Water mixing management

[Scottrshoe]

I want to upgrade to a larger tank in the future, but one of the obsticles I will need to overcome is the water management. Right now I have a 20g tank, and a small ro/di system that I temporaily hook up to the kitchen sink when I need water. That and a couple of 5g buckets are all I need.

For my situation a dedicated mixing station is out of the question, with no access to the garage or basement.

My question to you is: For those of you who have 100g + tanks and no dedicated mixing station, how do you manage your water, and water change, needs?

Pictures would be great

 

[OfficeReefer]

@Scottrshoe you can check out my build and pics. I have some new ones coming this weekend too. I'm using a butlers sink and pantry that is connected but the main things you need to find is a lower pressure water source, say off your refrigerator or under a sink. You'll need to add a tee valve or something to split this off into an RODI unit. If yours also has just an RO before DI you want to use (say for cooking and drinking), then you'll probably want to use a sink.

The next thing you'll need there is power, timers and/or sensors and pumps (sump or heavy duty dosing). I use an Neptune Systems Apex controller to do this and a 1LINK box to PMUP pump units and 24vdc solenoid. The PMUP is much faster around 100gal or 370l/per hour compared to the Apex DŌS, however this does 7gal over 10 hours but I don't have to baby it and its measured on logged data point I can see, unlike the PMUP unit. If you just wanted to switch it, I suppose one could do it with some smart switches or something and an Inkbird if heating your water too. This is one advantage over a slower water change too, as I'm not as concerned with the temps being identical.

The other thing is consider is a drain. You need to be able to remove water. A 1/4" saddle valve or barb fitting should permit one to use the existing drain nearby.

Please feel free to ask any other questions.

​

 

[Scottrshoe]

@Scottrshoe you can check out my build and pics. I have some new ones coming this weekend too. I'm using a butlers sink and pantry that is connected but the main things you need to find is a lower pressure water source, say off your refrigerator or under a sink. You'll need to add a tee valve or something to split this off into an RODI unit. If yours also has just an RO before DI you want to use (say for cooking and drinking), then you'll probably want to use a sink.

The next thing you'll need there is power, timers and/or sensors and pumps (sump or heavy duty dosing). I use an Neptune Systems Apex controller to do this and a 1LINK box to PMUP pump units and 24vdc solenoid. The PMUP is much faster around 100gal or 370l/per hour compared to the Apex DŌS, however this does 7gal over 10 hours but I don't have to baby it and its measured on logged data point I can see, unlike the PMUP unit. If you just wanted to switch it, I suppose one could do it with some smart switches or something and an Inkbird if heating your water too. This is one advantage over a slower water change too, as I'm not as concerned with the temps being identical.

The other thing is consider is a drain. You need to be able to remove water. A 1/4" saddle valve or barb fitting should permit one to use the existing drain nearby.

Please feel free to ask any other questions.

​

Awesome info! I will check out your set up, and definitely hit you up with any questions I have.

 

[Nate Chalk]

I want to upgrade to a larger tank in the future, but one of the obsticles I will need to overcome is the water management. Right now I have a 20g tank, and a small ro/di system that I temporaily hook up to the kitchen sink when I need water. That and a couple of 5g buckets are all I need.

For my situation a dedicated mixing station is out of the question, with no access to the garage or basement.

My question to you is: For those of you who have 100g + tanks and no dedicated mixing station, how do you manage your water, and water change, needs?

Pictures would be great

Could you do a continuous water change system?

 

[Scottrshoe]

The wall I would put the tank on has the kitchen sink on the other side, So I could probably make something work.

 

[OfficeReefer]

The wall I would put the tank on has the kitchen sink on the other side, So I could probably make something work.

There you go!

I did add a small 2.5gal fresh water RODI fill container first to avoid the constant flush after a salt addition. This was the only thing I recommend that most do.

The Apex solution does the means @Nate Chalk suggests if desired. It will do auto water changes all day 24x7 if one chooses this method. I didn't want this as for one, it would require me to constantly add salt to the saltwater holding tank (there's no easy means of automated salt dispensing due to volume and weight). The second is that it would also result in premature wear to the dosing pumps.