Salt Water Mixing Stations Let's See Them

[Headhunter]

hello all, just joined...my (awesome) neighbor passed his 150G SW tank to me (for free), fish & corals too...Had a local guy move & set it up for $400...been running for over 3 weeks now. I'm going old skool for first few water changes, but I need to build a mixing station. Love all these pictures and ideas, you guys rock. I can never tell my wife about this forum. In fact, I'm going to treat this forum like Fight Club...you guys know the 1st rule?

Curious if anybody has purchased the Ace Roto Molds Tanks lately...most seem to be out of stock on Rural King's site...also, any luck with free shipping?

 

[Headhunter]

Here is my salt water mixing station. Just finished it today.

Great setup - thx for sharing. I'm using your design as inspiration.

I'm planning my setup with two 55G Nowesco horizontal tanks and I'm wondering what kind of shut off are you using for RO - vertical float switch?

TIA,
Tom

 

[shellsea]

My wife did not "feel" my mixing station plans I had for the patio so I had to regroup. After some thought I proposed one with a herb garden on top which got the stamp of approval. Finished it this weekend. It's plumbed into the house and feeds my tank at the flick of a switch. Love it.

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VERY NICE. inspirational!
I have 30 gallon drums set up in garage so may need to rethink it a bit. Plant light above? Very cool. I assume you irrigate the plants with wastewater?

 

[Steve175]

I am sorry, but like shellsea's wife, I am "not feeling' reading 1800 posts about mixing stations. But felt I should share one concept which I love and likely would not be added until the 2500 mark or so. I plumbed my SW tank into the system with a valve so I can take it out of the system whenever I want. Which is INVALUABLE. The SW mixing tank is a bit higher than my sump and has a small pump [which also manifolds into several reactors, fuge and frag tank]. I have another small pump which recirculates water through the SW tank but also has a T with a valve and a segment of loose flex PVC [long enough to reach the sump] and a T-valve into the drain. A 2nd small pump is attached to the RODI reservoir. The SW mixing tank has one of my heaters in it permanently. When it is time for a water change: 1) I close the valve to the SW mixing tank isolating it from the sump, 2) I open the valve to the drain and drain it [actively pumped by the mixing pump], 3) I activate the pump from the RODI reservoir to fill the SW mixing tank [this pump is on my neptune apex and also auto-flushes my skimmer twice daily], 4) I add salt and wait 24h to both confirm the S.G. and wait for then water to warm, 5) then I open the SW mixing tank to my main system [which adds 10% more volume to the total system and therefore increases my systems' stability]. The crown jewel of the system, however, is that when I need emergency water [which should be never be the case but, shockingly, proves bi-annual or so], I can simply close off my SW mixing tank, and use its pump to pump IDENTICAL WATER [completely matched for temp, salinity, and all parameters] directly to the sump. The latter has saved my butt numerous times. If you have the space and can ensure that it is somewhat protected from major environmental temp swings, this system is highly, highly, highly recommended. $0.02.

 

[reefEng10]

How are those of you with raised reservoirs (ie RO and or SW) higher than sump level who are also running these tanks as reservoirs for automatic water changes (SW) and ATO (RO) managing siphoning.

I'd like to do a two tank system similar to many of those described but ideally the RO reservoir would also be used for ATO and the SW reservoir also plumbed directly into the sump for automatic water changes.

Is a Tee after the pump that discharges back inside each reservoir into the air space (with the other branch to the sump) the safest way ?

My reservoirs and tank will be on the same floor, with one of the reservoirs significantly raised above sump/tanks height.

TIA!

 

[Rick Stufflebea]

Small sturdy stand schematic?

Small sturdy stand schematic?

Anyone have a schematic or plan for a small sturdy wood stand that I could one of the vertical 40 to 60 gallon tanks on?

I'd need to be able to put a 15" jug under it for gravity flow, and of course would be strapping the tank to wall.

 

[rrasco]

Anyone have a schematic or plan for a small sturdy wood stand that I could one of the vertical 40 to 60 gallon tanks on?

I'd need to be able to put a 15" jug under it for gravity flow, and of course would be strapping the tank to wall.

No schematics, but I just made mine out of 2x4s and slats I made from 1x3s. I used a wooden pallet for inspiration.

https://imgur.com/a/BDg5ing

 

[AMDman13]

I am planning my salt water mixing station. I plan to use two Norwesco 35H free standing containers side by side with the pump in the middle. I see some side by side builds with two dedicated gravity fed valves and some that are designed to simply use the pump for both RODI and Salt. I understand the redundancy for the gravity fed lines (in case of power failure). My question is, If I include the gravity fed lines will my tanks have to be on a stand if so, how high does it need to be? Does it need to be higher then the buckets, or will the weight of the water be enough to push the water through a hose to fill a 5 gallon bucket?

 

[Raptor72]

I don't think I've responded with mine on this thread so here it is. The bottom barrel is a 40 but I'll eventually change it to a 55.

 

[wsboyette]

My Aquarium Maintenance Cart, 15 gallon drum. Two 400 GPH powerheads in the drum mix the salt....

 

[Vinny Kreyling]

AMDman13,
The water will flow into any bucket as long as the level in the container is above the it.
Once the levels equalize the flow stops.

 

[AMDman13]

AMDman13,
The water will flow into any bucket as long as the level in the container is above the it.
Once the levels equalize the flow stops.

Nice. Thanks for the reply. Guess I don't necessarily need a large stand. Thanks a bunch.

 

[pijao81]

Anyone has the smart auto aqua awc? Who could give a review.. If it is worth the price and so on.. ?

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[bent17]

Great stations all. One question... Many of you who dont go with the brute bins have tanks with small openings.. How do you clean them and if so how frequent do you do so as I presume salt will drop to the bottom by time...

 

[bent17]

My wife did not "feel" my mixing station plans I had for the patio so I had to regroup. After some thought I proposed one with a herb garden on top which got the stamp of approval. Finished it this weekend. It's plumbed into the house and feeds my tank at the flick of a switch. Love it.

Sent from my LG-H918 using Tapatalk

Very nice build! Did you follow some instructions on how to build it or all build as you go along?

 

[bent17]

My wife did not "feel" my mixing station plans I had for the patio so I had to regroup. After some thought I proposed one with a herb garden on top which got the stamp of approval. Finished it this weekend. It's plumbed into the house and feeds my tank at the flick of a switch. Love it.

Sent from my LG-H918 using Tapatalk

Very nice build! Did you follow some instructions on how to build it or all build as you go along?

 

[Paul B]

I get my water from here. But I don't really mix it except when I drive over the pot holes on my way home from the beach.

 

[Vinny Kreyling]

They can see you a mile away in that Paul.

 

[Paul B]

There are 17 canaries on my hood there and you can't see even one of them.

 

[n2585722]

Here is mine. The tank on the left under the workbench is the mix tank. The center one is fresh saltwater for AWC and the one on the right is the DI tank for ATO. There are dispense pumps on the fresh saltwater and DI storage tanks if I need to fill a container with either. The Mix tank will be transferred to the fresh saltwater tank if the fresh saltwater tank goes low and the water in the mix tank is ready to go. The mix tank is then filled back up with DI from the RODI. All I have to do is add the salt mix and press a button when it is ready to use. The DI tank auto fills from the RODI also. The second photo is the controller board in the garage behind the workbench. The AWC and ATO pumps are on the right side of the controller board. I use dosing pumps for ATO, AWC and dosing.