Water change station with pump in/out!

[Outatime]

Hi All

I have been thinking about adding a water change station at my home for my Waterbox 130.4 and a Prostar 230g but being the lazy **** that I am I would like to eliminate the buckets of mixed water, taking up kitchen space, and rolling brute trash cans around so I am thinking about running pex under the house in the crawl space.

Need a sounding board for the ideas I have come up with so far and if you can suggest or improve it I would be very greateful.

First off I am in Florida which as you know does get a little hot at times. I don't have the space inside so was thinking of installing two Brute 44g cans outside in a small shed and put it on a few blocks to keep it off the floor.

From here run a pex line out of the cans into a pump...I am thinking one of the boat type pumps that when you turn it on it will pump it and when you turn it off it stops...tee it off into the two aquariums inside and plumb with CPVC 1/2 inch and non return valve into the overflow of the tanks (or sump?) with a shut off so I can turn it on and off when needed.

Also run another CPVC 1/2 inch pipe next to the top up line with a shut off and non return valve to drain the water out of the tank...gravity should be ok here and just plumb it so its drains outside somewhere...not near the wifes plants already got in trouble for that!!

I have a RO unit I can install inside the water change shed and have the water on a float in the blute 44g can with a pump inside to circulate the water then add a measure of salt for what I need. I am thinking due to the heat of Florida I can't store water outside for very long so I would have to make sure the can is drained down after I have finished each time.

I am sure there would be ways to streamline this but is this something anyone else has done or have any ideas?

Thanks for hearing me out

Stuart

 

[Timfish]

Should work ok. There will likely be some tweaks once you set it up. Designing it to minimize or elimanating any chance of accidentally overflowing or draining too much water will be a critical point. FWIW if you can ventilate the shed and have a fan blowing on the RO evaporative cooling has the potential of keeping the water temp close to the average daily low temperature.

 

[Indymann99]

I have a similar setup but my RODI system and mix tank is under stairs in basement (limited space). I have pump (mag) in the sump to pump “used” SW out of the sump and to a drain. Then the pump in the mix tank (mag) is turned on to pump “fresh” SW back into the sump. Process is as as follows. 1. Turn off return pump. DT drains and backflows (no check valves) into sump to level marked “pump off” (This takes 5min or so). Turn on pump in sump that pumps “used” SW out of the sump to drain. Turn off pump when sump is drained (approx 30g). 2. Turn on pump in mix tank and turn valves to send ”fresh” SW back to the sump. Fill to the “pump off“ level. Turn off mix tank pump. 3. Restart return pump. Verify sump return section water level is at ATO level. WC done no buckets no spills. 4. Start RODI filling mix tank (3-4 hrs) and let heat (heater permanently installed in Brute). Mix in salt to desired SG. Turn on timer on mix tank to run pump for 15 every 4hrs. Ready for next WC.

Hope it gives you some ideas. NOTE I have to use a single CPVC line to both drain and fill. It’s a long story but when finishing the basement I asked for 2 PVC lines and RODI line, but the plumber ran a RODI line (in pict above connects to fill ATO res) and the CPVC. I didn’t catch the mistake till after all the drywall was up…. Arrgh. So I just turn some valves and use the same CPVC pipe for drain and fill (had to use CPVC to pass inspection, lol). Not automated but entire process is done in 15min. And I always have 30g of mixed and heated SW ready to use if emergency comes up.