Is Sea Water Save To Use In A Marine Tank?

[so-fishy!]

Before anyone jumps down my neck, it's just something thats popped into my head! I only have a tropical aquarium, but was wondering if you could use sea water in a marine set up? Obviously you would have to test and heat it etc, but generally would it be safe? If so is it illegal to take some?

 

[@ombomb]

Lots of people do it.

The draw back is the coastline is generally the messiest part of the sea, so it's far FAR better to get out in a boat and collect it a little way out.

 

[so-fishy!]

Lots of people do it.

The draw back is the coastline is generally the messiest part of the sea, so it's far FAR better to get out in a boat and collect it a little way out.

thanks for the reply! Will sleep at night now lol! My boyfriends parents live in Weymouth.....hmmmmm...just need a boat?

 

[Navarre]

Until this year i have ran all my reef tank on NSW. I do live in one of hte cleanest parts of hte uk so this helps a great deal. The only reason i am not using NSW now is because i simply cannot continue to transport such large amounts of water to the tank for water changes (about 40 gallons each time i do a change).

I dont advocate using NSW for every however, im just very lucky to have good quality water. The rest of the UK isnt usually this fortunate.

 

[thai]

I live within a stones throw of one of the cleanest beaches in the country.
Does this mean that i could use the sea water for my water changes and not have to do anyhting else to it?

 

[Chac]

I live within a stones throw of one of the cleanest beaches in the country.
Does this mean that i could use the sea water for my water changes and not have to do anyhting else to it?

Not without running a full test on the water

NAV did you filter, UV, Heat etc. the NSW before adding to your setup

 

[Navarre]

Even though i know the water is excellant quality where i collect from I still test for anything and everything when i am about to collect. If the readings are not perfect then i wont collect. Thankfully this has never happened so far.

As far as treating the water with anything... Nope i dont do anything to it. Its collected and brought home immediately, then i airate it for a while whilst the temperature is brought up to the tanks temperature ( i am reluctant to use powerheads as it might damage the plankton in the water.

Once the water is the same temperaure as the tank water then its simply added to the tank. I can treat the water of course, UV etc etc but the whole reason i wanted NSW is for hte micro plankton within it. My corals looked fantastic when i used this water and i put this down largely to the plankton they were feeding upon.

If the water in your area is very good quality then by all means go and test it. I dont recomend a 100% change to NSW from tank water but if this is a route you would want to take then each tim eoy udo a water change just add a percentage of it to the change and increase this percentage each time until you are using NSW as your only means of water change. Monitor the tank and water very closley at all times when using NSW, although its completely natural and of course, comes with many benefits that NSW has, it also "can" harbour more u ndersirable things like parasites and disease, many of these wil not be native to the fish we own and thus they might not have a defense against it. Thankfully this has never happened to me but i feel its my duty to inform people of the risks before they decide to take this route.

 

[smithrc]

hmmm... good post...

My little venture into marine may verywell soon be natural seawater then....

Got the boat and everything
just need to find a free weekend to pop out and fill a few barrels.

How well would it keep

 

[Navarre]

I dont keep it any longer than a few hours. I know of some people that filter it and use it within a couple of days. I used NSW because of the live plankton etc so any longer than a few hours and i feel that the life suspended within the water will start to deteriorate.

 

[Mr Miagi]

The resulting die off would also pollute the water, removing all benefits there might have been to use NSW in the first place. Unless you wanna run a skimmer and filter it, and like Navvarre pointed out, a waste of effort considering the amount of life you'd remove. Add it asap when its back up at the correct temp.

 

[pleder]

I use NSW but it comes from a research center so it is research grade. Check you area if there is something like this near you. There are 3 in California that I know of.

 

[smithrc]

Off to the boat this weekend...
I'm going to be collecting a couple of barrels....

only problem being - with a 7 Gal setup it'll be sat about for a LONG time before I get round to using it... or not as the case may well be...

I'll see how i get on.

 

[Navarre]

be careful if you arent going to use it immediately. The life forms you collect in the water will die off very quickly and this may pollute your water and thus make it useless for a water change