Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Hoaster
Good luck with your build! I agree with your methodology of defining the endpoint first. I think it will be a challenge having your work room ten feet from the tank, but I'm sure it can be made to work.
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I agree that I'd like everything to be closer together, but it's an easy compromise for me to make. Most of that 10ft distance is actually filled with a small countertop, which has a sink in it. I'll also be able to run piping back behind the cabinets that go from the display tank to the water room. The advantage of mixing ahead of time in a storage tank, and not having to haul buckets, is definitely going to work in my favor.
I'm using a lot of the maintenance difficulties from my last tank to plan this one out. For my previous tank the RO filter was in a cramped basement that only had an outside entrance. Thankfully I could at least run the RO output line into the sump area of the tank. But I was still mixing water in 5 gallon buckets, had to use a 30ft python to drain water out into the kitchen sink, and just about everything else had to fit inside the stand. I just didn't have ANY room to work. That made maintenance miserable and the tank suffered as a result.
First big decision I need to make, since it will determine the size of a lot of things, is how big I want the storage tanks to be. Which will also determine the maximum size of water changes I can do. So figure in a 20% water change, and a 180 gallon tank, that'll be approximately 40 gallons.
I'll want two tanks. One for mixed water, the other for RO only. This will give me a 40 gallon ATO/Freshwater change tank, plus a 40 gallon saltwater mix tank. I can also have the fresh tank feed the salt tank, in case I need to go larger on water changes, as that will give me 80 total gallons at any given time. Since my RO is a 75 gallon per day unit, I couldn't fill more than that in 24 hours anyway.
I don't want to go much bigger than this however, as I start really eating up available space in a hurry. Found some nice 42 gallon rectangular storage tanks online for a decent price too, which will fit pretty nicely I think.