120 gallon in apartment?

[Bustyraker]

I have recently decided to move out of the house I'm currently living in and I'm looking at a 1st floor apartment closer to work. I realized last month that a 3 bedroom house and 2 car garage was a bit excessive for just my fish and I. I have a few questions for you reefers who keep your tanks in a relatively small apartment.

1. How do you go about making and storing your RODI water for a large tank. ( I've been lucky enough to have a water change station in my basement for years )

2. How are you disposing of your water and sand? Draining it down the sink just seems like a bad idea to me.

Those are really my only concerns. I will have a second bedroom that I'll be using for junk and will most likely have to keep my brute containers for water changes in there.

 

[Duke4Life]

I can only answer number 2 as I used tap: pour it down the drain, with my reason being that we pour a lot worse things down them. Sand always went to the garbage.

 

[Bensadork]

As far as setting up your RODI unit in an apartment, you would probably need to hook it up to the washing machine water faucet. Draining wastewater down the sink isnt bad at all. It is no worse than running dirty dish water down the drain. As far as sand is concerned, as long as you dont just throw it all down the drain right off the bat it should be ok. I would turn the water on full blast and slowly pour the sand down the drain while the water is on. as long as its not all clumpy or hardened, it should flow right on through the plumbing in the building and down to the main sewage line underground. I also live in an apartment on the third floor and I have my 46g reef tank set up and i just set my 36g back up in the sun room to be freshwater tank.

 

[Bensadork]

This past weekend while I was setting up my freshwater tank, I bet I poured 3-4 pounds of dark black sand right down the tub drain of my apartment.

 

[Bustyraker]

This apartment doesn't have a washer\dryer. Laundry room is shared. I could always put the RO under the sink

 

[Bensadork]

Yeah, but the problem is you would have to tap into the water line under your sink and I know a lot of apartment companies don't like it when people start ripping their plumbling lines apart lol. I would know, I am a maintenance supervisor at a brand new luxury apt complex.

 

[Bustyraker]

What they don't know won't hurt them lol

 

[Duke4Life]

Yeah, but the problem is you would have to tap into the water line under your sink and I know a lot of apartment companies don't like it when people start ripping their plumbling lines apart lol. I would know, I am a maintenance supervisor at a brand new luxury apt complex.

I hate walking into a job where some1 as half butted it.

 

[Bensadork]

If it is an older apartment, you are probably going to be dealing with copper piping. If it is a newer complex, then you are going to be looking at blue and red PEX lines. Hopefully, there would be enough room under the sink to get your whole RO/DI system in there and still be able to maintain it properly.

 

[Bustyraker]

I may just screw all of my rodi system to a board and move it to the sink when I use it.

 

[chefjpaul]

Faucet quick release in bathroom.
I have a full closet i use as a "fish room"

 

[MOPAR]

I live in a 1 bedroom so it's pretty small. I keep my rodi unit under the sink. My BRS unit came with an attachment that made hooking up the unit easy without having to alter the plumbing. When I move out I can easily change the plumbing back. I just keep my buckets and reef stuff in a closet while not in use.

 

[Ryengoth]

Get a faucet adapter and put the whole shebang in a 5g bucket. You can lid it up for closet stacking and just cut 3 holes on the side of the bucket for the drain line, feed line and power (if you have a booster). I suggest a booster and high flow RO membrane to make your fill-ups faster. I keep 5 to 6 5g water jugs and a 5g bucket around for WC for my 90. The booster pump with a high-flow membrane will fill my 5g transfer/holding tank up in about 20 minutes.

OH.. and the bucket "tote" RODI also helps keep drips and line pops off the floor, walls, etc.. LOL

 

[blackgrouper79]

This apartment doesn't have a washer\dryer. Laundry room is shared. I could always put the RO under the sink

unscrew the shower head and get a brass fitting from home depo run your ro from that and put the brute can into the tub/shower so if it overflows who cares. you will just have to swap things around here and there and if you got a 2nd brute you could just pump your ro water from the shower to your junk room and have a normal bathroom again. make enough water this way and you'd only have to deal with this mess every couple of months--- I did this for years loll

 

[BkReefBaby]

Like other people mention I just dump the water in my tub...if there's a little bit of sand from a water change I also let it flow down the sink. If you're pulling out loads of sand for whatever reason I would throw it in a hefty garbage bag, double bag it.

And for the RODI unit I keep it stored under my bathroom sink and I have a faucet adapter. I also have a pretty big coat closet next to my fish tank where I can put my 20 gallon brute

 

[fernalfer]

I'm kind of in the same boat. My tank is downstairs which is where i want to store a drum of RODI water for changes. Problem is we have a spiral staircase to the downstairs, so filling it upstairs and getting it downstairs isnt happening. Woner if there is a super long hose extension to hook up the RODI to the faucet upstairs while filling the Drum downstairs? Not really sure where to set this RODI system up.

 

[Ryengoth]

I'm kind of in the same boat. My tank is downstairs which is where i want to store a drum of RODI water for changes. Problem is we have a spiral staircase to the downstairs, so filling it upstairs and getting it downstairs isnt happening. Woner if there is a super long hose extension to hook up the RODI to the faucet upstairs while filling the Drum downstairs? Not really sure where to set this RODI system up.

Just run a 1/4" line down the staircase and keep it out of view and touch as much as possible. If you put the RODI unit in the sink base you can just run the fill line down. If you want to keep the RODI downstairs you will need to get a booster pump. The pressure loss of a run that long will affect your membrane performance and you'll waste a lot of water.

 

[Ryengoth]

Just run a 1/4" line down the staircase and keep it out of view and touch as much as possible. If you put the RODI unit in the sink base you can just run the fill line down. If you want to keep the RODI downstairs you will need to get a booster pump. The pressure loss of a run that long will affect your membrane performance and you'll waste a lot of water.

1/4" RO tubing by the foot:
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/1-4-mur-lok-polyethylene-ro-tubing.html

push-to-connect fittings - will need to look for 1/4" based on the fitting type you need for routing, taps, etc.
http://www.amazon.com/b?node=580146011

 

[Eienna]

I pour my dirty water from the tank down our toilet. The plumbing there, I think, is better-fitted to handling solids than a sink or tub will be.

 

[fernalfer]

1/4" RO tubing by the foot:
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/1-4-mur-lok-polyethylene-ro-tubing.html

push-to-connect fittings - will need to look for 1/4" based on the fitting type you need for routing, taps, etc.
http://www.amazon.com/b?node=580146011

Thanks very much appreciated. I'll have RODI upstairs and just run a long tube downstairs filling my container.