Let’s Mix it Up! Designing and Using a Water Mixing Station

[AZMSGT]

@dbl was the inspiration for all this. Thanks for the original posting.

Feed to RODI filters, and waste drain from RODI and Waste drain from tank.

Cobbled together 200g per day RODI filter system.

On left is the feed to the RODI. The right is the drain from the tank.

Saltwater tank on the left, RODI tank on the right.

GHL maxi pumps to move water all around

feed lines and drain line in sump.

 

[dbl]

@dbl , I am building a fish room and currently designing a mixing station and I am trying to find the storage containers for the water. I think these are right but they don't have a picture of them. Will they work?

Ace Roto Mold 35 Gallon Free Standing Tank, No Sump - FS0035 18

Rural King is America's Farm and Home Store. Our product offering includes all types of farm supplies, clothing, housewares, tools, fencing, and more.

www.ruralking.com

I did a search on the interweb from the site I bought mine from and found a picture of it. It's a horizontal tank and will work perfectly fine if it fits your spacial needs. Mine pictured in the OP are vertical tanks so if that is what you're looking for, these are not it. But as I said, they will work great if have the space for them. Here is a link that shows the tank and offers the dimensions. Picture below for reference.

Ace Roto-Mold 18 Inch Long 35 Gallon Plastic Horizontal Leg Tank

35 Gallon Horizontal Leg Tank

www.tank-depot.com

 

[dbl]

@dbl was the inspiration for all this. Thanks for the original posting.

Feed to RODI filters, and waste drain from RODI and Waste drain from tank.

Cobbled together 200g per day RODI filter system.

On left is the feed to the RODI. The right is the drain from the tank.

Saltwater tank on the left, RODI tank on the right.

GHL maxi pumps to move water all around

feed lines and drain line in sump.

That is a sweet setup...nice job.

 

[AKReef]

@dbl , I am building a fish room and currently designing a mixing station and I am trying to find the storage containers for the water. I think these are right but they don't have a picture of them. Will they work?

Ace Roto Mold 35 Gallon Free Standing Tank, No Sump - FS0035 18

Rural King is America's Farm and Home Store. Our product offering includes all types of farm supplies, clothing, housewares, tools, fencing, and more.

www.ruralking.com

I searched the model number and found this https://www.plastic-mart.com/product/143/35-gallon-horizontal-leg-tank-fs0035-18 Looks like it has a place for a 1" fitting to install a valve. Should work fine if that form factor works for you.

I need to refresh my page more often, I see lots of replies answering this already lol

 

[stanleo]

I did a search on the interweb from the site I bought mine from and found a picture of it. It's a horizontal tank and will work perfectly fine if it fits your spacial needs. Mine pictured in the OP are vertical tanks so if that is what you're looking for, these are not it. But as I said, they will work great if have the space for them. Here is a link that shows the tank and offers the dimensions. Picture below for reference.

Ace Roto-Mold 18 Inch Long 35 Gallon Plastic Horizontal Leg Tank

35 Gallon Horizontal Leg Tank

www.tank-depot.com

yeah that's not going to work. I would want tanks like yours in the picture.

 

[SteveJacobs]

Hi all, very new to the hobby, and would appreciate some help. Seems like @dbl might be the expert if he can chime in.
I'm just wondering what the purpose of having the pipe in the left hand picture enter into the top of the saltwater container?
Is it because people like that it kind of circulates from bottom to top or something else?
Is the picture on the right where it enters in the bottom OK?
Is a three way 'L port' valve like in the second picture OK? I probably won't get an actuator but you can get manual ones.
I read through lots of posts that people point out that certain designs will 'creep' salt through the valves which will then add salt to the RODI container. Is this a real thing?
If it's real, how is it prevented?
I'll be using the RODI to fill my ATO water. Will this cause any issues?
Or are the amounts of salt so small, that it is negligible?

 

[dbl]

Hi all, very new to the hobby, and would appreciate some help. Seems like @dbl might be the expert if he can chime in.
I'm just wondering what the purpose of having the pipe in the left hand picture enter into the top of the saltwater container?
Is it because people like that it kind of circulates from bottom to top or something else?
Is the picture on the right where it enters in the bottom OK?
Is a three way 'L port' valve like in the second picture OK? I probably won't get an actuator but you can get manual ones.
I read through lots of posts that people point out that certain designs will 'creep' salt through the valves which will then add salt to the RODI container. Is this a real thing?
If it's real, how is it prevented?
I'll be using the RODI to fill my ATO water. Will this cause any issues?
Or are the amounts of salt so small, that it is negligible?

