Some questions for future reference...

[r.reefer]

Hey! I posted on here the other day asking about the upkeep on a large reef system. I'd love to one day own a tank 200+ gallons. After doing more research, I found out about water mixing stations and wanted to ask more about it.
1. What is the basic setup? If a tank were 300 gallons, would this require a different mixing station than, say, a 150 gallon tank?
2. How do you connect it to the main tank?
3. Where does the "trash" RODI water get drained?
4. Does having a mixing station affect the water bill?

I'm sorry for all the questions; I've been in the reefkeeping hobby for 2 years and sometimes feel like I still don't know anything! If any of you can explain what you do to automate things for your tank, feel free to tell me so I can get a better idea as to what I could look into.

 

[Jekyl]

1: you won't be doing huge water changes often.
2: can either set up an auto water change system, use a siphon system and hoses, or grab some buckets.
3: Trash water down the drain.
4: You'll be using a lot of water at the beginning. Once dialed in and mature not so much as it's managed via dosing and other nutrient export.

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

I am planning for a 300-500 gallon system myself. Following

 

[Rtaylor]

There are lots of ‘right’ answers to your questions. Basically, you need two water reservoirs. 1 for RODI and one for mixed saltwater. You run your RODI with a pressure shutoff valve directly into your RODI barrel. The wastewater will typically just go down the sink of drain of wherever your water source is. I use the sink next to my washer/dryer and run the 1/4” RODI line about 20-30 feet along the ceiling to my 55 gallon RODI barrel (I bought it used for $10). You can hard plumb (pvc pipes) your RODI to your mixing barrel or just use a hose. Since you have to add salt and test salinity, most people manually transfer water from the RODI reservoir to the mixing reservoir using a pump via either a hose or the plumbed pvc piping.
You’ll want a heater and a pump in your mixing barrel as well.

you probably also want to plumb your RODI to your sump either to the freshwater reservoir or directly for auto top off.
You can plumb your saltwater reservoir similarly to your sump as you do for the RODI to mixing barrel. If you want to setup automatic water changes you’ll need at least a doser with 2 heads, one to pull water out and one to replace the water with your new saltwater. You would obviously need to plumb the removed water to some sort of drain.

 

[r.reefer]

There are lots of ‘right’ answers to your questions. Basically, you need two water reservoirs. 1 for RODI and one for mixed saltwater. You run your RODI with a pressure shutoff valve directly into your RODI barrel. The wastewater will typically just go down the sink of drain of wherever your water source is. I use the sink next to my washer/dryer and run the 1/4” RODI line about 20-30 feet along the ceiling to my 55 gallon RODI barrel (I bought it used for $10). You can hard plumb (pvc pipes) your RODI to your mixing barrel or just use a hose. Since you have to add salt and test salinity, most people manually transfer water from the RODI reservoir to the mixing reservoir using a pump via either a hose or the plumbed pvc piping.
You’ll want a heater and a pump in your mixing barrel as well.

you probably also want to plumb your RODI to your sump either to the freshwater reservoir or directly for auto top off.
You can plumb your saltwater reservoir similarly to your sump as you do for the RODI to mixing barrel. If you want to setup automatic water changes you’ll need at least a doser with 2 heads, one to pull water out and one to replace the water with your new saltwater. You would obviously need to plumb the removed water to some sort of drain.

Super helpful, thanks!

 

[r.reefer]

There are lots of ‘right’ answers to your questions. Basically, you need two water reservoirs. 1 for RODI and one for mixed saltwater. You run your RODI with a pressure shutoff valve directly into your RODI barrel. The wastewater will typically just go down the sink of drain of wherever your water source is. I use the sink next to my washer/dryer and run the 1/4” RODI line about 20-30 feet along the ceiling to my 55 gallon RODI barrel (I bought it used for $10). You can hard plumb (pvc pipes) your RODI to your mixing barrel or just use a hose. Since you have to add salt and test salinity, most people manually transfer water from the RODI reservoir to the mixing reservoir using a pump via either a hose or the plumbed pvc piping.
You’ll want a heater and a pump in your mixing barrel as well.

you probably also want to plumb your RODI to your sump either to the freshwater reservoir or directly for auto top off.
You can plumb your saltwater reservoir similarly to your sump as you do for the RODI to mixing barrel. If you want to setup automatic water changes you’ll need at least a doser with 2 heads, one to pull water out and one to replace the water with your new saltwater. You would obviously need to plumb the removed water to some sort of drain.

