Anyone new into the hobby would be doing water changes by siphoning the water into 5 gallon buckets and emptying the old water down the toilet with a couple extra 5 gallon buckets of new salt water off to the side to add the to the tank. pesto is new in the hobby so save any confusion about head pressure and building a sump in the basement with the plumbing involved is only added to the confusion. Keep in mind that when most of us started out how much was involved in understanding how to build a sump with the baffles, skimmer location, overflow and all the other things that were going through our heads in just keeping a new tank going and wondering if it were possible to keep saltwater fish, never mind corals. All pesto wants to do is get water up to his tank to do water changes and as time goes on the knowledge will be gained about head pressure and sumps in the basement. He's got 14 posts at this moment so chances are he's new and his question is a legit one now that he has an RO/DI unit and a barrel. I attached a quick rough sketch of an old method I used getting water up to the tank using a Mag 24, (bought used on BRS) a 25 ft python (Craigslist), a barbed T and a couple of threaded ball valves connected with threaded barb hose fittings (HD). I'd close the valve above the barrel (barrel bought here, BRS) and siphon my tank water into a drain. Shut off the drain valve open the valve above the barrel and turn on the Mag 24 via a long extension cord near the tank and fill my tank right there. Done, no more hauling buckets. Makes life easier in the mean time while research is learned. I hope this helps.
