If you own a saltwater mixing station, please share your pictures & ideas?

[Gypsygadfly]

What is the name of the stand you are using? How much did it cost? Thanks!

 

[Poriferabob]

These are some really cool setups. I'm in the process of building my new water station now. Thanks for the ideas everyone.

 

[EriktheRed]

Finally, almost everything has come in and has been assembled except for my two 1'' Spears Gate Vales which will be on each side between the 1'' pipe and the spigot x street 90's. That's where my gate valves will be installed so at any giving point I will be able to grab some fresh RODI water or saltwater from each Brute container. Also, instead of having the Cepex ball Valve where I am going to be connecting my Marine & RV 1/2'' 25ft hose, I will be using a 1/2'' Spears Gate valve with the Cam Lever Quick to Connect my 1/2'' in size hose. Order 1 more spigot to street 45 to put inside my Brute salt container to there is one on each side. Next, I have to Glue everything together. I am going to be using a product called WELD -ON! 1ST I will use there Weld On - Plumbing Primer - then finish up with the Weld -On Heavy Duty PVC Cement Gray to match up with my fittings. Then my last step will be building my stand. I bought 6 cinder blocks and 5 two by 4's for my frame. After I get the frame completed I will just be screwing down a pcs of 1'' thick pcs of plywood and then this operation Saltwater mixing station will be completed. Here a few pixs to show you how it turned out before I start gluing everything together. My total cost ending up being around $1250.00 for my Mixing station! Please feel free to let me know your thoughts?
Many thanks,
FLSharkvictim

I am building an almost identical setup to yours, except I am adding a second pump to pump out the RO water to my freshwater tanks. My question for you is this. I see that you added a couple of bulkheads on each side of each container for improvised tank level gauges. What size pipe did you use? I want to know so that I can order the correct bulkheads. Thank you!

 

[BOWHUNTER4250]

I am building an almost identical setup to yours, except I am adding a second pump to pump out the RO water to my freshwater tanks. My question for you is this. I see that you added a couple of bulkheads on each side of each container for improvised tank level gauges. What size pipe did you use? I want to know so that I can order the correct bulkheads. Thank you!

1250.00 for a mixing station ??? Holy Crap Batman !! looks great but it still just mixes salt water ?? total spent on mine was under 100.00 , used 75 gallon tank , maxijet 1200 to pump sump water out and into drain and another maxijet 1200 to pump fresh mixed salt water back into my sump , times and programed thru my APEX every Sunday morning ! don't even need to be home

 

[picklz]

So I have a question - it seems like a significant number of these mixing stations have the containers elevated on a stand of some sort which makes sense, but being they are setup that way I'm wondering why nobody installs a bulkhead and drain / plumbing into the bottom of the tank(s) instead of the sides. I know some are pre-plumbed on the side, but many or at least some are not and those that are could be capped. Just seems like it would be a good solution to the issue of fully or close to fully draining the containers. I'm noodling on the design for a mixing station myself so this thread has been a great source of inspiration.

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

I dont think i have ever seen a tank with the drain on the bottom except for cone bottom tanks.

That would be fun to turn on and off....

 

[VashonBigs]

Still a couple more pieces to add.

What did you use for the plumbing on the bottom where you are going into the Brutes? Any leak issues? Setting up something almost the same

 

[homer1475]

Not sure about this setup, but typically uniseals are used where you need a bulkhead on a non flat surface such as brute containers.

Uniseals @ BRS

 

[bryanfuel]

Still a couple more pieces to add.

Very clean setup!

 

[homer1475]

Actually reading back through the thread.....

Seems the suggestion is to use schedule 80 bulkheads on the brutes. I have uniseals on mine, and after mixing a while they start to leak a bit.

Think I might try schedule 80 bulkheads.

As you can see the floor is wet from the uniseal leaking. My last mixing station was tiny and I only used 1/2" pipe and small bulkheads I found at lowes. With this station I have 32G brutes, and that wonderful @MRC pump I won here on R2rR, and it required 1 1/2" pipe.

Do the bulkheads really not leak on the brutes?

