Saltwater mixing station

You should post your details. I'm thinking about getting into the mixing station and automatic water change station. However, mine won't involve the Dos pump (just too much $$) or the genesis system (stupid $$ again). I've seen some builds that they've used peristaltic pumps from ebay, dual mounted the and went that route.

Now, I'm not exactly sure how this will all go down, but that's why I'm here!!

 

168g a month change out, that's a lot of turnover. Do you see a lot of benefit?

Once you add your salt to your barrel how often do you mix before it hits your tank?

Wow, the Genesis is impressive. Combined with it's ATO and wow.

 

My mixing station is in my basement, my tank is upstairs. I have a (2) 50g brute cans one salt, one fresh. When I do water changes, I siphon from my tank that drains into my basement. Once the amount (50 gallons) is complete, I break the siphon. Go down stairs and flip a switch. That pumps salt water into my sump. I mix salt using a powerhead. Boom water change is done.

I switch the pump into my fresh water can that pumps water into my 30 gallon brute upstairs next to my tank. This can is for ato. I have a simple pump and float valve that sends water to my sump. Consistant paramters and very easy, all pumps are from harbor freight and are very cheap to buy.

Keep it simple.

 

Illness has me down today, I couldn't get through the pain to get into the store so the wife had to go in and I'll sit at home and stare at this setup. Doubt I'll do anything with it today though.

I wish I had a basement or that i could put water in the attic (afraid of heat and cold), I guess a fish house will be in order one day.

You have to admit though an auto wc sounds pretty sweet doesn't it? When I finish this station I'll be much better off than I am now. I haven't done a wc since I got up and running in nov. (dodging stares). For me, an auto wc is down the road a bit, as much as I'd like to have one yesterday.

 

Do you know if the Genesis Renew would work with two of their storms? One for the ATO in the Brute and the other for the ATO in the sump.

 

GREAT build,
A few comment, from a DIY'er- I realize you have and use an Apex- I don't.
But I'm glad you can and do

When mixing my RO/DI and Salt for WC's, I use a standard 55g that sits on the floor behind my sump.
I let the RO/DI put about 50-52g in it.
Then, since I use the Kent Marine Salt product 200g box, it conveniently comes in 4 bags in that box.
I Slowly pour a bag in near Mag3 pump I leave in there to circulate it. One bag/50g water, that's it!
When I read the SG w/ refractometer- Spot on 35- 1.027- every time!

'1) I'd like to see about getting some sort of bin that I can mount in the attic and fill with salt. Have that come through the ceiling and then pull a handle and the pre-measured salt would fall right into the brute. No more having to measure a cup at a time.'

I siphon ( to my floor drain in basement; you could do it to a toilet/drain) as much detritus as I can and the 50g from my sump, and use that same pump to pump the new SW into the sump again- all the while my WP40's are keeping the DT going like nothing happened.
No bucket lifting, etc.

#2- Would you consider using gravity only for your ATO? no sensors, no pumps, no electric anything?
It's kept my SG- rock steady for over 3 years.

 

Thank you Todd.

I like the alarms that sensors offer, they give me a little piece of mind. Until I started this build I had my RO/DI on 24/7 feeding the sump. The main reason I went with the Tunze ATO is my sump is to small and the huge float, well huge for the room I have in the sump, was always in the way. My contractor talked me into recessing the side in the hallway to put a bench in front of the tank. This idea has limited my access under the tank immensely and I haven't found, nor have I exhausted all avenues yet, in finding some sort of tank that will fit and then diy a sump.

If I don't build a fish house or find a storage bin that will fit through the drop down attic access I'm very limited in the size mixing bin I can use. I'm guessing around 30g is what I'll be at when this is done. I'd love to go with a 60 or 75g mixing bin and then have it set to where I could add just a bag of salt like yourself and Reefbuilder do. Unfortunately for now with where this sits I can't go any larger. Another build down the road.

 

time to move! lol

 

Shoot. This house just turned 2, it's still a baby.

 

I've been meaning to start a tank thread. I'll try this weekend.

It's what I've always done so I have nothing to compare it to. Prior to the genesis system I used to do approx 40g/week mostly because I use IO reef crystals and its easy to mix those 50g bags. I didn't need to dose for almost 2 years and even now my calcium reactor is hardly working to keep my numbers stable.

The system is down for mixing for approx 8 hours. I run the mixing pumps for a full 24 hours, so a small quantity of water hits my sump a little prematurely. By the time that 1gal of water makes its way through my 100 gal sump it should be fine before it guys the Dt. Most of the mixing time is for pH stabilization anyway which is not a concern with multiple small water changes.

First, I don't use their storm ato. Since my WC run every 4 hours I have my ato come on every 4 hours, but offset by 2 hours using my apex. I have been running this way for over a year without a single issue of them being out of sync. Even if it did it would take a long time for it to have an impact on a system my size. I would think I would catch it by then.

That said, I don't see the need in the ato. That be handled by a simple float valve