Thanks for the chuckle this morning...referring to me as an expert. I can assure you I'm not an expert at any of this!!!

To answer your question though, the pipe going in to the top of the saltwater container is in fact used for mixing. In that picture, if you open valves #1 and #3, it will circulate the water internally in the saltwater container. It pulls water from the bottom of the container and exits out the top.

I put salt in the container, open those two valves, turn pump on and it mixes my new saltwater. I also have a power head at the bottom of that container I turn on as well, but it's probably not necessary given the agitation of the main pump.

There is some residual saltwater in the hose after pumping saltwater to the tank. When it comes time to pumping clean RODI water to my reservoir, I simply run the pump for a minute or two (into the adjacent laundry sink) to flush out the hose. May not be necessary as there isn't that much residual saltwater in the hose, but I do it anyway.

I'm not familiar with the "L Port" valve you pictured so I can't really comment on that.

Hopefully this helps at least a little.

 

[SteveJacobs]

Thanks for the chuckle this morning...referring to me as an expert. I can assure you I'm not an expert at any of this!!!

To answer your question though, the pipe going in to the top of the saltwater container is in fact used for mixing. In that picture, if you open valves #1 and #3, it will circulate the water internally in the saltwater container. It pulls water from the bottom of the container and exits out the top.

I put salt in the container, open those two valves, turn pump on and it mixes my new saltwater. I also have a power head at the bottom of that container I turn on as well, but it's probably not necessary given the agitation of the main pump.

There is some residual saltwater in the hose after pumping saltwater to the tank. When it comes time to pumping clean RODI water to my reservoir, I simply run the pump for a minute or two (into the adjacent laundry sink) to flush out the hose. May not be necessary as there isn't that much residual saltwater in the hose, but I do it anyway.

I'm not familiar with the "L Port" valve you pictured so I can't really comment on that.

Hopefully this helps at least a little.

Thank you kind Sir, and trust me, your article is top of any Google search when people advance to adding a mixing station to their set up.

Thanks for addressing my over the top amount of questions.

Cheers.

 

[Mr. Money Pit]

Here’s my new mixing station in the works. I still need to drill more holes for piping.

I also drilled holes on bottom of 55 gallon barrels. DIY cone bottom tank.

Using a blue line 250hd pump

 

[phillygeeks]

Great thread @dbl. I have copied a lot of your great work here. Are you undersizing the PVC plug when compared to the uniseal size when passing cords through? For example using a 1.25" uniseal with a 1" PVC plug. I know when I have used uniseals with appropriate size PVC it is quite a tight fit.

 

[dbl]

Great thread @dbl. I have copied a lot of your great work here. Are you undersizing the PVC plug when compared to the uniseal size when passing cords through? For example using a 1.25" uniseal with a 1" PVC plug. I know when I have used uniseals with appropriate size PVC it is quite a tight fit.

Thanks...I'm glad it's helped. It's funny you bring up a point I don't recall ever mentioning...lol. I actually had to go and look since it's been so long, but the answer is yes...I used a 1" uniseal and a small piece of 3/4" capped pipe to plug the hole with the cords.

 

[phillygeeks]

Thanks...I'm glad it's helped. It's funny you bring up a point I don't recall ever mentioning...lol. I actually had to go and look since it's been so long, but the answer is yes...I used a 1" uniseal and a small piece of 3/4" capped pipe to plug the hole with the cords.

Thanks for checking that! A big help once again

 

[Aceone]

This quarantine has me itching to ay with my station now lol

 

[Rudzbrewski]

This may have been asked somewhere in the 20+ pages of replies, but what size PVC did you use or recommend to be compatible with a pump? I wasn’t sure what to choose as I am about to upgrade my RODI station this week. 1/2”, 3/4”, 1”, larger?

 

[dbl]

This may have been asked somewhere in the 20+ pages of replies, but what size PVC did you use or recommend to be compatible with a pump? I wasn’t sure what to choose as I am about to upgrade my RODI station this week. 1/2”, 3/4”, 1”, larger?

Mine is made using 1" PVC. My original pump was in fact 1" on both in and out. The replacement pump was actually 1.25" in and 1.5" out, so I just adapted them down to 1" to match the existing plumbing. Works perfectly fine in this mixing station application.

