I can't believe I'm even posting about this, having never considered doing a marine tank before. But last week I got the green light to set up a new 200g tank in the living room. And then the ol' lady, out of nowhere, asked "Hey, could it be saltwater?"
Why yes--yes it could.
So here I am, reading everything I can find. It looks like it'll be a FOWLR tank. I figure with the sheer volume needed for water changes, I'll need a RO/DI system. My house is pretty small, though--the washer/dryer are in a closet in the kitchen, not a proper laundry room--so I'm trying to figure out the best way to arrange a top-off container and manage my mixing container(s). (I don't see a convenient way to set up automatic top-off into the sump--there's no good way to plumb water into the living room.)
Since the house is small, I don't have a good place to keep a 55-gallon Brute container inside. But I can keep it in the garage, with door access to the kitchen. The plan is to bring it inside 1.5 days before a scheduled water change, fill it overnight from the RO/DI system, add the salt in the morning, and let it mix up for a day. Then I can wheel it (all 40 heavy gallons or so) into or close to the living room, add the water, and put the container back in the garage.
But I get ahead of myself. I'm wondering if it's feasible to install the RO/DI system in the kitchen closet where the clothes washer and dryer are. I figure I can branch off of the washer water source for input into the RO/DI. And I'm hoping there's some way to route the RO/DI wastewater into the outgoing pipe that the clothes washer uses. Has anyone done that? If so, I could keep a 5-gallon container on top of the clothes dryer (not enough room on the floor) and keep it filled for top-off duty. I would either set up the bucket with an automatic-stop floater thing or just produce 5 gallons on demand as needed. (I guess a 100-gpd RO/DI system would take about 90 minutes to fill that bucket?)
Continuing with my water-changing thoughts, I originally figured I'd need two 55-gallon Brutes--one for mixing and dispensing new saltwater, and one to catch the ~40 gallons of used water I remove for each water change. BUT maybe I don't really need a receptacle for the waste water even though the living room is too far from a sink to use a Python. After all, the living room is in the front of the house right by the entrance door, so: Could I use a Python-like siphon, powered by a pump or powerhead, to extract the old tank water and run it out the door? I assume it's not good for grass and plants, but I could just run it to the driveway.
So, those are my thoughts for saltwater changes.... Pump (not siphon) the old water from the living room tank out the front door; add new water from a wheeled 55-gallon Brute that is brought inside to make saltwater from a RO/DI system kept in washer/dryer closet. Set up that RO/DI system to be fed from the clothes washer input and (somehow) dump wastewater into the clothes washer output. (If that's impossible, I could probably set up the RO/DI under the kitchen sink.) Does this sound feasible? What else should I be thinking about?
Bonus question: If the RO/DI unit is under the kitchen sink, can it deliver water 3 feet up into the top of the 55-gallon brute? Or must its purified water receptacle be lower than the RO/DI unit itself?
Thanks for your patience.
Why yes--yes it could.
So here I am, reading everything I can find. It looks like it'll be a FOWLR tank. I figure with the sheer volume needed for water changes, I'll need a RO/DI system. My house is pretty small, though--the washer/dryer are in a closet in the kitchen, not a proper laundry room--so I'm trying to figure out the best way to arrange a top-off container and manage my mixing container(s). (I don't see a convenient way to set up automatic top-off into the sump--there's no good way to plumb water into the living room.)
Since the house is small, I don't have a good place to keep a 55-gallon Brute container inside. But I can keep it in the garage, with door access to the kitchen. The plan is to bring it inside 1.5 days before a scheduled water change, fill it overnight from the RO/DI system, add the salt in the morning, and let it mix up for a day. Then I can wheel it (all 40 heavy gallons or so) into or close to the living room, add the water, and put the container back in the garage.
But I get ahead of myself. I'm wondering if it's feasible to install the RO/DI system in the kitchen closet where the clothes washer and dryer are. I figure I can branch off of the washer water source for input into the RO/DI. And I'm hoping there's some way to route the RO/DI wastewater into the outgoing pipe that the clothes washer uses. Has anyone done that? If so, I could keep a 5-gallon container on top of the clothes dryer (not enough room on the floor) and keep it filled for top-off duty. I would either set up the bucket with an automatic-stop floater thing or just produce 5 gallons on demand as needed. (I guess a 100-gpd RO/DI system would take about 90 minutes to fill that bucket?)
Continuing with my water-changing thoughts, I originally figured I'd need two 55-gallon Brutes--one for mixing and dispensing new saltwater, and one to catch the ~40 gallons of used water I remove for each water change. BUT maybe I don't really need a receptacle for the waste water even though the living room is too far from a sink to use a Python. After all, the living room is in the front of the house right by the entrance door, so: Could I use a Python-like siphon, powered by a pump or powerhead, to extract the old tank water and run it out the door? I assume it's not good for grass and plants, but I could just run it to the driveway.
So, those are my thoughts for saltwater changes.... Pump (not siphon) the old water from the living room tank out the front door; add new water from a wheeled 55-gallon Brute that is brought inside to make saltwater from a RO/DI system kept in washer/dryer closet. Set up that RO/DI system to be fed from the clothes washer input and (somehow) dump wastewater into the clothes washer output. (If that's impossible, I could probably set up the RO/DI under the kitchen sink.) Does this sound feasible? What else should I be thinking about?
Bonus question: If the RO/DI unit is under the kitchen sink, can it deliver water 3 feet up into the top of the 55-gallon brute? Or must its purified water receptacle be lower than the RO/DI unit itself?
Thanks for your patience.