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Water storage

A

Absinthe

So I am going to be storing my water in the basement bathroom...actually keeping a water storage container in the shower down there.

I have a dehumidifier running constantly to combat any excess moisture or mold.

I plan on making water on a schedule rather than having a float & shut off valve.

My tank is a 72g bowfront. I am thinking of using a 32g Brute trashcan with the lid tightly closed as my water storage container.

I would like to go bigger but I am trying to use what I have available.

I am going to be keeping a 6g jug handy as the container for top off water.

Unfortunately water will be carried from the basement upstairs to the tank as needed. I dont have a pump strong enough for the job...not yet anyway.

When I do a water change I will have another 32g brute can upstairs that I can set down next to the tank, fill up and mix water, then just pump it right into the tank. I can siphon the water from the tank right out the back door and outside.

Anyone have any other suggestions? Sounds like it will work out, right?

Thanks!
 
JohnS_323

JohnS_323

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Sounds like a lot of lugging but it should work.

When I do water changes on the tank in my bedroom I do basically the same thing. I put a brute garbage can in the bathroom and then lug five 6g jugs up the 2 flights of stairs. I fill the brute, add salt, mix and heat for 24 hours, then siphon the water into a sink and pump from the brute back into the tank.

It's a bit of a PITA but it works. That also explains why I do quarterly water changes up there!
 
C

Carlo

Having a lid on the trashcan will help with the humidity but will hurt you keeping the water oxygenated.

I used to have to do something similar also. What I'd do is mix the saltwater at the place of the RO/DI unit. I'd keep the lid loose overtop the trashcan to keep light out and keep most of the water from evaporating. I'd use an airstone or powerhead with the airline tube attached to blow bubbles in the can. Depending on temperature of water a heater will probably be required also.

This is pretty much the same as everyone else does. Unfortunately for me I didn't have a sink or outside way near the tank so I had to use two to 5-7 gallon buckets at the same time. I'd use a couple of mini-jet pumps to do the work for me. I'd use a 404 to pump water out of the tank into one bucket while a 606 was used to pump water into either the tank or sump at the same time. I'd dump the used water and start over again depending on how many gallons were needed to be changed out.

It's a pain compared to automated systems but works well. BTW, the only reason I used small pumps instead of just dumping the water in was that I found it to be less messy. Virtually no water would get spilled on the glass or floor using the pumps which is more then I can say for manually dumping it in.

Actually the pumps I used for the water changes were always part of the system anyway so I didn't have any additional expenses. I used these pumps to power a couple of Phosban reactors. I would just unplug the reactor tubing and redirect the output of the pump to the bucket or stick the pump in the bucket depending on direction of flow needed.

The only reason I liked adding the water at the same time I'm pulling water out of the tank was to keep the water level pretty much constant so I didn't need to turn off the powerheads.

Maybe worth trying, I noticed a pump attachment thingy at home depot (or lowes) last week that you attach to a drill. It's basically an inline pump where the drill acts as the motor. Something like this could probably be used to pump the water upstairs from the basement. Might be worth checking into.

Carlo
 
M

mott768

I have a 55 gallon drum to store fresh ro/di water and a 32 gallon can, both in the basement, the 32 I use for topping off (kalk drip) my 120 and 80 gallon, the 120 has the sump under the tank on the first floor and it a good 35' run from the sump to the can in the basement, I use a SP3000 dosing pump with a coralvue float switch, I used speaker wire to run from the switch in the sump to the pump by the can and it works great. All I had to do is drill 2 small holes 1 for the airline tubing and 1 for the speaker wire. When I setup the 80 I plumbed it into the sump in the basement for my frag tank to make life easier, (wish I could do the same with the 120). Your more than welcome to come by and check out how I did it. I was in the same boat except I had to rely on my son to carry the buckets from the basement.
 
arvin

arvin

NJRC Member
When I setup my tank over a year ago, this is exactly how I did. Carried water from the basement to the first floor. It would take more than an hour to change the water and then the spill all over the place was driving all of us mad. Then what I did was to add a Tee on the ro/di output line in the basement and ran 1/4" brass tubing (I used a refrigerator ice maker kit from home depot) across the ceiling and drilled a hole behind the tank and put a valve at the end. So the day before the water change, I put a tub next to the tank and fill the water, mix salt and run a powerhead and heater. This project was much much easier than what I anticipated.

For draining the water, I got a 1" pipe plumbed behind the tank which ran to the nearest drain line. I got an handyman to do this, since I didnt want to play around with the drain lines. So on the day of the water change, I put the powerhead in the sump underneath the tank and pump the water into this drain line. All in all I spent less than $100 and a saturday and it made water change a breeze. It would take less than 5 minutes on the day of water change!

Hope that helps.
 
A

Absinthe

This post is giving me some good ideas.

How far and to what height can a typical RO/DI output line pump?

If it can pump from basement to first floor...I think I might be able to implement some of the ideas you guys are throwing around.

THanks!
 
J

jazzsam

I was REALLY suprised with what I just did to fill up my new tank. I ran it about 30+ feet and still got great pressure pushing out the water. I didn't think it could do that but it worked fine.
 
arvin

arvin

NJRC Member
Absinthe said:
How far and to what height can a typical RO/DI output line pump?
THanks!
Click to expand...

That I dont know. But in my case, it was about 8-9 feet I guess. The output was slower than it would in the basement (naturally). But what I did was to leave the valve open overnight and the next day morning the tub (mine was a 20 gallon) would be full.
 
T

Treadingwater

I got my tubing from HD also.

I ran directly from my RO/DI unit also when I filled my tank. It was about 10 feet over and 4-5 feet up and I had no problems at all.
 
arvin

arvin

NJRC Member
Btw, did you reconsider your thoughts on sump yet? ;D

Replacing the water in the sump is lot easier than from the tank. My 2c.
 
A

Absinthe

This is going to be a sumpless tank.

All water in one box!

I travel a lot for work, sometimes several weeks at a time. I cant afford a phone call "dear...there a leak somewhere in your tank" while I am away.

Feeding, top offs, cleaning glass...the fiancee has that covered.

But I dont want to worry about plumbing issues. I havent had a problem yet with any of the plumbing I have done...at least not once it was set up and running...but I dont want to take any chances.

I just want a simple FOWLR! :)

(is there such thing as "simple" in this hobby???)
 
P

PMolan

My RO is tee'd off in the basement. One for bucket fill and the other goes up next to the chimney through the attic and down the wall to the tank for auto top off. 50' tubing. I never was able to get more than 2.5gpd out of it right next to the RO, I guess I have low pressure, but it makes it up 8ft + 8ft + 10ft across + 8ft down
 
E

Erich

I have my water mixing and RO in my basement next to my furnace. In the winter the water is warm and the summer its cool. I leave a submersible pump in the garbage can with a float switch where the RO water goes into. One the pump is used to pump the water out, and two I leave the pump on to mix the salt and airate the water. Also of course I leave the lid on the can so that water loss is at a min. I get about 100G a day if I had it running all day.
 
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