Mixing station - pouring salt Clearance

[Picesduh]

I’m working on a new build for a 135G which will sit on a 40 inch steel stand and to save space I am gong to place two 20 gallon water tanks underneath the tank in the stand and use them for water changes. The water tanks are 34 inches tall and has a cap at the top to pour salt. Btw I don’t have the tank/stand/or water tanks- I’m in the planning stages but I’m thinking that with the water tanks in the stand I may only have 2-3 inches of clearance to pour salt into the top (taking into account the floor of the stand which I would think would be a few inches off the ground.) Does anyone know of a solution for this?

A solution I came up with was to place a third much shorter 7G water tank next to the other two and use that as a pre mix tank to then pump that into the bigger water tank but I would have to mix 3 batches this way and it complicates the plumbing for the water mixing station.

 

[Mikedawg]

If I understand your question, maybe use a flexible funnel? https://www.amazon.com/Hopkins-1071...id=1523968169&sr=8-6&keywords=flexible+funnel

Assume you're not concerned about manually stirring salt mix in the storage tank.

 

[reefpaddy]

Maybe a large funnel with hose pipe attached for pouring your salt in?

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

It might be advantageous to put the tanks on a slider so when you go to fill them with salt you can simply pull them out on the slide and have plenty of room to pour in the salt.

 

[Picesduh]

If I understand your question, maybe use a flexible funnel? https://www.amazon.com/Hopkins-1071...id=1523968169&sr=8-6&keywords=flexible+funnel

Assume you're not concerned about manually stirring salt mix in the storage tank.

Thanks for the suggestion. With the angle that I would have with this funnel going into the top of the tank (basically horizontal) I don’t think most of the salt will actually get into the tank. Also, the mixing will be accomplished by a pump so not worried about mixing.

The slider suggestion is interesting but that’s 40 gallons of water on a moving slider, not sure how I would even go about building that additional frame in the stand.

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

 

[JoshH]

It might be advantageous to put the tanks on a slider so when you go to fill them with salt you can simply pull them out on the slide and have plenty of room to pour in the salt.

+1 on the slider

The slider suggestion is interesting but that’s 40 gallons of water on a moving slider, not sure how I would even go about building that additional frame in the stand.

I would have them weld 3 rails onto the bottom of your stand and then drill and bolt the sliders to those making each tank individually slidable and being welded to the stand base very strong. Oh and I forgot to mention, real easy to find heavy duty sliders at reasonable prices.

 

[Picesduh]

The sliding idea is more clear now and it could work! I’ll have to think about plumbing as I plan to use hard PVC for the mixing station. I’ll prob have the pump and the two water tanks all slide on one drawer so all the hard PVC can move together.

 

[JoshH]

The sliding idea is more clear now and it could work! I’ll have to think about plumbing as I plan to use hard PVC for the mixing station. I’ll prob have the pump and the two water tanks all slide on one drawer so all the hard PVC can move together.

Just make sure you find sliders that will hold the weight of everything (Approximately 350 pounds). As I said they are easy to find but you need to know the weights your dealing with to buy the correct ones

 

[Picesduh]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone!