Pump for Mixing SW in 5g bucket

[drstratton]

I mix my SW in 5g buckets, the pump I'm using does a great job of mixing, but it makes the water to warm. I have to turn it off and wait for the water to cool down enough for water changes. What would be a good sized pump that will mix the Salt, but keep the water cooler. Thanks!

 

[Kershaw]

I use old korila power head. Never makes water warm for me.

 

[drstratton]

I use old korila power head. Never makes water warm for me.

Thank you! Do you possibly know how many gph it is?

 

[sbash]

I use old korila power head. Never makes water warm for me.

+1 I just use a couple powerheads in my 25 gallon mixing tub...

 

[HardyG]

I use a cheap utility pump from eBay

 

[drstratton]

Thanks everyone! I don't know why I didn't think of power heads instead of a regular pump. I have two buckets going at a time and one of mine just died, so I need to replace it!

 

[Kershaw]

1300 gph. I see them on Craigslist all the time. I have a korila mag I use sometimes that is 2400 gph mixes great.

 

[mcarroll]

I mix my SW in 5g buckets, the pump I'm using does a great job of mixing, but it makes the water to warm. I have to turn it off and wait for the water to cool down enough for water changes. What would be a good sized pump that will mix the Salt, but keep the water cooler. Thanks!

You don't want to keep mixing it once everything is dissolved anyway - even a small pump gets pretty warm inside the impeller well, so you end up with at least a small amount of precipitation. I've seen it happen and @Randy Holmes-Farley has covered this in at least one article.

Ideally - USE IT AFTER ABOUT 5 MINUTES OF MIXING! (Unless you have bad salt or are only using airstones to mix, 5 minutes is all it should take, and I can prove it on video! )

But if you have to store it for some reason, just put a lid on it and leave it alone. Any vitamins or aminos will break down and be gone within about a week, but the salt will remain perfectly usable like this almost indefinitely when stored like this. (Assuming your container was clean.)

And for the record, I tested a bunch of pumps, airstones, etc, to see what was best at mixing salt and youtube'd the best two (one pump, one not).

You know what works as well as anything?

A mixing paddle, if you wanna keep yourself dry...

...or even just your hand, if you don't mind getting wet.

Nothing else was any faster, and lots of things were slower AND OFTEN LESS EFFECTIVE. (Everything else was definitely more expensive!)

 

[drstratton]

You don't want to keep mixing it once everything is dissolved anyway - even a small pump gets pretty warm inside the impeller well, so you end up with at least a small amount of precipitation. I've seen it happen and @Randy Holmes-Farley has covered this in at least one article.

Ideally - USE IT AFTER ABOUT 5 MINUTES OF MIXING! (Unless you have bad salt or are only using airstones to mix, 5 minutes is all it should take, and I can prove it on video! )

But if you have to store it for some reason, just put a lid on it and leave it alone. Any vitamins or aminos will break down and be gone within about a week, but the salt will remain perfectly usable like this almost indefinitely when stored like this. (Assuming your container was clean.)

And for the record, I tested a bunch of pumps, airstones, etc, to see what was best at mixing salt and youtube'd the best two (one pump, one not).

You know what works as well as anything?

A mixing paddle, if you wanna keep yourself dry...

...or even just your hand, if you don't mind getting wet.

Nothing else was any faster, and lots of things were slower AND OFTEN LESS EFFECTIVE. (Everything else was definitely more expensive!)

Thank you! I'd read it was best to let it mix or sit for 24 hours before using it, but wasn't exactly sure why, I assumed that it was to make sure it was completely dissolved. Thank you for sharing this.

 

[mcarroll]

The hobby has a long history - what you read was true at one time....salts were not universally milled to such a fine consistency as they are today.

It just hasn't been true recently.

In my experience, at least since the mid- or late-2000's all the major saltmakers have "upgraded" their processes and make a powdery-fine product. (No I haven't literally used all makes....but I have used all of the "majors".)

I would estimate that the "24 hours" is possibly a measure from the 1980's.

 

[Aaron hacking]

I wondered if it didn't have something to do with dissolved oxygen?

 

[inetjnky]

Marine land Maxi-Jet 600. Mixes it up in about an hour but I have to usually wait a few hours for the heater to bring it all up to temp.

 

[mcarroll]

Marine land Maxi-Jet 600. Mixes it up in about an hour but I have to usually wait a few hours for the heater to bring it all up to temp.

Not more than 5 minutes with reasonable mixing - you should be able to drastically improve your mixing times.

You don't have to quit the MJ600, but you will have to get better placement - aim it where the salt collects: down. You probably will need to get creative with the mounting.

Your hand or a paddle will still work better cuz that's such a small pump tho. It is extremely quick and easy to do this way....setting up the pump is almost more bother than it's worth.

I gave up the pump for that reason. Mixing paddle all the way.

And unless you are changing huge percentages of water or your makup water is truly cold (e.g. <60ºF) I would not worry about heating at all. Rain will cool a reef off in a hurry, but like in your tank, the cool only lasts a short time before mixing and the heaters take care of it. Not to worry.

$0.02

 

[reef_grrrl]

I mix my salt in a five gallon jug and just makes sure the lid is on tight and lift it up and shake it around for about 30 seconds, go have a beer, and check to make sure it's dissolved, if not I just shake it again lol. I dispense my RODI water into those jugs anyway so it just makes sense [emoji16]