Do you still need an ATO system if your automatic water change setup performs small water changes every day?

 

[Rtaylor]

Do you still need an ATO system if your automatic water change setup performs small water changes every day?

Yes, your AWC will remove a specific amount of saltwater and replace with exactly the same amount of saltwater with the desired salinity. You need to replace evaporation with freshwater or eventually you’ll end up with a tank resembling the Dead Sea

 

[ZoWhat]

I have a 180g DT along with a 100g sump plumbed into the basement fishroom.

A large system...honestly... is going to cost you a cool $10,000 or more to do it correctly.

Failure is high if you are planning to do a "budget based" large system. Much like saying you want a $100k new Corvette and think you're going to do your own maintenance and put cheap tires and brakes on it to keep cost down. Doesn't work like that....


.

 

[wculver]

Hey! I posted on here the other day asking about the upkeep on a large reef system. I'd love to one day own a tank 200+ gallons. After doing more research, I found out about water mixing stations and wanted to ask more about it.
1. What is the basic setup? If a tank were 300 gallons, would this require a different mixing station than, say, a 150 gallon tank?
2. How do you connect it to the main tank?
3. Where does the "trash" RODI water get drained?
4. Does having a mixing station affect the water bill?

I'm sorry for all the questions; I've been in the reefkeeping hobby for 2 years and sometimes feel like I still don't know anything! If any of you can explain what you do to automate things for your tank, feel free to tell me so I can get a better idea as to what I could look into.

I would say you'll have to change your thinking on a larger tank as opposed to a smaller one. Lots of technology today to deal with waste which was traditionally the reason to do large and frequent changes. I run a 210 gallon and still do 10 percent water changes every couple weeks really just to adjust ionic balance and not at all for nutrient transport.

To pull this off, I just have the water made in my garage then use buckets to move inside and mix with salt in a large ice box. Then once it is mixed I just siphon it into the sump of the tank. It's not really hard to do though it does take some time to complete.

 

[Rtaylor]

I have a 180g DT along with a 100g sump plumbed into the basement fishroom.

A large system...honestly... is going to cost you a cool $10,000 or more to do it correctly.

Failure is high if you are planning to do a "budget based" large system. Much like saying you want a $100k new Corvette and think you're going to do your own maintenance and put cheap tires and brakes on it to keep cost down. Doesn't work like that....


.

I will fundamentally disagree with you here. Also, where did the OP say they were doing a budget system anyway? I setup a water mixing station with a total volume of 110 gallons for under $150 including 2 pumps and a heater (RODI not included, add another $100 or so for that). It isn’t the most beautiful setup in the world, but it’s clean and functional.

 

[ZoWhat]

I will fundamentally disagree with you here. Also, where did the OP say they were doing a budget system anyway? I setup a water mixing station with a total volume of 110 gallons for under $150 including 2 pumps and a heater (RODI not included, add another $100 or so for that). It isn’t the most beautiful setup in the world, but it’s clean and functional.

I'm talking about $10k for the entire large system, DT, Sump, lights, soup to nuts

I'm not saying $10k for water storage and mixing. That would be a ridiculous statement

 

[Rtaylor]

I'm talking about $10k for the entire large system

I'm not saying $10k for water storage and mixing. That would be a ridiculous statement

Depends on the definition of large. My 150 is probably closer to $3500 for all the equipment, substrate, rocks. Most of that was the tank (new for $1000 on sale), I built my stand for about $200 (solid oak). My lights were around $350, jebao gyres were $300, eShoppes skimmer I got new from an auction for under $100. Heater & inkbird X2 each ~$100, RODI ~$150 for everything, mixing station $150….that puts it at $2350. Probably spent $400-$500 on rock and sand. And maybe another $500 for other reactors and odds & ends. So about $3.5K for setup. Obviously bigger would cost more, but definitely could do it cheaper than I did as I bought a lot of aquacultured live-rock at a premium and bought all new equipment.
If you buy used for some of the higher end expenses you can easily save 50-75%.