Using Sea Water

[richard t]

Hi All

I have been reading a new book REEF SECRETS.
The book covers some intresting ideas for reef tanks. With severl ideas for biotopes eg near reef zones,
lagoons, seagrass beds, mangrove swamps and tidepools.

Any way back to topic. Ill quote the book.

For those of you who are lucky enough to live close to the ocean, nothing is better than using natural seawater for your aquarium. However, you need to check the salinity and be certain that the water is collected in areas where there is little pollution, usually away from harbors and densely populated shallow shorelines.
We have used natural seawater in our tanks for years and never exsperienced any problems.

Has anybody trusted their local shorelines enough to try the water??
In my area of the UK we have some of the cleanest beachs and water in Europe. Still do not think i would trust it in my tank though.

 

[Chac]

This is something I am looking in to doing on a 10g nano system, my area has already been proven to be suitable for use in a Reef Tank (by another reefer in the area) who has successfully changed his reef to use NSW

I am hoping to get the nano going in the coming month

 

[RoyalGrammaPrincessHannah]

Isnt there some kind of purification you have to put the water through though?

 

[Chac]

I will pm you a link to the afore mentioned tank

Nav I think you know the one (Jag's U.R.)

 

[Aquascaper]

Navarre used to use NSW and i've tried it before but it was too much hassle for me getting to a 'clean area'

As long as you can be sure of the water quality and parameters, eg. salinity, then I don't see an issue with using it. I was told that it is best to collect water offshore if possible as it is less likely to contain high levels of organic waste, eg. proteins....don't know if there's anything to that though.

A good 'freebie' to collect is rock pool shrimps while your at the seaside, they are great at scavenging and, under halides, are clear with black stripes with little blue booties and yellow toes

I've lost count of how many are in my tank

 

[Fish Fingers]

I use natural seawater. From what I've heard most people over here use it (probably because most of our population is on the coastline) . If you going to get it, make sure you find a large open area of ocean, collect it when the tide is coming in and make sure it's not near any rivers or sewers. Also if it rains you should wait a day or to before getting some.

 

[Navarre]

I still use NSW although i did do a 50/50 mix when starting the large system. The water changes are still done with NSW. I live in the UK in the southwest, never had any problems with the water quality although i still test water conditions each time i collect more water.

 

[Matthew5664]

Navarre.

How meny tasts do you do NO3 and PO4 for sure but what others?

 

[Navarre]

I test for Phosphates, Silicates, PH, SG, Nitrate, Nitrite and ammonia (although the nitrite and ammonia really isnt needed IME).

 

[Matthew5664]

I see where abouts do you get it from

My dad lives on the IOW so he could get me NSW but I was unsure, If I test for thoes and was a good reading would that be alright for my tank?

(see DIY)

 

[Opcn]

The thing about useing sea water is that the sea is full of bacteria and parasites, thats why there are so many cleaner fish and shrimp. When you put sea water from say california into a tank full of fish fromt say the red sea you put those fish in with parasites that they are not abe to cope with, so you may have huge problems, or you may not. oh, and the temps in the contiguous us and south UK aren't different enought from tropical temps to save the fish. Good luck.

 

[steelhealr]

I side with Opcn with this one. There are so many things that you could introduce to your tank that aren't testable with test tubes. Bacteria, pests, microorganisms. I WILL say tho' that, living here on Long Island, there are NO safe places to collect water for a tank. My water would contain:

-suntan lotion
-Cheese Doodles
-nicotine from cigarette butts
-washoff from roads and sewers
-doody diapers

Use caution. SH

 

[Matthew5664]

the doodles go me going......sorry

 

[steelhealr]

Jax..they're the best. SH

 

[Navarre]

Huge freighters and oil tankers carry water as ballast during their ocean journeys. This water is pumped into their tanks from wherever they need it at the time. Once the vessle has reached its destination is simply dumps 100,000s of gallons of water right back into the ocean again. This water can come from any part of the world and also carry any parasite or disease with it. So its possible a ship could dump water from our shores right into the reefs (as there is no law against this) and bring the very parasites we all worry about right into the reef.

Armed with this information i feel that the risk of contamination is minimal and so far i have been right. )

We carry the risk of carrying far far greater dnagers in parasites and disease withthe fish that are caught and the liverock we use IMO. People may argue that the fish are better armed to fight off these diseases as they meet them in their own environment but the problem with this is that ich is not even a killer in the wild as the fish simply swims away and the parasite never grows to large proportions to infest the fish. the same applies to most other parasites... they exsist but the ocean is so vast they dont overpower a fish like they are within a captive tank. So my argument is that any disease or parasite where it be one that is local to hte fishes true location or one that is local to my own waters make little difference as the volume of water makes any disease or parasite a real threat that the fish will find hard to deal with on their own.