Storage container for mixing and storing saltwater

[BarbH]

This weekend I am planning on picking up a couple of the gray brute containers from home depot. One of them I am going to use to store my rodi water in and the other is going to be used for mixing and storing my saltwater in. I was wondering if there is any safe way of marking the inside of the container so that I know how much water is in it to figure out the right amount of salt to add. Was thinking of using something like a sharpie marker, but want to make sure that it would be safe to do so. Thanks

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[m and m]

A sharpie is fine, I use it on the bottom of frag disks to ID corals easier.

 

[_sludgefactory]

I used some electrical tape.

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[Eggs]

A little more work, but I saw a picture of someone's RODI/Mixing station where they put two uniseals into a brute (one low, one high) and ran a clear hose between the two (vertically); the water level in the clear hose would then be the same as the level in the brute. I thought that was a good idea if you wanted to build a stand where the top of the brute would be too high to look into. You could then mark the clear hose, instead of putting someting inside the brute.

 

[BarbH]

Thanks for the replies, the water station sounds like a neat idea but right now that type of thing is not doable in my sitiuation with living in an aparment. I am thinking about seeing how the dollies that are sold for the brutes will work. Hoping that they are stable enough and move easiliy enough that I can make my water up in the kitchen and than place the container in the spare room so that I don't have a bunch of containers sitting around in my kitchen. I will start off with one and see how it works. Still will have to decide how I want to mark the containers, either will use a sharpie or might try with marking the outside and than making sure I allow room in my mixing container to add fresh water if I need to adjust anything.

 

[ruppertb]

This is how i made sure i always had 16gallons for saltwater mixing.


This might be hard to follow but this is my setup.

I have one 20gallon retangualr trash bin on top of alot of mason blocks. It has to bulkheads in it. One on the very bottom, and one at about where 16 gallons is. The ro water enters this bin and it fills up to the 16 gallon bulkhead and then overflow into another bin to the left of that one. That one hold my fresh ro and has a ball valve at the bottom of it. To the right of the 20 gallon bin is another 20 gallon bin which has the plumbing from the bottom bulkhead of the top bin going into it. I use this to make 16 gallons of saltwater. Same amount of salt everytime and its perfect.

Entire setup. Blue is waters path, red circle is ball valves

Top Bin, where Ro Enters and then overflows via corner pvc

RO Holding Bin

Salt water Mixing/Holding Bin

Ball Valve where RO enters Saltwater tank, I keep and heater and powerhead in
here at all times, and just plug it in when needed

 

[steelhead77]

I measured 42 gallons of water into the Brute and just put a piece of duct tape on the inside to mark the level. Now I just fill to the bottom of the tape. Never had an issue.

BTW, nice setup Rupert.

 

[ruppertb]

now i just need to figure out how to set up a float switch to turn off ro, anyone know how these work, does it just turn off the blue line and then send all water out the waste line, or does it shut off the main water to the ro, id rather not waste alot of water to save me some time.

 

[Mike&Terry]

We used 40g Brutes for ro/di and saltwater storage for years before we setup our current mixing station. We marked a piece of pvc pipe w/a sharpie and it worked well for us.

Here are a couple of pics:

 

[BarbH]

Mike and Terry think that is a great idea, might use that one. Like the idea of having a fairly accurate way of being able to measure and not to have it sitting in the water all the time.

Nice setup ruppert, maybe one of these days when I own my own place can look into doing something like that.

 

[Reef Breeders Verified Sponsor]

I fill them 3" or so from the top, about 40 gallons. I would just mark it with a sharpie if I were you, but I did not bother, I make sure that the salinity is correct regardless, so I did not need to know the exact volume.

 

[Eggs]

now i just need to figure out how to set up a float switch to turn off ro, anyone know how these work, does it just turn off the blue line and then send all water out the waste line, or does it shut off the main water to the ro, id rather not waste alot of water to save me some time.

BRS sells a float-valve kit which is what I use in a brute. It includes a shut-off valve which stops water flowing into the RO membrane, which in turn prevents wastewater output to continue to flow.