Mixing Station plumbing questions

[FiX]

Noob here! I'm building my first reef Aquarium stage by stage, I just finished the plumbed-in RODI system, now starting on the mixing station.

I have two 40 gallon drums, now planning the (schedule 80 pvc) plumbing. My first question: what diameter pipe is recommended for a small mixing station? 3/4"? 1"?

Thanks!!

 

[UncommonSense]

Noob here! I'm building my first reef Aquarium stage by stage, I just finished the plumbed-in RODI system, now starting on the mixing station.

I have two 40 gallon drums, now planning the (schedule 80 pvc) plumbing. My first question: what diameter pipe is recommended for a small mixing station? 3/4"? 1"?

Thanks!!

Good work on the plumbing so far!

Just out of curiosity, why are you using Schedule 80 for your plumbing, vs. schedule 40?

What pump will your station be using? This will dictate plumbing size!

 

[FiX]

Thanks! Since the mixing station will share space with the laundry room, I expect the exposed plumbing will suffer occasional bumps and knocks from the laundry basket. So I plan on using the more robust Schedule 80. Since I will be dealing with relatively small amounts of pipe material, the extra cost seems worthwhile.

Regarding the pump, I have not bought one yet and hope to hear some guidance from the forum! I eyed Pan World and Iwaki pumps on Amazon. The PW have options threaded for 3/4" and 1" fittings.

 

[JumboShrimp]

My Pan World has held up for 5 years so far.

 

[UncommonSense]

I expect the exposed plumbing will suffer occasional bumps and knocks from the laundry basket. So I plan on using the more robust Schedule 80. Since I will be dealing with relatively small amounts of pipe material, the extra cost seems worthwhile.

Fair enough!

Regarding the pump, I have not bought one yet and hope to hear some guidance from the forum! I eyed Pan World and Iwaki pumps on Amazon. The PW have options threaded for 3/4" and 1" fittings.

This is a bit more complex…

How high do you need to pump water from this mixing station?

How much water do you need to pump vertically per-use? And how fast?

How critical is this pump to you as an investment? (Pan-world and Iwaki are fantastic brands, just quite pricy for the application!)

 

[FiX]

Ah! That's why I'm asking about everything here first, before I buy anything. I hadn't thought about what else the mixing pump will do besides mixing! I can also use it to avoid schlepping buckets. So as of now, the dream is to have a 20 gallon display tank in the kitchen up about 12' and over about 20'. And the other dream is to have an 80 gallon in the basement, up about 4' and over 10' Maybe both. Better to plan for both. As for critical investments, I guess a mixing station can go offline for a few days without any harm to critters, but I wouldn't want to replace the pump more than once every 5 years or so. So it should be reliable like Jumbo is reporting on his PW.

 

[FiX]

Regarding speed and quantity, the current (still foggy) plan is to use the mixing station for the initial filling, and i guess large water changes as needed. Routine water changes will be done daily with a dosing pump. Salt water will go from the station, to a sump nearby in the basement. The sump will have an independent pump to circulate water to the display tanks.

 

[Harpo]

Thanks! Since the mixing station will share space with the laundry room, I expect the exposed plumbing will suffer occasional bumps and knocks from the laundry basket. So I plan on using the more robust Schedule 80. Since I will be dealing with relatively small amounts of pipe material, the extra cost seems worthwhile.

Regarding the pump, I have not bought one yet and hope to hear some guidance from the forum! I eyed Pan World and Iwaki pumps on Amazon. The PW have options threaded for 3/4" and 1" fittings.

Pan World & Iwaki pumps are both good choices. Do you have a sketch of your mixing station. BTW 55-gallon drums are typically cheaper and more readily available.

 

[FiX]

No sketch, for my guide I'm
using the great mixing station build documented by Suncrest Reef here on the forum. He even listed parts used, great thread!



Already have two 40g water drums. Meet Humpty and Dumpty.

