Ro/Di Setup

[mcdonaldjosh7]

Alright, so heres what I would like to eventually setup:

I want an RO/DI water maker which will fill 2 55 gallon buckets...one for salt, one for fresh. I would want it to automatically start making more water should I remove water from either of the buckets...and stop once it reached a fill mark.

I Would also love it if I could find a way to have the salt bucket automatically mix the salt...

Anyone have any ideas on how to do this?

 

[klwheat]

Well, for the mixing part, I use a submersible pump (can't remember what brand off hand...i'm at work) and a few feet of vinyl tubing connected and dropped in the bottom of the trash can along with a couple of heaters so I can have a water change ready to go quickly. The tubing wraps in a circle around the bottom and the pump mixes well. As far as the RO/DI top off for the cans...I'll be watching here for ideas myself

 

[Adonijah]

I'm by no means an expert, nor do I even have a reef tank(yet). but through my research I've found that a lot of people use float valves. Now as far as anymore advice pass this point, I'm afraid I can't help.

 

[jrgilles]

Talk to Kirk, NC2WA on these forums. He has this exact setup going.

I always thought you wanted to trash the first couple of gallons off the RO/DI when you first turn it on because it washes some junk out while the filtration is reestablished, don't know though.

Anyway, kirk should be able to help you out. He's got this system all set up in food grade drums.

 

[scytale]

I don't think there's any system on the market that would have the "salt bucket automatically mix the salt"--you're going to need a human being (or a robot, or a very skilled monkey) to read your salinity level, measure and add more more salt, re-test the salinity, repeat, etc. ;-)

There are definitely RODI's with solenoids and float-valves that will replenish your RODI bucket.
Also Genesis Reef Systems (which advertises here on RF)--does sell some systems than will do automatic top-off and auto-water-changes (but you'll still need a person/robot/monkey to make-up your saltwater first.)

I use an old mag3 pump (w/ a food-safe garden hose, and 3/4"-to-garden-hose-thread adapter) to pump salt-water from my garage to my tank during water-change, then the same mag3 to pump from my 55 gallon RODI bucket to the 55 gallon salt water bucket--it's not automatic, but it doesn't require me to lug any buckets!