Salt Water Mixing Stations Let's See Them!!

[mcarroll]

Exhaust from natural gas is predominantly co2 (hence burning propane for co2 inside greenhouses)....nothing noxious unless your car is nasty and you're starting that in the garage too. (Possible but not everyone does.)

Laundry room odors during wash cycles can be strong depending how much space/air movement in your laundry room. Mine is small and sealed well. And I'm doing laundry constantly.

Aeration really isn't necessary, so I took the conservative route and stopped. YMMV of course. ;)

 

[drernesto Verified Sponsor]

Mine is a 300 liters RODI tank connected to a 250 liters mixing container with a power head and a heater. Couldn't fit it inside so i have to deal with the temperature difference.

 

[sbarkey]

Exhaust from natural gas is predominantly co2 (hence burning propane for co2 inside greenhouses)....nothing noxious unless your car is nasty and you're starting that in the garage too. (Possible but not everyone does.)

Laundry room odors during wash cycles can be strong depending how much space/air movement in your laundry room. Mine is small and sealed well. And I'm doing laundry constantly.

Aeration really isn't necessary, so I took the conservative route and stopped. YMMV of course. ;)

Good information to know! If I notice TDS starting to rise, I'll have to remember to cut the aeration and see if it helps.

What about aeration in NSW if the water isn't used right away and it stored and used in small amounts over a few weeks?

Thanks!

 

[mcarroll]

No aeration, no heating and no mixing is really best. Just mix and keep it sealed between uses.

(Fresh-mixed is actually best. Mixed seawater stores for about a week before the vitamins go bad. The rest should be fine "forever".)

 

[mcarroll]

Mine is a 300 liters RODI tank connected to a 250 liters mixing container with a power head and a heater. Couldn't fit it inside so i have to deal with the temperature difference.

What are your seasonal and day/night temperatures like there?

 

[drernesto Verified Sponsor]

What are your seasonal and day/night temperatures like there?

Well now it's summer. It gets up to 32-33 degrees Celsius mid day. But usually 28 degrees. In winter it drop down to like 15 degrees and sometime 0 during storms.
I chill the water in the sump just before running the return pumps, which takes 15 min added to the 15 min of emptying the water. All in all it takes like 30 min of no water circulation but it seems that it's not a big deal to my 1600 liters system.

 

[fredo008]

I am currently looking to set up a RO/DI storage and salt mixing station in my house and I'm interested in the way other folks are doing it. So if you have any good photos of your systems don't be shy lets see them.:bigsmile:

I use one of those blue 55 gallon plastic drums, that has never had chemicals stored in it for my 180 gal. tank. RO DI water goes directly into this, and when the water is about a foot deep I put in a power head, heater, and one bag of Omega Sea Salt (60 gal. size bag). By the time the water gets to within 2-3 inches from the top I have a perfect drum of 1.025 water. I just put a black plastic bag over it until I'm ready to use it, but I do use it within a week. From this, I pump it into my old 180, which is my sump. Now all of this is done in the basement, from where it is pumped to my reef tank in the family room.

 

[NJ Reefer]

I use a 35 G container I bought at the Tractor Store. It sits on top of a stand and is connected to my 4 stage RODI. Under the stand is a cart I built which has 2 10 G containers connected via PVC pipe and a Mag 7 pump. The new RODI water is piped into the right tank. Salt is added, and then mixed in this tank. The cart allows me to wheel the water to my DT. I pull roughly 10 G of old water into the left tank, then add the freshly mixed salt water back in. Wheel the old water back to the laundry sink, empty, and I'm done. Saves the back from carry those heavy buckets.

 

[nept2n]

This is my station for my reef tank at work. I'll post my portable station for my home tank later

 

[GoReef165]

I built a stand out of 2X4's in the corner of my garage. Used (2) 46 gal Brute trash cans from HD. Top can fills with RODI water using off/on switches plumbed into side of the top Brute can. When bottom switch is activated by water getting to low switch turns ON and auto-refills until top switch is activated OFF by the water. This way my container is always full of fresh RODI. I also use this can to gravity feed my tank with a switch in my sump. Pretty cool!

Bought a used IWAKI pump on CL for $90. Works great. I only use this pump to push new SW into my house and into the tank. I plumbed pipe through my garage wall into my pantry, through another wall into my living room back behind my tank into the sump. You can hardly even notice the pipes since they're down next to the baseboards. I put 2 valves in my sump. 1 allows water through the pipes back into my tank, the other is used to pump old SW back through the same pipe outside into a water drain pipe in my front planter. The pipe has a "T" in it with valves to direct the water outside if wanted. Or, turn the valves the other way and allow the fresh new SW to push into my tank. Kind of hard to explain but it's so simple.



Here's where the plumbing goes into the house through the garage wall into my pantry:



Closer look at the valves. You can see the red handle in the back (top)... that one can direct my old SW outside into my planter drain.


My pantry is a mess! The area or wall you can see on the right under my shelves is where the main pipe enters the house/pantry and on the left you can see the pipe going through the wall into my living room:



Here's a bad shot of a small piece of pipe that entered from the pantry to my living room/ It runs along the baseboard and behind my tank stand (in the photo) and then into my sump:



Here's the shot where that same pipe comes from the left on photo above and enter into my sump. You can see how I "T'd" the pipe into 2 valves. One valve is connected to a small 1000gph pump that sits in my sump to push the old water out. The other valve is used to let fresh SW into my tank.




THIS SIMPLE MIXING STATION HAS SAVED MY BACK and LIFE! I'm loving the hobby again...no more dreading WC's !!! Questions? Ask away.

 

[barbarag]

My setup is pretty simple I have a 35 galtrash can on a dolly so I can move it around. I have a air pump in it and a pump. I fill it with rodi and use itfor top offs , then when needed mix the salt and use the pump to pump it into the tank. It sits beside the tank all the time.
Inthe future plant to put sink on other side so I can just drain water into it so no carrying buckets.and it will all be inclosed so you won't see it.

 

[boirokk]

 

[ffcrum]

I am currently looking to set up a RO/DI storage and salt mixing station in my house and I'm interested in the way other folks are doing it. So if you have any good photos of your systems don't be shy lets see them.:bigsmile:

 

[boirokk]

How I do a 40 gallon water change.:

 

[FoRcE72]

Finally got my mixing station completed, getting prepared for my next tank addition. I know it's a little overkill for what I have now.

2 175 tank's

2400 gph pump

All plummed with 1" pvc

Extreme 5 Stage RODI Reef keeper
Typhoon III Extreme

All tied together for easy mixing and added 100ft hose to make water changes a little easier upstairs.

 

[SWSCJ]

Gravity fed ATOs and mixing container are directly over the sumps.

 

[red reef]

Just added a small JBJ chiller to my saltwater bin. This works GREAT for us in florida. Wish I could hard plumb it to my tank but that is next to impossible.

 

[red reef]

just added the JBJ chiller. works great for a Florida garage mixing station.

 

[red reef]

sorry for the double post, I didn't think the first one posted.

 

[madtownguy]

Holy crap you guys have some insane set ups. Thanks for posting photos, I don't think I could get away with most of them and stay married.