 90's to ensure pulling from the bottom or pushing the flow downward. I have a TUNZE TURBELLE STREAM 6085 pump in the saltwater vat (drilled through the top, cut the wire to go through the hole and re-attached the leads) to promote mixing.
 
I cut one of my internal down pipes about 3 ft off bottom and make 5 gal of water, turn pump on and circulate tank while adding salt mix continue filling up with RO water, seems to mix pretty good, I hadnt seen anything left over in the bottom of the tank
 
dustinc said:
I'm working on finalizing my saltwater mixing station, and I don't think I've seen what type of fitting you guys are using inside the saltwater tank for mixing. I have my bulkhead drilled and placed but didn't know if people just let the pump run directly into the container, or if they use a couple fitting to put the flow in a specific spot, and I even thought about using a piece of pvc with a cap and then drilling small holes down it so it could have pressure. Just need some help in this area. Thanks
Click to expand...

The one tank I have is a leg style so it's bulkhead is at the bottom front. I have a MJ1200 on the side blowing upward in the tank and the return pump is plumbed with pvc that extends to the bottom rear of the tank and uses a 45 degree fitting to hit the back wall of the holding tank.

My 75 gallon is a standard tall round container. It has the bulkhead at the bottom. I will be putting the return into the top of the container with the PVC extending down 1/4 of the holding tank. The end of the return will be a T with a 45 end on each side in opposite angles to help make a cyclone of sorts in the tank. 2 RW4 in the tank will also aid in mixing.
 
I'm not from around your side of the neighbourhood but do you also take the rodi water for your own consumption from the storage tank ? Reason I asked is that the salt water might creep into the filtered water compartment or it doesnt ? Or do you have another container to store the rodi water for drinking purposes ?
 
So many great water stations. I just recently got back into reefing after being away since 2002. I'm starting to plan my water station.

Question for those in cold climate areas. Does anyone have their water station in an unheated area? If so, any trouble bring the water up to temp?
 
I keep my tanks in the utility room where my air handler is. It is not heated persay but it within the house so its also not freezing. In the winter water in the containers is around 50-55 degrees I would say.

I dont have any "issues" bringing it up to temp in the mix container and keeping it as such though I do notice on my electric bill an extra $10 or so during the winter each month.
 
Your costs might be less as I keep the salt mix up to temp at all times with powerhead and pump running. I dont heat just to use. Once mixed it is brought up to temp and remains as such in the container as I use it for AWC, QT, and other uses so I never want to wait for it to warm up.

If you are setting it up to do weekly changes you would only need to heat the day before and as such your costs and such would be much less.
 
what do you all recommend for a high head pressure pump to pump like 20' feet.

I am planning a WC station in my basement and need to get the water to the display somehow.
 
I use a panworld 1750gph and will pull 100 gal in 3 min , I run 100 ft of 1" pex to DT for water changes, it doesnt take long
 
For those using an Rv water hose, how do you connect the 5/8" hose to pump or PVC ? Most pump connections are 1/2, 3/4, 1" or are you using the 1/2" hose?
 
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