Auto Salt Sifter

[Rubymoon286]

This is mostly musing after a rough turn of events and probably a slow build thread for my vision. I make water every ten days or so into my diy mixing station. Currently I use two brute trashcans for barrels. I also have a degenerative nerve condition that gets worse in the heat, and today I was making water and dropped my janky sifting array into the barrel and ended up with a lot of precipitation and wasted effort/salt. I currently use large wood clamps and the handles of a colander to create rails and manually sift it back and forth. It's worked for several years no problem, but I want to build something that's a little more sophisticated and easier to operate on my bad days.

I spent summers with my grandmother, and her "pastry cabinet" had a built in flour sifter. You put an entire large bag of flour in the top and sift what you need as you need. My thought is to build an entire new cabinet/hutch like a Hoosier kitchen cabinet to go in the space with water storage that fits inside the bottom portion of the cabinet.

The idea is that the cabinet will have a flour sifting attachment or similar for the salt to go into, a direct RODI line to my water storage, controlled by Hydros with the RODI solenoid and water level sensor I think (I need to research to see the actual capabilities of these if they'd work how I want them to.) My AWC pump would go in the salt barrel, ATO currently goes in a 5 gallon reservoir, but I'd be open to adding RODI in a separate water storage as part of my mixing station, waste water is plumbed outside to a brute that my wonderful partner empties as it fills. I'd swap my metal shelves to put my storage in the cabinet (food/filtration etc.) I would probably have the sifter printed rather than using a metal one to avoid rust/metal contamination. The water container would have a lid that could open for me to sift the salt into it with little mess, as well as a cover so I can use the hutch as a table for things like water testing.

Concerns (and initial thoughts on solutions):
Moisture causing the sifter to clog (dehumidifier?)
Mold in the enclosed cabinet (silica desiccants/airflow)
Keeping the salt dry enough to sift without having to manually load it each time (the idea would be to put a brand new bag of salt in each time I buy a box)
Measuring the salt accurately (perhaps can be achieved by graduating the outside of the sifter and using a translucent filament.)
My poor poor bank account (but I'm in the wrong hobby for that, aren't I)

I would love to hear y'all's thoughts on doing something like this - or if there might be a better solution. As my hands and legs get worse, I need ways that make reefing a little more accessible.

Editing to add - this could lead to motorized automation after the initial concept is proven pretty easily I think.

 

[Peace River]

From my experience in reefing and in the industrial space, this will be problematic for many of the reasons that you mentioned. A better solution may be to add another container for hypersaline water that is then dosed into the standard saltwater reservoir to maintain the correct salinity (the doser could be connected to an Apex or Hydros and controlled by the related salinity probe). Although the salt will still need to be added to the hypersaline tank, the exact mixture is less important and a bag could potentially be loaded at a time (depending on size of container and mixing capability). Good luck with whatever you choose1

 

[Rubymoon286]

From my experience in reefing and in the industrial space, this will be problematic for many of the reasons that you mentioned. A better solution may be to add another container for hypersaline water that is then dosed into the standard saltwater reservoir to maintain the correct salinity (the doser could be connected to an Apex or Hydros and controlled by the related salinity probe). Although the salt will still need to be added to the hypersaline tank, the exact mixture is less important and a bag could potentially be loaded at a time (depending on size of container and mixing capability). Good luck with whatever you choose1

I will definitely look that direction - I don't want to lose reefing as many of my other hobbies have gone, and that honestly is the KISS answer over my over engineered solution

Thank you so much for your insight - I really appreciate it!

 

[Thumbster]

From my experience in reefing and in the industrial space, this will be problematic for many of the reasons that you mentioned. A better solution may be to add another container for hypersaline water that is then dosed into the standard saltwater reservoir to maintain the correct salinity (the doser could be connected to an Apex or Hydros and controlled by the related salinity probe). Although the salt will still need to be added to the hypersaline tank, the exact mixture is less important and a bag could potentially be loaded at a time (depending on size of container and mixing capability). Good luck with whatever you choose1

I think you’ll get some precipitation if you mix saltwater much over 35ppt.

 

[Peace River]

The different salts will reach there solubility limits at different points and precipitation may occur. My understanding is that although supersaturation is somewhere above 10x the level of natural seawater, it is not recommended to exceed 2x for the brine solution.

 

[Thumbster]

I’ve only used instant ocean so you may be correct on different salt mixes. I never thought about that.

I do know that I used to mix instant ocean hyper saline and it would precipitate. When I needed to make 4 gallons I would add 4 scoops (1 scoop makes a gallon) to two gallons of water while I was waiting for my RO to catch up. After I added the last two gallons of water to reach 35ppt my Mag was around 1000 and Calcium was about 350.

I think I remember Dr Holmes-Farley say that his instant ocean started precipitating much over 35ppt also.

I can’t comment on other salt mixes.

 

[theatrus]

I'm not sure a sifter will really work here, for the reasons you mentioned. Salt will happily absorb any amount of moisture in the air, and some of the salt mix reactions also would run leading to the same problem as the super saturated solution.

You can mechanically feed salt mix in, maybe an auger, with a door at the end of the feed chute to seal off the salt storage.