Mixing Station/Quarantine Tank Rack

[sivob]

I’m starting the year long planning for a 180 (as of right now) peninsula mixed reef and I’m looking for mixing station experience.
The mixing station will be in my furnace room. I don’t have a lot of room and the 55 gallon brute trash cans or any round container is inefficient on saving space. The ceiling is 8’.
My idea (I would guess I’m not the first to think of this but no luck on a search) is to stack the RO, saltwater and a QT on top of each other. I would use drilled aquariums.

This is where I’m looking for any input….the top tank would be RO with 2 bottom holes, 1 to drain down to the SW tank and the other as a safety overflow to the floor drain. The middle (directly below and the same size as the RO) tank would be for SW mixing with one bottom hole to fill the QT tank below. Do I go with an external pump for mixing and add another bottom hole?
The RO and SW tanks would need to be at least 50 gallons and the QT at least 20.

Ease of maintenance and cleaning is important and I can build the rack. Any recommendations on which aquariums to use?

I appreciate your help

 

[Eagle_Steve]

I’m starting the year long planning for a 180 (as of right now) peninsula mixed reef and I’m looking for mixing station experience.
The mixing station will be in my furnace room. I don’t have a lot of room and the 55 gallon brute trash cans or any round container is inefficient on saving space. The ceiling is 8’.
My idea (I would guess I’m not the first to think of this but no luck on a search) is to stack the RO, saltwater and a QT on top of each other. I would use drilled aquariums.

This is where I’m looking for any input….the top tank would be RO with 2 bottom holes, 1 to drain down to the SW tank and the other as a safety overflow to the floor drain. The middle (directly below and the same size as the RO) tank would be for SW mixing with one bottom hole to fill the QT tank below. Do I go with an external pump for mixing and add another bottom hole?
The RO and SW tanks would need to be at least 50 gallons and the QT at least 20.

Ease of maintenance and cleaning is important and I can build the rack. Any recommendations on which aquariums to use?

I appreciate your help

Can we get a pic of the room and the area where you have space for containers? Tons of space saving options out there, just need to see what you are working with.

 

[AJsReef]

In my last house the only place I had room for a mixing station was inside an extra laundry closet. I built a stand with a 29G RO reservoir up top, 29G salt mixing tank in the middle and 20 gallon QT tank space at the bottom. No issues and ran great. RO had a bulkhead at the bottom that drained into salt tank, salt tank had a drain that had a T to go to QT or bucket fill. I didn't use an external mixing pump however as I had an AWC setup or used gravity for larger water changes.

 

[kenbennedy]

I have read that QT tanks should be 10' or more from display and other tanks in order to minimize disease transmission. It is worth considering that a pathogen could find its way into the water mixing stations.

 

[sivob]

I was not aware of that........It would defeat the purpose of quarantining.