Salt mixing stations, Icam finally building one and....

[BanZI29]

Happy Sunday fellow reefers! SO I am gonna do it, I am building a mixing station, yet I have NO clue how to. I would be VERY grateful for some guidence. Budget is a thing for me to as I am not a baller! Please show me and describe your stations. I will go thru about 20 gallons a week but want enough for backup. Please and thank you everyone!

 

[BanZI29]

Wanna see brute can setups too please

 

[lapin]

mixing stations reef 2 reef at DuckDuckGo

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[BanZI29]

Ok so why 2 tanks/cans?

 

[lapin]

Probably because people have 1as their fresh water and 1 as salt water. I have 1 tank. Fill it with rodi water, turn on mix pump then add salt.

 

[Reeferbadness]

i don't have a photo handy but i have 2 x 50 gallon drums. RO/DI goes to one (with float valve to stop when full) and i pump from RO/DI drum to mixing drum which has a pump to continuously keep flow. Mixing Drum also has a pump and a hose (as well as a way to get salt water manually down low) so i can pump directly into my 200g tank. I also have a 180g tank so need to manually move water there as it's across the house. I go through about 45 gallons a week and this is an easy way to always have water mixed and ready + the RO/DI drum for easy access as ATO for 200g tank and fill other container for the ATO for the 180 g tank. Not expensive and easy to maintain.

 

[BanZI29]

Any reason you all use brute? Or does it matter?

 

[Formulator]

Super simple. Red goes to sump, green recirculates in the trash can. Submersible pond pump from home depot and a heater in there. I had some stink bugs get in there once, which is why the poly filter is floating in there. For water change, I close the recirculation valve and open the valve to sump. Yes that is a toilet float valve . I’ve since replaced the float valve with a simpler one designed for aquariums, but its not pictured. The float is connected to my RO system with a tee connector before my ATO reservoir and valve I open when I want to fill the mixing station with fresh water. Has worked great for 6 years now.

 

[Formulator]

Any reason you all use brute? Or does it matter?

I think any food safe barrel will work. I’m actually not even sure the brutes we all use are actually the food safe ones, but reefers have been doing it for decades with success, so I think its one of those “if its not broke don’t fix it” things.

 

[n2585722]

Here is my mixing station. I have 3 20 gallon brute cans on casters that are under my work bench. One is used as a mix tank, another as a fresh saltwater reservoir and the last one is my DI reservoir. The DI reservoir is used for ATO and can be dispensed into containers for other uses. The DI reservoir is automatically refilled from My RODI when it goes low. The fresh saltwater reservoir is used for AWC and also can be dispensed into containers for other uses as needed. When the fresh saltwater reservoir goes low and the mix tank contents is ready to use the contents of the mix tank is transferred to the fresh saltwater tank and the mix tank is refilled from the RODI. Once it is full all I have to do is add the salt mix and press a button when it is ready to use. Below is the three brute cans under my work bench. The button boxes from left to right are top button mix ready to use. The mix tank is also the left brute can. The bottom button turns on the lamp over the workbench. Pressing it again will turn it off but it will go off after 30 minutes if I forget to turn it off. The center one top button is dispense fresh saltwater. The center tank is the fresh saltwater tank and if you press and hold the dispense button it will turn on a pump and will flow out of the red tubing which also has a manual valve I close when done. The bottom button is not momentary. If pressed it turn on and pressed again it is turned off. If on it will stop the auto water changes and also lock out all three button boxes while on. The right button box is a DI dispense button and works like the one for fresh saltwater but is dispensed out of the white tubing.

Below is the controller board for the mixing station. It also has the AWC and ATO pumps in the shelves on the right. At the top right is the solenoids used to control the RODI which is to the right of the photo. The right has change since this photo but this is the only photo I have currently I can post of the full controller board. The Digital Aquatics modules are no longer there and the Hydros collective controls everything. I will post a more recent photo of the right. since the left has not changed that much.

Below is an updated photo of the right side of the controller board with the current setup. In this photo you can also see the corner of the RODI unit. At the top are the 4 manual valves and 4 solenoids used to control the RODI. The bottom pump shelf has the pumps used for ATO and AWC. The top left one is the fill pump for AWC, the bottom left is the drain pump for AWC and the bottom right pump is the ATO pump. The tank is 35ft away and the tubing is run through the attic and down a wall to the tank. So that is the reason for using dosing pumps. The pump in the top pump shelf is a spare pump. The top shelf is for my tank I have not setup yet. That is about it for the mixing station.

 

[Formulator]

Here is my mixing station. I have 3 20 gallon brute cans on casters that are under my work bench. One is used as a mix tank, another as a fresh saltwater reservoir and the last one is my DI reservoir…

Very nice. Elegant design. OP - I think between this one and mine, you have both ends of the complexity spectrum to consider

 

[vetteguy53081]

Happy Sunday fellow reefers! SO I am gonna do it, I am building a mixing station, yet I have NO clue how to. I would be VERY grateful for some guidence. Budget is a thing for me to as I am not a baller! Please show me and describe your stations. I will go thru about 20 gallons a week but want enough for backup. Please and thank you everyone!

previous (in storage):

Current:

Poly tanks are awesome and brute containers also work along with basic PVC parts, bulkheads , shutoffs and a reliable pump. RODI unit - I have one for the tank and the other for RO water only

 

[n2585722]

Super simple. Red goes to sump, green recirculates in the trash can. Submersible pond pump from home depot and a heater in there. I had some stink bugs get in there once, which is why the poly filter is floating in there. For water change, I close the recirculation valve and open the valve to sump. Yes that is a toilet float valve . I’ve since replaced the float valve with a simpler one designed for aquariums, but its not pictured. The float is connected to my RO system with a tee connector before my ATO reservoir and valve I open when I want to fill the mixing station with fresh water. Has worked great for 6 years now.

I used the lids on mine for the bulkhead feed throughs. Below is the lid for the DI reservoir. The long PVC pipe that goes out of the photo at the top is the low level float switch. You can see the full lefel float switch. They are both the same except for the length of the PVC. This was before adding the dispense pumps to it. The float valve is on the incoming RODI line and is one of the backups used to keep it from overfilling if something happens to the full level switch. The tubes are for ATO pumps.

 

[BanZI29]

Can someone please put up a blueprint of sorts or diagram or something that can explain the routing between holding tanks? And how do you add the salt to the water and monitor the salinity?