Why do most people have two water reservoirs?

[jgvergo]

Thanks for the input everyone. I have decided to go with two reservoirs. I have a plumping question that I will post in a new thread.

 

[dbl]

Take a look at this thread. There is a lot of great examples of mixing stations. If you look closely, you'll be able to see how some are plumbed. Not that difficult to do a basic mixing station. Hope it helps and good luck, but certainly ask questions if you have them.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/salt-water-mixing-stations-lets-see-them.36873/

 

[dbdisok]

I have space issues too. So I have a 22 gallon reservoir and a 20 gallon trash bin for SW mixing. This trash bin in on wheels so I can easily move the fresh SW to my DT.

 

[Betty1964]

Just a side note, if you are using a power head to mix your salt, keep a spare. They usually break when you are in the biggest hurry...lol.

 

[Servo]

I have one really big reservoir (320 gallons). If you are strapped for space, its better to keep a large volume of salt water on hand to deal with unforeseen circumstances. Having a R/O reservoir only allows you to double up on the amount of salt water you have. You will still need to airate the second batch a bit before using it. I am scaling down to 200 gallons with my next tank (400gallon current up grade to 1000 gallon).

 

[N1Husker]

That makes sense Joshky, but let me ask it another way. What is the advantage of having two reservoirs over having "only" one

When you see two reservoirs, one usually is fresh water for auto top off replenishment and one is saltwater for water changes.

 

[BHHOWARD]

one benefit of having 1 for salt and one for RO DI is that if you have leftover salt water, you can always make the same amount of RO DI water to add to the salt water reservoir and the same amount of salt to make sure your salinity stays the same. e.g. if you are using the bag of salt that makes 50 gallons, you can always make the same amount of RO DI and put that in the salt reservoir with the bag and you should not need to check salinity.

I have 3 - one for salt water, one to hold RO DI to fill my salt water reservoir, and one for topoff. The topoff doesn't need to be large.

 

[wpeterson]

RO/DI storage and salt water mixing are like most things in the hobby - there's an ideal way to do it and the compromises we make due to our personal space and budget.

I live in a small 800 sq ft. space where we keep our 90 gallon mixed reef, so I opted for a larger ATO reservoir and a flexible RO/DI and saltwater mixing 28 gallon brute container. This means I make about 12 gallons of RO/DI for topoff water every 2 weeks to fill our ATO reservoir and a full 25 gallon saltwater batch for a water change every two weeks.

I fill the brute to 25 gallons, top off the ATO reservoir from there, re-fill it with RO/DI, mix a batch of saltwater, do our water change, clean it out and let it sit empty for another few weeks. In our house the RO/DI source is in the laundry room and the Brute container is on wheels - so I can mix RO/DI or saltwater and the wheel it in to our tank to fill up the ATO or do a water change.

It would be better if I had a 100 gallon RO/DI storage container and more space, but I can easily source RO/DI, deliver it, mix saltwater and cure it for 24-48 hours without too much trouble.

So like most things in this hobby - it's awesome if you have space/finances for two large containers for RO/DI and saltwater, but you can definitely make due sharing one container - whether it's a 5 gallon bucket or a brute on wheels.

 

[Myka]

I also have two bins. I like to have saltwater on hand all the time. I use H2Ocean, and once mixed, it can be stored "indefinitely" as long as it's sealed.

with our wastewater used for laundry.

How do you have this setup? Do you use a pump to feed the washer or gravity feed?

 

[Fishy Rob]

One reason I like having a separate reservoir for RODI is to help prevent issues with topping off where too much fresh water could be accidently added. I have a float switch & solenoid valve control the flow into a brute, right from the RODI unit, then I have 2 Tom's Aqualifter pumps that top off my display and frag tank from the brute. If the solenoid valve were to fail, I might flood the floor but not the tanks (someday I will add an emergency overflow for the reservoir). The Aqualifters could stick on if something happens to my Apex controller but the most they could pump out would be 25 gallons total. It's also nice to have the reserve water in case you need it, since the RODI units make water so slowly.