Saltwater mixing station lesson learned

[mmorrison55]

I didn’t see this warning before, but today when I was doing a first larger water change and was pumping 10’s of gallons from My mixing station, I happened to look at my saltwater tank and it was compressed. I’m lucky it didn’t get worse and crack or split.

I guess I need to be sure and put in some sort of air vent near the top to not build up a vacuum.

Now that I’ve had this happen and look back at my build, I can see why it would do that. The saltwater tank is on the right. I mix it by closed loop by turning valves, then when ready to export the salt water to the tank, I closed off the highest valve and opened the outlet about midway up the center pipe.

I should have taken pics of the “ sucked in” tank, but I was more in a rush to alleviate the problem.

 

[dangles]

Oops! Lol

Just take a small drill bit and drill a hole near the top. No need for it to be sealed. My tanks are very similar to yours but they have vents in the lids.

 

[brandon429]

you headed off a marked biological risk as well by installing the vent

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/c...hout-us-noticing.1093986/page-2#post-13263906
it would only be apparent once the system ages, and relative to your cleaning habits but when it hits, it'll be in sealed systems as the chief risk. preventing bioslicks tinted brown and black will be very hard in that system over time, and that's the surface area that catches the aquatic microcommunities that set the stage. my lfs pays someone a lot of money to keep theirs clean/they're less dependent on venting for biocontrols

 

[mmorrison55]

Oops! Lol

Just take a small drill bit and drill a hole near the top. No need for it to be sealed. My tanks are very similar to yours but they have vents in the lids.

Thing is, the lid did originally have a vent in it. Dummy me, drilled it out and put in a bulkhead so my pvc could go straight down from the top.

 

[pianosdr]

How are you importing salt into the container?

 

[mmorrison55]

There’s a union on the section attached to the lid, so I easily remove it and the lid to add salt to the opening, then mixing via turning ball valves to recirculate the saltwater tank.