I used ocean water! Whatcha think?

[MPA]

I bought a 120. (50x24x24) and this is how I set it up.

I live on the coast of Fl. I went to the beach 5 blocks from my house and got 100g of ocean water.

I got a 5 g bucket of sand and shells.

I put all of it in the tank.

I then added all the water I had in my old tank.

Turned on the pumps (150 w/d pro w. mag 2700) and added all of my fish.

Temp, ph, salinity, everything in the ocean water nearly matched my old tank water.

24hrs into it, everything is crystal clear. The fish look like they are doing good. They are alert, they ate this morning etc.

Stock put in the tank included:
1 maroon clown, 1 copperband butterfly, 1 lion fish, 1 lawn blenny, 1 kole tang. Giant brittle star, sand stars, snails and a shrimp.

All of them were in my last tank for at least 1 1/2 years.

It has been raining for the past week and I figured the water conditions off the coast would be as good as they are going to get. any pollutants should be well dispersed.

I know that there is the chance of introducing some parasites & little creatures that normally would not be there, However, I figure we are always trying to make our water match the conditions in the ocean, so why not use ocean water!

Let me know what you guys think of this.

I will be taking pics tonight, and hope to have them up w/in a day or so.

 

[tuberider]

Around here we wait until it hasn't rained in a few days (3-4) for good water quality. Check out Paul's thread, you are more likely to have issues with dumping a small quantity of water from your LFS than from the ocean (pathogen concentrations tend to be much higher in closed systems.)

 

[Monkey_Bone]

Pathogens are the least of your worries using sea water.
How about chemicals from near by companies? Boats, people.....ect ect ect.......

Your best and safest bet would be to go a 1/2 mile or so off shore and get it from there.

LOTS of yucky crap in shoreline waters.

 

[Paul B]

Been using it in my still running 35 year old tank for 35 years. And I use it from New York, right near the city. How bad coule it be? All of your animals come from NSW, none of them come from ASW.
Paul

 

[MPA]

I though about the pollutants issue, an ddecided to take a chance.


I am 48 hrs in and evrrything is doing well.

And your right. they all come from it.

As for city water, everybody knows its better than bottled water.

 

[Stoney Mahony]

ORA gets their water off the east coast of florida, they just go way out to get it. I would call them and ask what pollutants they found in the water directly off shore and what the reasons were for getting their water from a mile+ out. They have probably done all the tests already and might even be able to tell you seasonal changes in water quality that you will need to watch out for.

 

[Laakmann]

I think it would be way awsome if you could live like right on the beach and get a really powerful pump to pump water directly from the ocean into your tank and then have the overflow go right back to the ocean.

The locations where you could do this are limited though and I think this would be illegal but not sure.

 

[MPA]

I know that removing things like rock & sand is touchy, but I think that the water is fare game.

 

[uscgbeachbum]

There is a dive shop in the Keys that does just that. They pump it right off the canal. You could never do it if you were on beachfront property. Pumping means plumbing which would need to be buried which means permitting. Of course, I know a few people who go to some low bridges and throw a pump overon the incoming tide. They then pump it into a large plastic tank in their truck. A little bit of bleach and then some chlorine tabs and they love it.

 

[redFishblue]

Re: I used ocean water! Whatcha think?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7708260#post7708260 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MPA
It has been raining for the past week and I figured the water conditions off the coast would be as good as they are going to get. any pollutants should be well dispersed.

You should wait till it has not rained for a while, as a added measure of safety.
The runoff from the rain could wash stuff like fertilizer or motor oil down to the coast.

 

[Roadtoad]

Hey Tuberider, I live North of the devils slide we should meet up on the old san pedro road for a mountain bike-frag swap

I used to get water from the frothy pacific-1 block away. The biggest problem that I can track to using NSW was two outbreaks of something that looks like velvet which ended killing my tangs. I though about filtering the water prior to use to get rid of the parasites, sail-jelly fish and mole crabs. Now I am too lazy to carry buckets of water down the street and use IO.

 

[surfjeepzx]

That's the way I've been doing it for 6 years and never had a problem. I didn't use the beach sand though. Just make sure the water is clean and not murky when you collect it.

About once a month or so I pump a 55 gallon tank of water straight into my tank from the inlet. So in my 135 that's about a 30+% water change. Everything really perks up when the fresh water gets pumped in.

 

[oama]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7720288#post7720288 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Stoney Mahony
ORA gets their water off the east coast of florida, they just go way out to get it.

No, ORA does not go off shore to get water. The hatcheries tend to not float very well.

ORA utilizes Saltwater Wells.

 

[MPA]

the water was clear when I put it in. It looks great.

I put together a nano tank for my wife. Soem thing. it looks really great. there were some sand fleas swimming around, but everything is doing really good.

no stress, color is good and they are all eating.

the water test shows nothing bad. spec. grav is good. good ph, etc.

were at 72 hours right now.

 

[rsxs1212]

this is pretty interesting.. the only thing i can see is that if you got a barnacle in there and they started to colonize, that would be a MAJOR problem lol.. i have a house on the tampabay and there is a sandbar behindmy house.. wonder if starting a little nano tank with everything from there would be cool?hmm

 

[CPT. MURPHY]

Any pics yet?

CPT.

 

[redox]

natural sea water

natural sea water

Ive used it quite frequently with no ill efects .whenever I go out in my boat I will bring back 55 gallons to use. the only problem is it is labor intensive to bring back so..... theres this thing called salt in a box well.... its soo much easier. If you have an easy way to get it i say use it. the times i have used it really made a noticable difference in polyp extension

 

[nyvp]

here is south florida we have guys that come to your house with the fresh sea water already filtered

 

[Jens Kallmeyer]

hi MPA

I doubt that you will have any problems. I've been using RI coastal water myself all year round without any problems. Your water is even closer to real "reef water" than the stuff I can get. I don't know if this is an issue where you live, but I would check if the water is really fully marine in terms of salinity, Calcium and Mangnesium levels. If not just add a bit of sea salt and you are done. What I usually do is using 2/3 NSW and 1/3 ASW, plus a bit of extra salt to make up for the lower salinity of the NSW.


Have fun

Jens

 

[Roadtoad]

When I tested our NSW, I had to make some adjustments. First the temp was 56F, the salinity was about right but the calcium was low. There were a couple of times when I could detect phosphate too.

Good luck, I would seriously consider filtering the water using a 5-20 micron bag before you throw your local water into a fully stocked tank. That will get rid of the plankton which might be beneficial but will get rid of the parasites that can be problematic.