I can't imagine using anything larger than 1" pipe but I'm not sure it matters in the end. It will ultimately be restricted to whatever size pipe/hose you use to actually pump to the tank. In my case, I use a marine grade garden hose.

 

[Rudzbrewski]

Mine is made using 1" PVC. My original pump was in fact 1" on both in and out. The replacement pump was actually 1.25" in and 1.5" out, so I just adapted them down to 1" to match the existing plumbing. Works perfectly fine in this mixing station application.

I can't imagine using anything larger than 1" pipe but I'm not sure it matters in the end. It will ultimately be restricted to whatever size pipe/hose you use to actually pump to the tank. In my case, I use a marine grade garden hose.

Thanks for the additional specs! One further question I had was how do you prevent RODI water from getting mixed with residual salt water that is left in the system after say pumping water up to the DT? Saw one of the other members added an additional valve in the middle of the main intersection and debating if that is required or not.

 

[dbl]

Thanks for the additional specs! One further question I had was how do you prevent RODI water from getting mixed with residual salt water that is left in the system after say pumping water up to the DT? Saw one of the other members added an additional valve in the middle of the main intersection and debating if that is required or not.

After I pump saltwater to the tank, I run the pump with fresh RODI water for a little bit into the adjacent laundry sink to flush the hose out. Then it's ready to pump fresh RODI water to the reservoir at the tank. I don't do many water changes anymore so mine is mainly used to pump fresh to the ATO reservoir.

I don't actually worry about it going the other way because it's really not that much fresh in the hose before it starts to pump from the saltwater container to make a difference.

If you're careful with the valves, at least in my system, neither container gets contaminated by the other. But you have to pay attention or it can happen. Don't ask me how I know...lol.

 

[Rich1987]

Here is mine. I literally stole it from someone here on reef2reef. I liked the extra valve in the middle to drain out contaminated water. It’s not necessary but it will happen no matter how careful you are. I have a varios 6 (overkill) controlling the mixing. 2, 55 gallon containers from Norwesco. The pump mixes water every day for 30 min just for peace of mind. 2 versa Pumps changeout 4 gallons of water every night in my reef tank. Hope you like my mixing station that again I’ll admit I stole from someone else’s photo on here I can’t remembr who. Chime in if you know who’s it is!

 

[Rudzbrewski]

Here is mine. I literally stole it from someone here on reef2reef. I liked the extra valve in the middle to drain out contaminated water. It’s not necessary but it will happen no matter how careful you are. I have a varios 6 (overkill) controlling the mixing. 2, 55 gallon containers from Norwesco. The pump mixes water every day for 30 min just for peace of mind. 2 versa Pumps changeout 4 gallons of water every night in my reef tank. Hope you like my mixing station that again I’ll admit I stole from someone else’s photo on here I can’t remembr who. Chime in if you know who’s it is!

That looks like the one I was looking at from 1-2 pages from the end. How do you utilize the middle valve to prevent cross contamination? I was debating just adding a "U shape" between the RODI middle most valve and centerpiece T to let gravity assist in preventing leftover saltwater "backwash" into the RODI tank if the RODI middle valve is opened.

 

[Rich1987]

That looks like the one I was looking at from 1-2 pages from the end. How do you utilize the middle valve to prevent cross contamination? I was debating just adding a "U shape" between the RODI middle most valve and centerpiece T to let gravity assist in preventing leftover saltwater "backwash" into the RODI tank if the RODI middle valve is opened.

When I’m just cleaning out the bottom main piles of salt water here’s what I do.....

I Close off bottom container drain valve to salt side so no salt water can come out.

I open the lowest drain valve and place a 2 gallon bucket underneath it.

Then Open bottom RO container valve all the way and the force off 55 gallons. With gravity floods all the lower pipes fast.

Then I let the bucket fill up 3/4 of way so about 1.5 gallons of RODI floods the whole lower pipe and drains into the bucket.

I leave bucket under there like 45-60 seconds to let out the drips.

Now even if there’s a (tiny Bit) of contamination it’s not enough to hurt anything at all. I have been testing my RO container daily to ensure this for 2 weeks straight and it still reads 0 TDS and 0 Salinity. So I’m convinced it works.

Just make your stand high enough to fit 5 gallon buckets underneath.

If that was not clear about flushing, I will take video and PM