Mixing own salt, how do you transfer to tank?

Lol, that is a whole lot of pumping. Oh well, that is much easier than how I do it. I have my RO/DI setup in my laundry room like others do. I have an old 10g trash can that I turned into my water mixing can. I added a float valve to it so that I would not forget to turn off the water when it was filling the can and make a water mess in the room. (wife about beat me for the previous times I flooded the laundry room.) Any ways, it takes about 2 hours to fill my water can and then I add my pre-measured salt. I have a 10gph powerhead and a heater in the water can to mix the salt and heat the water. After the water is at the right salinity and about a day later I do my water change.

Before I do my water change I clean my aquarium glass and do any manual removal of algae or cyano first. I have a five gallon bucket I use for water changes. I siphon water out of my DT into my five gallon bucket to a predetermined mark. Then I just pour it down the sink. I then transfer my new water to the five gallon bucket, lift it to the top of the tank and siphon the water back to the tank. Sometimes I just pour it in the tank depending on if I am in a hurry or not.

 

Downstairs in the laundry area I have two 32 gal brutes, one for clean ro/di and one for mixing salt, with a heater, PH and airstone.
Mix water/salt and add alk to match tank alk and let work for 24ish hours.
Then I pump out the water from the sump into 5 gallon buckets and then toss them down the drain. Then take the buckets downstairs and fill them up and bring them upstairs (I count this as a workout) and into the sump room. Then I will fill up the return section as high as it goes and turn on the return and pump the fresh SW into the return section and wait for it to come back down the drain section. Of course if I am running low on time, I will just dump it into the skimmer section. The first option mixes the water a little more as it's introduced into the system, however, that is just me over-thinking the introduction of clean SW.

Someday I would love a bucket-less system. I am however content with being able to make my own water and mix it how I want it mixed.

 

At least now I don't feel so bad "rinsing the basement rug" when I forget to turn off the RO/DI. The buckets wouldn't be bad up to 10G but beyond that I'm pumping. There isn't a problem with the water getting funky when you store 44 gallons?

 

Not that I'm aware of. There is always the plastic leaching argument. But as far as I know, you're storing clean water in a clean vessel and I keep a lid on my ro/di storage water. With my mixing tank, the longest I've mixed sw and stored it has around a week, in a clean container and partially covered.