Follow my Oceanic 144g half circle reef tanks progress. 
Automatic Water Changer: Part 2
Posted 01/01/2012 at 11:06 PM by Aaarrrggg
Grim took out the weird wooden step I had at the bottom of the cupboard and made a stand for the water drums:
[IMG]http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/TheAaarrrggg/WC-stand.jpg[/IMG]
Then he did all sorts of clever plumbing!
[IMG]http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/TheAaarrrggg/cupboard-fin.jpg[/IMG]
The RO/DI unit is plumbed in under the sink on the other side of the wall. Water travels through the black line to the RO unit. (Waste water from RO unit goes back to the sink drain via the yellow line.)
[IMG]http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/TheAaarrrggg/to-sink.jpg[/IMG]
As the water goes through the unit the TDS is checked before the DI cartridge (blue "OUT") and after the water leaves the system (red "IN.") This lets me keep an eye on how the cartridges are doing. The water leaves the unit through the white line on the left.
[IMG]http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/TheAaarrrggg/RO-mounted.jpg[/IMG]
The water goes into the freshwater tank via the Auto Shut Off Kit for Reverse Osmosis Systems. This float switch cuts off the RO/DI unit when the freshwater tank is full. Whenever the water drops below that level, the RO/DI unit kicks in automatically and fills the tank until it's full again. No more setting (and forgetting!) my stopwatch for 2hrs to make 5g of RO!
[IMG]http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/TheAaarrrggg/float-switch.jpg[/IMG]
Now comes lots of plumbing!
[IMG]http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/TheAaarrrggg/taps-num.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/TheAaarrrggg/top-tanks-num.jpg[/IMG]
I can move the water around by opening different valves and turning the yellow pump on/off.
To move the RO water into the salt tank:
CLOSE: 1, 2, 4, 5
OPEN: 3, 6
PUMP: ON
Once the RO water is in the SW tank I open the lid and pour in the correct amount of salt.
To mix SW tank:
CLOSE: 1, 3, 4, 5
OPEN: 2, 6
PUMP: ON
The plumbing continues under the water lvl inside the SW tank. This makes the mixing nice and quiet when the tank is full. All I can hear is the slight whirr of the pump. The brown stuff is from the Oceanic Salt. It did the same thing in my nano SW mixing bin. I'm thinking of switching to Instant Ocean salt instead to save a bit of money and hopefully get rid of these horrible (clay?) deposits.
[IMG]http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/TheAaarrrggg/inside-salt-drum-plumb.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/TheAaarrrggg/WC-stand.jpg[/IMG]
Then he did all sorts of clever plumbing!
[IMG]http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/TheAaarrrggg/cupboard-fin.jpg[/IMG]
The RO/DI unit is plumbed in under the sink on the other side of the wall. Water travels through the black line to the RO unit. (Waste water from RO unit goes back to the sink drain via the yellow line.)
[IMG]http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/TheAaarrrggg/to-sink.jpg[/IMG]
As the water goes through the unit the TDS is checked before the DI cartridge (blue "OUT") and after the water leaves the system (red "IN.") This lets me keep an eye on how the cartridges are doing. The water leaves the unit through the white line on the left.
[IMG]http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/TheAaarrrggg/RO-mounted.jpg[/IMG]
The water goes into the freshwater tank via the Auto Shut Off Kit for Reverse Osmosis Systems. This float switch cuts off the RO/DI unit when the freshwater tank is full. Whenever the water drops below that level, the RO/DI unit kicks in automatically and fills the tank until it's full again. No more setting (and forgetting!) my stopwatch for 2hrs to make 5g of RO!
[IMG]http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/TheAaarrrggg/float-switch.jpg[/IMG]
Now comes lots of plumbing!
[IMG]http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/TheAaarrrggg/taps-num.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/TheAaarrrggg/top-tanks-num.jpg[/IMG]
I can move the water around by opening different valves and turning the yellow pump on/off.
To move the RO water into the salt tank:
CLOSE: 1, 2, 4, 5
OPEN: 3, 6
PUMP: ON
Once the RO water is in the SW tank I open the lid and pour in the correct amount of salt.
To mix SW tank:
CLOSE: 1, 3, 4, 5
OPEN: 2, 6
PUMP: ON
The plumbing continues under the water lvl inside the SW tank. This makes the mixing nice and quiet when the tank is full. All I can hear is the slight whirr of the pump. The brown stuff is from the Oceanic Salt. It did the same thing in my nano SW mixing bin. I'm thinking of switching to Instant Ocean salt instead to save a bit of money and hopefully get rid of these horrible (clay?) deposits.
[IMG]http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/TheAaarrrggg/inside-salt-drum-plumb.jpg[/IMG]
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