DIY Water Change Change Bucket

[lazylivin]

Here is my water change bucket. Most of you probably have similar designs. The only thing that may be unique is incorporating the Bull Dog Water Alarm from Lowes or Home Depot. I think they run about 15$. I used to turn on the RO/DI water and would forget about it. After a few accidents, added the float valve and alarm which is working out pretty well so thought I would share.

If you have any improvements to this or any setups of your own please post for us to see.

[MechanicalEngineer]

Thanks for posting this.  We will most likely use your ideas on our future tank. 

[slandis3]

here's ours. the red cans are r/o holding cans and the black cans are premixed saltwater. I got rid of my kent marine float because i couldn't get it to stop leaking. now i use a cheap ebay float and it works great. I still turn the water off after it fills. I run an ebay ato ( thats was before i knew you can make one for less than $10) I am running a kent marine ro/di with a 75gpd membrane. I am working on making a set of lids so i can keep dust and light out of the water.

[lazylivin]

Great setup as always Slandis3. Just curious, if you make RO water or premix salt water and let it sit for a week or more before using, does the PH drop over time?

[slandis3]

to be honest  ive never checked it.My top off goes through my kalk reactor so i never thought about checking it. Usally I dont add my salt untill about 2 or 3 days before i do a change so that shouldnt change to much. I just toped off my ro water so i might go check it and check it again when it runs low. Right now its checking about 8.5 That seems kinda high maybe someone else in tipp city can test there water and see what they are getting. I used my little cheap-o ph600 meter. Im not sure how good it really is.

[lazylivin]

Mine is at about 8.5 (Dayton Water) coming out of the RO/DI unit and if it sits in the bucket for a week it drops down to about 8.1 and continues to go down from there. Do you think if I put a lid on it, it will keep the exchange from O2 to CO2 from occurring? Assuming that is what is taking place.

[slandis3]

Well i want to add a lid to keep the junk out of it as well as block some light. I will check mine in a few days to see what it has dropped to.

[xXTheWendigoXx]

That would have been useful up north in the high-rise. My alarm used to be when the downstairs neighbors called to let us know it was raining in their hallway 

[Amstar]

slandis would love to know more about your water change set up.

you have your ro feed into one of the red cans.  how does the water get over to the other can?  How do you get the water to the black cans?

what type of pump are you using there?

more pics would be great as well. 

looking at setting up something very similar ( i have two brute trash-cans with lids).  was looking at adding uniseals to plumb.

[lazylivin]

That would have been useful up north in the high-rise. My alarm used to be when the downstairs neighbors called to let us know it was raining in their hallway 

That was pretty funny but I am sure it wasn't at the time. 

[Amstar]

maybe the apartment complex can charge extra for the "peaceful" surroundings provided by the natural waterfall that was installed

[xXTheWendigoXx]

We were the definitely the hotspot for 9 stories worth of kids after word of THAT got out. *KNOCK KNOCK* "We heard you had a Nemo and we wanted to come see"
I don't know what my wife wanted to kill me more for, the leaks or the traffic.

[Joel]

Mine is at about 8.5 (Dayton Water) coming out of the RO/DI unit and if it sits in the bucket for a week it drops down to about 8.1 and continues to go down from there. Do you think if I put a lid on it, it will keep the exchange from O2 to CO2 from occurring? Assuming that is what is taking place.

Are you sure your ph is 8.5 out of your RO / DI? If it is, something is wrong, (ro unit or inaccurate test kit)  it should be 7.0.

[lazylivin]

Joel If I bring some water and Portable PH probe in can you test for me against yours? My TDS is 9 right now so maybe that is why higher PH. Agree that Pure should be 7. Both pinpoint probe connected to RK2 and cheap PH600 is showing the same but that is not to say they are not both off the same amount. Weirder things have happened.

[Joel]

We can do that, the only day I'm at the shop all day is on Saturdays. I have a few ideas we can try.

A tds of 9 is pretty good, I don't see how that could make a ph that high. Something's not adding up right but I bet we can get to the bottom of it.

[lazylivin]

Okay, I will stop in and hopefully we can figure something out.

[Joel]

Another thought occurred to me, Have you run a calcium or alk test on the water coming right out of the r/o - di? If your ph is that high it would seem that carbonates would be present. This info might help solve the mystery a little.

[slandis3]

slandis would love to know more about your water change set up.

you have your ro feed into one of the red cans.  how does the water get over to the other can?  How do you get the water to the black cans?

what type of pump are you using there?

more pics would be great as well. 

looking at setting up something very similar ( i have two brute trash-cans with lids).  was looking at adding uniseals to plumb.

The can are connected via bulkheads underneath. I have an ehiem pump to deliver the ro top off water. there is a ball valve under the red cans so i can add water to the black cans. I will try to post more pics when i get some time this weekend

[lazylivin]

Are you sure your ph is 8.5 out of your RO / DI? If it is, something is wrong, (ro unit or inaccurate test kit)  it should be 7.0.

Joel, I agree that Pure Water is 7.0 However doubt that anyone is able to acheive Pure Water w/the household grade RODI units that we use. Even with a TDS of 0 the water is still going to be acidic or alkaline. Our TDS meters are not of the calabre that are going to be able to tell the diffrence between a few million hydroxide ions or hydrogen ions

Anyway, my TDS was up to 12 which is usually when I change the DI resin or filters if need be. So this evening I did that and here are the results.

Calibrated PH meter to 7.0



Added new RO/DI water in clean cup and inserted probes after rinse in fresh RO/DI water. As you can see from the probes TDS is O and PH is 8.3. My guess is that we would see diffrent results based on diffrent RO/DI units and diffrent City's water.



I think for the most part all of our water is going to be more alkaline which I am guessing why I see on forums recommedations to add top off water when lights are off and PH is the lowest to help with PH drops. I doubt that it really helps though becasue as soon as the water is added  the addtional hydroxide ions will be so insignificant to the total water volume that the change would balance out after a few minutes.