Very well said. I live about 1 mile from the water on the left coast, I should start looking into this! (sadly the closest beach is doheny, notorious for high concentrations of feco-coliform bacteria... eww)
I used ocean water! Whatcha think?
- Thread starter MPA
- Start date
Very well said. I live about 1 mile from the water on the left coast, I should start looking into this! (sadly the closest beach is doheny, notorious for high concentrations of feco-coliform bacteria... eww)
You could do a water change, drink a bit and lose some weight in the process!
Just as I was going to start collecting NSW we were lucky enough to have BP's little SNAFU reach our shores. Hopefully it'll calm down in the next few months and I can collect some water and test it out on my biocube that is in the works. I don't want to try it on my 40g yet, but I can afford a zoa loss in the BC if the water is too contaminated still. Now to play the waiting game.
Just as I was going to start collecting NSW we were lucky enough to have BP's little SNAFU reach our shores. Hopefully it'll calm down in the next few months and I can collect some water and test it out on my biocube that is in the works. I don't want to try it on my 40g yet, but I can afford a zoa loss in the BC if the water is too contaminated still. Now to play the waiting game.
thecoralking
New member
nsw water all the way but l live on the eastcoast of florida HAHA!!!
jumpingintosalt
New member
Thought it was illegal to take anything from the beaches? Did you take 20 buckets with you and no one looked at you weird?!
ducksmasher
New member
so youve seen the oil washing ashore in Texas right? didnt think so.
There is oil in the water here? I heard oil and water don't mix very well. Plus there are tons of fish that thrive in the texas gulf coast waters, have you every been fishing?
jaynessaltwater
New member
i live in oregon beside the temp. of the ocean water is it all the same? could i use water from the oregon coast in my tank?
stan zemanek
New member
Ok guys and gals, after reading through the entire thread I decided to give it a try. After all the family and I were going to the Jersey shore on vacation for a week, why not bring home some water along with a nice sun burn. Since we only live about an hour and 15 from the shore, and the fact that I had to come home mid-week anyway to water our flowers, the original plan was bring home 25 gallons of sea water in 2 phases.
Phase 1 went off without a hitch. Tuesday evening around 10 p.m. my daughter and I went down and began collecting the water. I tell ya this was not fun as the beach was every bit of 200 yards from were our truck was parked. So one by one I lugged the buckets across the sand and up to the parking lot. So you say whats the big deal? I say it was still 101 degrees at 10 p.m. and its no picnic lugging approx. 40lbs. of water across the sand.:lmao:
So the next morning I got up about 5a.m. and drove home to take care of the chores and do the water change. Since it was so hot this week the water was around 83 by the time iI got it home. I checked the salinity and it came in at 024. I didn't do anything else, just took 25 out of sump and put 25 gals of ocean water in.
Now phase 2 did not go as planned. After hanging out on the beach all day in 102 degree heat without a cloud in the sky yours truly got a burn for the ages. So needless to say come Friday when it was time to come home there was no way I was going to be able to lug another 25 gals. of water across the beach. So unfortunately phase 2 got canceled. I will post a pic of my tank later today. But I can tell you as of yesterday I could not see any noticeable difference in the tank. Heres a pic of where I got the water from.
Phase 1 went off without a hitch. Tuesday evening around 10 p.m. my daughter and I went down and began collecting the water. I tell ya this was not fun as the beach was every bit of 200 yards from were our truck was parked. So one by one I lugged the buckets across the sand and up to the parking lot. So you say whats the big deal? I say it was still 101 degrees at 10 p.m. and its no picnic lugging approx. 40lbs. of water across the sand.:lmao:
So the next morning I got up about 5a.m. and drove home to take care of the chores and do the water change. Since it was so hot this week the water was around 83 by the time iI got it home. I checked the salinity and it came in at 024. I didn't do anything else, just took 25 out of sump and put 25 gals of ocean water in.
Now phase 2 did not go as planned. After hanging out on the beach all day in 102 degree heat without a cloud in the sky yours truly got a burn for the ages. So needless to say come Friday when it was time to come home there was no way I was going to be able to lug another 25 gals. of water across the beach. So unfortunately phase 2 got canceled. I will post a pic of my tank later today. But I can tell you as of yesterday I could not see any noticeable difference in the tank. Heres a pic of where I got the water from.
stan zemanek
New member
Ok guys heres some pics. Now I realize my tank is mostly softies and a couple of beginer LPS, so I can' say ocean water will work for the high end tanks, but so far I see no ill effects on my tank. Mind you the ocean water was put in on Wednesday. My tank is a standard AGA 150 with another 40-50 gals in sump.
stan zemanek
New member
I think it would be interesting to see someone do a dedicated species tank with either gonipora or elegence corals, or even one of the problematic sps's and use nothing but ocean water. This would take alot of work a dedication unless you live near the ocean. It just seems to me that there has to be other beneficial properties in NSW that can't be replicated in a factory. As for me I bring home NSW each time we go on vacation or if I am in the area. I think if I had brought home the additional 25 gallons as I orginaly planned it would have been a much better test. However if you could see my sun burn on my chest you would understand why I couldn' do it:furious:
In light of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and response, the question came up in another thread about the safety of using NSW off Palm Beach. I sent an email to Dr. Sandra Brooke, Director of Coral Conservation at the Marine Conservation Biology Institute, regarding this issue of using NSW from the Atlantic coast of Florida in our aquariums. She graciously replied (thank you very much Dr. Brooke!) with the following and gave her permission for me to share this with you all:
Hi Spencer
At the moment there are no indications that the water off western Florida, the Keys or the Atlantic coast are contaminated; however even small amounts of toxins in a closed system could cause havoc, so the safest thing would be to avoid it. The EPA stance is unfortunately correct, the extensive use of dispersants has created a huge level of uncertainty in where the oil will go, and how it will behave. I'm sure you know this from the news, but there are two main problems with dispersant/oil plumes. One is the direct toxicity, and the other is the reduction in oxygen as the bacteria consume the organic material. Having said that, given time, bacteria will degrade the oil, and natural water mixing will overcome oxygen depletion, but we're still trying to assess how much damage it will do in the meantime. The processes involved are somewhat understood, but with this huge quantity of oil spewing for so long, its hard to know what will happen. I have attached a brief overview of potential effects of oil/dispersant on various components of the GOM - it's not comprehensive by any means, but might give you a starting point.