 

[AdamB]

50 gallon rodi and 40 gallon salt mix tank . I have 2 3000 quite one pumps hooked up to this setup to where I can pump water 30 feet to tanks in room next door

 

[wrasse man]

2 - 65 gallon roto containers, 1 RODI, 1 salt gravity fed. Pan world 40PX pump for mixing and transfer. BRS 150 gpd RODI, 50’ potable water rv hose for filling the tanks. Simple setup, works for my needs.

 

[t5Nitro]

Anyone with ideas on having water mixing upstairs and tank in main level living area? I'm not able to run lines through the walls or ceilings. Would I need a pump and long tubing to pump saltwater into tank as well as a second pump connected into sump with long tubing and just put the tubing into a sink or toilet when I want to drain?

Thinking the one pump upstairs and take tubing down to the tank for filling after a second pump is attached to sump and drag that tubing to a sink or toilet and then wrap the hose or tubing back up after each water change. Just looking for a way to not lift a bunch of heavy water jugs up and down the stairs frequently.

 

[krbnsol]

Actually reading back through the thread.....

Seems the suggestion is to use schedule 80 bulkheads on the brutes. I have uniseals on mine, and after mixing a while they start to leak a bit.

Think I might try schedule 80 bulkheads.

As you can see the floor is wet from the uniseal leaking. My last mixing station was tiny and I only used 1/2" pipe and small bulkheads I found at lowes. With this station I have 32G brutes, and that wonderful @MRC pump I won here on R2rR, and it required 1 1/2" pipe.

Do the bulkheads really not leak on the brutes?

I use the uniseals as well. I just switched out 2 that were leaking on the saltwater reservoir side. I think they lasted 4ish years.

I think you can use bulkheads but the trick is you need to get that brute to flatten out and that may be the downfall of using them over uniseals.

 

[homer1475]

My uniseals still leak whenever my barrels are full. It's not terrible, but they do leak. Just annoying more then anything, they leak so little it evaporates before it drips off the table my barrels sit on.

I have removed them, reseated them, bought new ones thinking I just had defective ones, sanded the edges for burrs, used the appropriate hole saw, etc, etc.

I never did buy the bulkheads, they leak so little now with salt creep, I actually forgot about it until I saw this thread pop up in my notifications. lol

I think my issues is my external pump and hard plumbing. The pump makes the entire plumbing vibrate a little, and thats when they leak. I turn the pump off and they will be fine for weeks. Turn the pump on to pump to my tank, and they start dripping.

 

[VashonBigs]

New build for me. Works great!! Heater and power head in salt tank. Keep it running at all times.

 

[t5Nitro]

For those of you in the midwest, do you keep these in your garages or in the house? Wondering if it's safe to keep the mixing station in winter times as well as hot and humid summer.

I ask because I'm debating setting up the full station of 2 vertical tanks and pump or simply keep the 1 65g vertical tank I have in-house only for RODI and just pump that to a mixing container near the tank downstairs.

 

[Mkrizzz83]

I’m in Milwaukee and although I’m new to reefing, I think a temperature controlled environment would be the safest bet. You wouldn’t want any freezing or salt precipitating out of solution in the cold weather. It was -20F with the windchill 3 days ago.

I’m currently setting up a mixing station in my basement below the tank. Here’s my progress so far:

I put a small lip on the bench that I built so it forms a shallow tray. I did this so I can install a bulkhead on the flat part of the bench and connect it to the basement drain in the event of an overflow. Still a long way to go but it’s a start.

 

[Lynnds6]

Updated a lot of changes to my saltwater mixing station with a better quality DC pump. I got a VarioS4 DC Controllable pump and added an extra Cepex ball Valve.

These pumps run so quite it's amazing. I mean you can't even tell that the pump is on and running. I have hear of the VarioS losing a little of it's flow after about 6 months but I am ok with it, since they blows away them panworld pumps.

What size pipes did you use for this mixing station? Thank you!

 

[Mkrizzz83]

Just finished gluing the plumbing for my mixing station. I used a lot of the ideas that I saw in this thread. Thanks.