Saltwater Mixing Station Sizing

[BuckTurgidson]

Does anyone have a recommendation for how large your mixing tank should be for a 130 gallon total system? I want to make sure that I have enough salt water on hand to do a large emergency water change if necessary, but not too much so I have it sitting around too long. Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[dwest]

Does anyone have a recommendation for how large your mixing tank should be for a 130 gallon total system? I want to make sure that I have enough salt water on hand to do a large emergency water change if necessary, but not too much so I have it sitting around too long. Any help is greatly appreciated!

I can just tell you what I did. I have a 180 gallon tank. I used a brute trash can for years (20 plus) for water changes and ATO and that worked just fine. For the past 5 years, I used two 105 gallon tanks. One for salt water storage for AWC and one for RODI water storage.

While I like my new system better, there’s nothing wrong with either.

it’s important to note that I use IO for salt and as far as I can tell, there’s no issues storing it premixed for a long time. I would be hesitant to use other brands of salt for the way I do things.

 

[Gill the 3rd]

You can get 77 and 55 gallon food grade barrels on facebook/craiglists for very cheap. Make sure it has the removable lid on the top. I have one 77 gallon for my saltwater and one 77 gallon for my RODI for my 300 gallon system. They were $50 each and had never been used. My sump is a 75 gallon tank so it works out perfect for a water change. I shut my return pump off and my sump fills up to almost the top. I just pump out the water in the sump and fill it back up with new saltwater, turn the return pump back on. A 55 gallon barrel would probably work well for your tank size.