WRT your other concerns, so far the Flower Gardens seem to be out of the oil footprint, but eddies off the loop current tend to move west, so if the oil gets entrained, it could be a problem, again, especially if the oil is dispersed through the water column. Same with the Tortugas and Keys, if it stays out of the LC, they should be OK. The deep reefs in the northern Gulf on the other hand are in the danger zone. The best developed and most studied Lophelia reef is less than 100km to the NE of the leak and that was my biggest concern right from the start. There are 2 research cruises heading out to the Gulf to look at benthic communities. The Seward Johnson will be using the JSL sub to study the Tortugas, Pulley Ridge and the Florida Middle Grounds. It left yesterday so may have a web link set up soon. The other is a BP funded cruise to the deep coral reefs close to the leak. That starts on the 21st, and will have a link through the USGS website.
Just to clarify: the oil has not reached most of western Florida, but it has hit the panhandle so the water from northern Florida should definitely be avoided.
I hope this helps, if you have any more questions I'd be happy to try and answer them
Regards
Sandra
Sandra Brooke PhD
Director of Coral Conservation
Marine Conservation Biology Institute
Bellevue WA 98004
Hi Spencer
At the moment there are no indications that the water off western Florida, the Keys or the Atlantic coast are contaminated; however even small amounts of toxins in a closed system could cause havoc, so the safest thing would be to avoid it. The EPA stance is unfortunately correct, the extensive use of dispersants has created a huge level of uncertainty in where the oil will go, and how it will behave. I'm sure you know this from the news, but there are two main problems with dispersant/oil plumes. One is the direct toxicity, and the other is the reduction in oxygen as the bacteria consume the organic material. Having said that, given time, bacteria will degrade the oil, and natural water mixing will overcome oxygen depletion, but we're still trying to assess how much damage it will do in the meantime. The processes involved are somewhat understood, but with this huge quantity of oil spewing for so long, its hard to know what will happen. I have attached a brief overview of potential effects of oil/dispersant on various components of the GOM - it's not comprehensive by any means, but might give you a starting point.
WRT your other concerns, so far the Flower Gardens seem to be out of the oil footprint, but eddies off the loop current tend to move west, so if the oil gets entrained, it could be a problem, again, especially if the oil is dispersed through the water column. Same with the Tortugas and Keys, if it stays out of the LC, they should be OK. The deep reefs in the northern Gulf on the other hand are in the danger zone. The best developed and most studied Lophelia reef is less than 100km to the NE of the leak and that was my biggest concern right from the start. There are 2 research cruises heading out to the Gulf to look at benthic communities. The Seward Johnson will be using the JSL sub to study the Tortugas, Pulley Ridge and the Florida Middle Grounds. It left yesterday so may have a web link set up soon. The other is a BP funded cruise to the deep coral reefs close to the leak. That starts on the 21st, and will have a link through the USGS website.
Just to clarify: the oil has not reached most of western Florida, but it has hit the panhandle so the water from northern Florida should definitely be avoided.
I hope this helps, if you have any more questions I'd be happy to try and answer them
Regards
Sandra
Sandra Brooke PhD
Director of Coral Conservation
Marine Conservation Biology Institute
Bellevue WA 98004
Brickyardgreg
New member
The water seems to be the cleanest when the tide is high going into low. The outgoing tide seems to bring the junk out with it. This is very interesting. I always wondered about nautral sea water in our tanks. Anyone else using this method please chime in with your setup location and any related methods or water tests ect. Thanks
You can click on this link and see my 400G tank that was ran on NSW since I set it up. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=630143 I just recently, like 3 months ago, started using ASW because of some construction at UCSB where I collect my water. The water will not be available til Nov, 2011 so I'm stuck right now with ASW.
As for any issues, the only issue I ever had was that when I put a fish with Ich on it in the tank, it would clear up and none of the other fish got it.
I also had a yellow tang that had some HLLE and it too started clearing up. I had gotten a pair of Naso tangs with the tank and they were about 4 years old when I got the tank and fish. After about 6 months in NSW, the male tang started growing streamers. The previous owner said he had never seen streamers on either tang for as long as he had had them.
here's another link to a thread about the NSW that we collect. Some good info in there if you can get by all the other stuff.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=541355
As for any issues, the only issue I ever had was that when I put a fish with Ich on it in the tank, it would clear up and none of the other fish got it.
I also had a yellow tang that had some HLLE and it too started clearing up. I had gotten a pair of Naso tangs with the tank and they were about 4 years old when I got the tank and fish. After about 6 months in NSW, the male tang started growing streamers. The previous owner said he had never seen streamers on either tang for as long as he had had them.here's another link to a thread about the NSW that we collect. Some good info in there if you can get by all the other stuff.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=541355
Similar threads