 

[Harpo]

Ah, very nice set up

 

[FiX]

Thanks! It's nice, but it's missing some plumbing. I figure I will buy a Pan World pump, but I need to settle on a pipe diameter first. Suncrest Reef used 1" diameter but his containers are nearly 2x the capacity of mine. Seems like 3/4" diameter would work well for my application? Or is there some advantage to using larger 1"?

 

[Bartanto]

I used 3/4” works fine with a COR-20 on 55g drums. I used that pump as I can plug it into my system if needed so it acts as a backup.

 

[UncommonSense]

Thanks! It's nice, but it's missing some plumbing. I figure I will buy a Pan World pump, but I need to settle on a pipe diameter first. Suncrest Reef used 1" diameter but his containers are nearly 2x the capacity of mine. Seems like 3/4" diameter would work well for my application? Or is there some advantage to using larger 1"?

Your pumps flow rate will dictate pipe size; use whichever size the chosen pump inlet/outlet is!

 

[Harpo]

I used 1 inch because I had the fittings and pipe

 

[FiX]

Your pumps flow rate will dictate pipe size; use whichever size the chosen pump inlet/outlet is!

Ok! Let's talk flow rate. Another thing I hadn't considered! (like I said, noob here and I have questions... so many questions.)

What is adequate for mixing a 40 gallon container? The lower priced Pan World rates about 375 gph, which seems ok to me, based on a turnover rate of about 10x an hour. Like a bartender mixing a martini. The higher end Pan World is almost 800 gph, which makes me imagine the feed pipe launching out of the tank like a champagne cork at New Year's bash, splashing the laundry room with partially mixed salt water. Not good.

Side question: is excess gph capacity, and attaching a speed controller to the pump worthwhile?

 

[UncommonSense]

Ok! Let's talk flow rate. Another thing I hadn't considered! (like I said, noob here and I have questions... so many questions.)

What is adequate for mixing a 40 gallon container? The lower priced Pan World rates about 375 gph, which seems ok to me, based on a turnover rate of about 10x an hour. Like a bartender mixing a martini. The higher end Pan World is almost 800 gph, which makes me imagine the feed pipe launching out of the tank like a champagne cork at New Year's bash, splashing the laundry room with partially mixed salt water. Not good.

Side question: is excess gph capacity, and attaching a speed controller to the pump worthwhile?

Ah, flow rates of pumps is a topic which can be quite confusing!

For starters; the advertised flow rate on pretty much any pump is a best-case scenario number…

Pumps designed for lifting water up out of water (aka: “head”, “well”) will always loose flow relative to how much vertical height out of the water they have to push…

due to this, you want to look for a pump’s max lift height in its specifications… this is the vertical height above a body of water where the pump stops flowing any appreciable amount of water…

Here’s a set of head loss charts I was using a while back for context to how the flow loss over height works! — each pump has a different chart, mind you… this is just a generalized example!

How much flow to mix a 40g? well, I have a 850gph powerhead (propeller pump for mixing, cannot lift water) in a 32g trash can right now sterilizing sand in bleach solution… it’s mixing decently, but could use more!

This said, you will want to spec your pump off its ability to pump water vertically to the display tanks, and possibly consider a smaller propeller pump submerged in the saltwater container for actually mixing the salt into the water!

DC pumps with speed controllers are very handy! Though, in this application, they aren’t really strictly necessary! I think you’d find a speed you like then never really mess with the speed controller again, making the extra cost redundant! — a 3/4”-1” pump outlet should be a sufficient pump for moving water in this setup fast… as long as it has sufficient wax well height! (Speed control is more helpful on life support pumps, typically!)

 

[Bartanto]

You will only get the stated max gph in a vacuum. FWIW, I have a ‘2000 gph’ pump I run full tilt on my 55gals. Works fine. Could it be stronger? Sure. Could it be weaker? Sure. It will still get the job done.

 

[Harpo]

IMHO your over thinking this. It's not that hard to mix salt. Save your $$

 

[Bartanto]

IMHO your over thinking this. It's not that hard to mix salt. Save your $$

Agree. WHAT kind of salt is waaaay more important that HOW it gets mixed.