Thank you for taking the time to post all those photos and explain everything in such great detail! This is an amazing setup and an inspiration to all! Was this your first attempt at building something like this? Had you been planning it for some time? Were there any challenges or issues along the way?
The pictures above are my second attempt at a mixing station. The biggest challenge was drilling the hole though the house and installing a piece of PVC pipe that is used to provide a clean and smooth hole to route the lines and wiring through the wall. The pipe through the wall also allowed me to seal off the inside of the walls with the use of spray in foam. This insures that moisture and insects can't get into the walls. Having been in the hobby for over 25 years and plumbed countless tanks as well as designing and installing my own sumps, this project was a breeze. Especially given the complexity of my system. Originally I used a Litermeter 3 and slave pump for my auto water changes. Those lines were 1/4" so I was able to use the original hole in the wall for that. While the Litermeter worked great, the maintenance of the Litermeter coupled with the fact that I couldn't do larger water changes easily let alone reasonably quick led me to switch the Genesis Renew. When I added my Genesis Renew, I had to drill another large hole to route the 1/2" plumbing lines through. Again, I inserted a short piece of 1" PVC into hole through the wall so I had a clean smooth hole to route the lines into the house. Drilling those holes through the stucco, concrete, plywood etc was a nightmare as it results in very quickly dulling the hole saws and took a fair amount of force and time. I'd say that was the biggest challenge. That and committing to the cost of the new shed which was worth every penny in the end.
After those above pictures were taking, I added another valve and a T fitting between the Little Giant pump and the line going back into the salt water holding tank that allows me to pump water directly from the mixing station to the display tank by using that little giant pump. This is helpful for large water changes or for replacing water that may be used when acclimating new fish. It's something that I didn't do with my original install but has come in handy countless times since.
When I built the new mixing station, I plumbed the two tanks together outside the shed and built the plumbing so the tanks could be easily separated from each other for maintenance and removal purposes. Building the plumbing outside the confines of the shed made it easier to assemble. Note the use of double union ball valves.
My first setup was similar but I used a pair of 55 gallon poly food grade drums in a small rubbermaid plastic storage shed. In the end the original mixing station didn't provide me with enough water reserves for my large system nor did the Rubbermaid shed provide me any storage space for my spare equipment, salt etc. The transition to the new shed was simplified by having all the lines in place.
This is my original mixing station. When I built this, I had the RODI filter inside a closet next to the tank. The RODI was moved from the house to the new shed when I had that built.The shed is located in the backyard on the wall right behind the tank which is the same location as the current setup.
