Breeder tanks as mixing station containers?

[Billy617]

I’m in the early stages of setting up a mixing station in my garage, and am considering using 40 gallon breeder tanks as the containers for RODI and saltwater. I’m curious if anyone has done this and how it compares to the Brute or roto-mold tank solutions.

 

[ekandler]

You can do it, just makes plumbing more challenging and you’ll want a way to prevent evaporation.

i just find the tanks are easier, closed top and a bottom you can drill into for a drain line.

 

[ekandler]

This is what I use for my mixing station

Plastic Drum - 15 Gallon, Closed Top, Blue S-17007 - ULINE

UN RATED Excellent for indoor or outdoor use. Corrosion free, dent-resistant polyethylene. 15 gallon stores up to 225 lbs. of liquids and solids. Two openings to pour and vent: 2" and 3/4" diameter. FDA compliant resins. ULINE offers over 45,000 boxes, plastic poly bags, mailing tubes, warehouse...

www.uline.com

 

[Eagle_Steve]

I’m in the early stages of setting up a mixing station in my garage, and am considering using 40 gallon breeder tanks as the containers for RODI and saltwater. I’m curious if anyone has done this and how it compares to the Brute or roto-mold tank solutions.

Did this many years ago. Here is how I did it. (I used older tanks and not breeders, but same principle)

2x 55 gallon tanks (non tempered)
2x4 stand for one on top of the other setup.


I drilled the top tank to where there was a bulk head on the upper left back side and bulkhead on the bottom right front side so that they were opposite of each other on the bottom tank. The bottom tank was 2.5' off the floor. From there I drilled the top tank directly in the bottom on each front bottom corner. I also drilled a small hole for a float valve to be installed and connected to my RODI line. The left bottom corner bulkhead then had a piece of soft piping going to the upper back side of the bottom tank. This soft piping was routed so that a valve could be tied in on the front of the stand and the valve was affixed to the stand, so it was fixed there. This was how I moved water to the bottom tank. In that same line, I installed a tee and routed soft line over to the right side, had a valve installed and fixed to the stand and put a plastic hose connector on the end. This allowed me to hook a hose up for RODI to be put into jugs. For the bottom tank, I connected a soft line to the bottom bulkhead and routed it to the side of the stand and installed a valve. I used 2x mj1200s for mixing salt in the bottom container and would just fill jugs via the valve/hose end with it being set at just above jug height.

This worked very well and was very cheap to do at the time. If I had to do it again this way, I would have hard plumbed everything, used a couple more valves and an external pump to mix it all. But I would not do it this way again. I currently have 2x 250g containers I use, but for a small one would use 32 or 55g brute cans to do this and just stack them on a DIY stand. Much less space it taken up, easier to drill, and no worry if you bump into a pipe that you will crack the tank. It also makes it easier to clean the containers from time to time. In addition, a really bad day and a container gets damaged, easy to head anywhere and pick up a new container. I would also set it up so that there was an external pump to pump water to my tanks, whether it be RODI or SW.

 

[PatW]

I use a 29 gallon tank as an auto top off reservoir. I just run a tube from the reservoir to my sump from about 12’. Even a small pump can push the water fine that far and it doesn’t have much vertical lift needed.

As a mixing station, an inexpensive tank would work just fine and would probably give you a much better idea of when the salt mix is completely dissolved than a Brute trash can (which is what I use).