Mixing station questions..

[Feltman]

So im tired of hauling buckets and I've finally decided to build a mixing station... I was wondering what hose people use to get the water from the station to your tank? It's about 30-40 feet for me... also since this is a conveniance thing how do you drain the water in the hose when done as this could be a fair amount of residual... also does anyone have a hose reel of any sort incorporated?

 

[Big G]

I use a 5/8" x 50' "white RV" hose. These are drinking water safe. Regular garden hoses have chemicals in them that might not be good for your fish. I just lift it up as high as comfortable so any residual water runs back into my mixing station tank. I hang it on one of those garden hose metal hanger brackets to keep it from kinking. I use a Jebao DCT-4000 pump to push the water from the mixing tank to the display tank.

https://www.amazon.com/NeverKink-8612-50-Drinking-8-Inch-50-Foot/dp/B0001MII88/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1502931581&sr=8-3&keywords=5/8"+50'+RV+hose

 

[Feltman]

How do u take the water out of the tank? Id rather not haul any buckets if i don't have to

 

[Big G]

I use a small cheap submersible pump connected to 1/2" clear poly tubing that I run outside to dump under my deck. You only need to run the pump to start the siphon, then you can unplug the pump and let the siphon do the work. Tip: mark on your aquarium tank 5 gallon intervals with a permanent marker. Cheers!

https://www.amazon.com/Tiger-Pumps-...2412&sr=8-2&keywords=100+gph+submersible+pump

 

[Broadfield]

So where is your mixing station going to be located? Where is the display tank in relation to the mixing station? Where is your sump located?

 

[dbl]

I too use the white Marine/RV hose mentioned above. I use it mostly now to fill the ATO reservoir so I don't worry about the residual water in the hose. When I was doing regular water changes, I didn't worry about the residual fresh when I started pumping salt water. I did however run it for a couple minutes with fresh RODI after running salt though as to not contaminate the reservoir.

I happen to know of an article about missing stations that may or may not be of interest to you as you do you planning.

https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/let’s-mix-it-up-designing-and-using-a-water-mixing-station.77/