I'm trying to help out my new tank maintanence person.

Right now he is using buckets to do water changes. Usually 30 gallons per week in my 330.

I have a floor drain under the stand in my tank but no one uses it.

What 3 different people do for the water changes are.

1. Drain the tank into 5 gallon buckets. They like to keep track of how much water they take out.
2. Then dump the new water into the top of the tank (Which is 7 feet off the ground) using 5 gallon buckets.
3. Carry the dirty water through the office and dump it in the back sink

To me its an accident waiting to happen. Dumping heavy buckets from a ladder is asking for trouble. Here is my fix, what do you think?

1. Use this rubbermaid container to bring in the water on dolleys. I talked to someone that uses this one to mix and its will hold the water w/o breaking. Rubbermaid® 44 Gallon Brute® and Accessories - US Plastic Corporation (http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/variant.asp?catalog%5Fname=USPlastic&category%5Fname=24896&product%5Fid=29985&variant%5Fid=6390)
2. Use a python type hose to drain the tank into the floor drain. Estimating how much will be done roughly by tank and sump dimensions. Once we know I can mark the outside of the tank with a line ie. 30 gallons.
3. Mark the inside of the trash can for each 5 gallons.
4. Use a mag 1200 pump to fill the tanks sump. Once the tank is full turn off the pump and look to see how much water was used looking at the marking in the trash can.

This should speed up the process and have minimum disruption to my office operations.

Cost around 250.00 for the Mag pump, Brute 44 and hose.

If using containers not specifically designed to hold water I would double up just in case. I had a rubbermaid trashcan start a slow leak after a month. I am switching to using a glass tank after that. I would try a rubbermaid again but I would stack two together for insurance.

Sounds like a good plan. Maybe the first time you could drain the water into 5 gal buckets to track how much you are draining, and once you have 30 gallons out, make an inconspicuous mark on the tank. Then, in the future, you could just drain to your mark and pump the new water in.

that all sounds good except make sure the floor drain is plastic not metal.

I think this is far superior to climbing ladders with buckets! I use a Brute to mix my SW in and have never had a problem but I don't store it long term in there. If I was storing it in the Brute I would definitely take NaCl's advice as a failsafe.

Good point on the floor drain. Its a new commercial building so I am not sure what they used. Probably PCV but I will double check. Its ground floor and encased in the cement. Most drains are copper or plastic but I never specified on the build.

I spoke to a guy that has used the brute 44 for 5 years and no leaks. I can deal with a slow leak its that catastrophic break where all the water comes out a once that had me concerned. Doubling up would help for sure.

where does this floor drain drain out at ?? the saltwater will undoubtedly kill anything that is living where the drain is.

most likely its pvc. just be careful were it goes. if it goes to the sewage I would hate for the city to find out and get a possiable fine or bill.

There other other tanks in the building and the maintanence people always dump the saltwater in the sinks or toilets. I would rather step in saltwater than yellow or brown if ya get my meaning :)

This goes to the city sewer system. I don't know that salt is worse than drano or toilet bowl cleaners that get flushed down every day. Not sure that there are any fines for salt water. People dump cokes in the sink, the garbage disposal of every house puts salts, raw meats etc, it all goes to the sewer. So how is salt tank water any worse than the other crude that goes down a toilet or sink??

I had the building inspector check it all out on the build and it passed code for its intended use which was to drain the tank. I had it drawn in to the floor plans, also have hot and cold water above the tank but later found out the tap water has too many phosphates. Waste of money on that.



most likely its pvc. just be careful were it goes. if it goes to the sewage I would hate for the city to find out and get a possiable fine or bill.

thats cool. then good luck with the next water change

I used to work in the lab at our wastewater treatment plant. In general it was industries that had to have special permits. Places like Pepsi and metal coating plants that were producing tens of thousands or gallons daily. By the way, the effluent water from Pepsi had a pH of like 1.9 which makes you never want to drink pop!