I used ocean water! Whatcha think?
- Thread starter MPA
- Start date
I thught about taking 1000 gals and storing it in my garage anyone see a problem with long term storage of NSW. Im in Central Fl so the gas to get to the coast kills the appeal of free NSW. But If I got 1000 gal while I was shrimping on a given weekend might kill 2 birds.
I just dont know if the water would keep for months in storage. ANy thoughts?
I just dont know if the water would keep for months in storage. ANy thoughts?
Paul B
Premium Member
OK I did not invent bleaching water, that was Robert Straughn the Father of salt water fish keeping.
I have used this method dozens of times but you have to be careful and test the water on some cheap fish before you use it. (I will explain)
because I have had a problem twice but it was my fault.
Use one tablespoon of "Regular" Clorox per 5 gallons of NSW. Wait a week then airate the water and add twice the recommended amount of chlorine remover to the water.
In a few days (with airation) the water will be safe to use and it will be much better than any fake water you can buy.
But make sure you use "Regular" Clorox, not New Fresh Scent or NO Splash or anything else or you will kill all of your fish in a minute or two. Thats the reason for the test .
Bleach is just chlorine gas in water, the chlorine oxidizes any organice besides killing everything, then it evaporates leaving nothing in the water. I doubt the Clorox company uses different machinery to make their different types of bleach so if any of some other type of bleach is present in the "regular Clorox" you may have a problem. Now I always test it. If there is a problem you will know instantly.
I was thinking about using swimming pool chlorine because it is just chlorine.
The first squid eggs were hatched in chlorine treated water and you probably drink chlorine treated water. Sometimes I treat NSW with Clorox just for the hell of it.
Paul
Paul B
Premium Member
Keinreis, I will look forward to your questions but it is pretty simple. You live in Florida. Do you have any beaches near you? If so go and collect some "stuff" It could be almost anything that is safe to put in your tank. Leave it there a while and throw it out. Or collect some muddy looking rocks and swirl them in a bucket of water, dump this in your tank or put it in a net in your tank for a while. Instant, free bacteria.
I guess you could sneeze in your tank and add some bacteria :lol: Naw, that wouldn't work, don't do that.
Have a great day.
Paul
I guess you could sneeze in your tank and add some bacteria :lol: Naw, that wouldn't work, don't do that.
Have a great day.
Paul
Pico Keeper
Premium Member
I collect 30 gallons of NSW from about 5 miles off shore inside of Biscayne Bay.
I take it home, throw it in a tank, add a tiny bit of chlorine. Let is sit with circulation for a few days, then I run carbon and polyfilter thru a canister filter for a couple days. Heat it, add ro/di to match the specific gravity, match the ph if necessary and 5 days after collecting, its ready for the water change.
This sounds like a lot of trouble to go thru, but its actually not! I got it down to a science.
I take it home, throw it in a tank, add a tiny bit of chlorine. Let is sit with circulation for a few days, then I run carbon and polyfilter thru a canister filter for a couple days. Heat it, add ro/di to match the specific gravity, match the ph if necessary and 5 days after collecting, its ready for the water change.
This sounds like a lot of trouble to go thru, but its actually not! I got it down to a science.
I hope you have a diesel truck! 1000 gallons of sea water should weigh in at about 9000 lbs! As long as you circulate and prevent extensive evaporation it should be fine. It'll be sterile (void of life) after a few weeks though. (except some virus species and bacterium of course. They're hard to kill
I use natural seawater myself, from the Scripts Aquarium here in San Diego. They aquarium staff generously leave a tap available to the local marine hobbyists near the wharf where the water is returned to the ocean. The reef does look more vibrant after a NSW change of 10% - 20% once a week compared to using synthetic. I have noticed that once in a while I do have a minor algae bloom after changing water though. I'm sure it has to do with a higher organic content as the water has been through the aquarium and is being returned after being "used". Maybe the rare bloom is caused by getting water right after they've fed the huge shark tank....
A couple of more notes about the Scripts water for any other San Diegans that may like to try it.... The salinity appears to always run a bit higher than ideal. 1.031 or 1.032 is typical. I dillute with deionized down to 1.024 before changing. Also, the local fish shops will try to discourage you from using it, as they'd like to sell you the salt. I've been using the Scripts water for more than 15 years with no ill effect. In fact, I was runing a natural system unwittingly 15 years ago with it. Live rock, deep sand, good circulation, no skimmer and 200 watts of daylight bulbs/atinics supplimented with about 3 hours of natural sunlight each day all on a 50 tall. That reef tank blew away anything I've seen before or since. I sure wish I could duplicate it today!
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7826699#post7826699 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by chammer
I hope you have a diesel truck! 1000 gallons of sea water should weigh in at about 9000 lbs! As long as you circulate and prevent extensive evaporation it should be fine. It'll be sterile (void of life) after a few weeks though. (except some virus species and bacterium of course. They're hard to kill
Lolno, no I can get access to a trailor mountied storage tank. the kind you might use for a commercial sprayer, has a pump on the unit. They use them for putting a shallow well point in for sprinkeler sys.
Just hook it up take it over and drop a hose out in the water and fire up the pump. Then I tote it home and dump it in select storage containers and walla 1000 Gal of NSW.
Id never try to haul that much H20 in the bed of a p-up truck.
wiszmaster
In Memoriam
Agu,
I'm down in Fort Myers, @ the mouth of the Caloosahatchee River .. AKA ... RED TIDE cause for the area.
1. How is red tide up in venice? do you guys see many effects of it? if so, how is it right now?
2. have you thought using the sand from venices' beaches? that is some of the best sand around i'd say. I love the little shells & other crushed rock/coral/shells thats mixed in.
keinreis (scott),
maybe i can convince dad to take the boat out 10 miles off shore & get some large containers w/ pump on the boat to get some water off shore? how about sand? are you up to go diving sometime in the next month or 2?
Agu
Premium Member
No visible symptoms of Red Tide around here. I recently collected some coquinas as live food and it's had no effect on my tanks.
The sand off the west coast of Fl is silica afaik. Works fine for an aquarium but I'm not sure about the legality of hauling it away in buckets though.
I collect and add macros to my fuge. It doesn't actually grow there too well, it's more like food for the pods. I see a significant increase in pods after adding it. Might be because the pods are attached to the seaweed though.......
RL321 what was the SG of the water you collected ?
The sand off the west coast of Fl is silica afaik. Works fine for an aquarium but I'm not sure about the legality of hauling it away in buckets though.
I collect and add macros to my fuge. It doesn't actually grow there too well, it's more like food for the pods. I see a significant increase in pods after adding it. Might be because the pods are attached to the seaweed though.......
RL321 what was the SG of the water you collected ?
wiszmaster
In Memoriam
so you don't think it would be a good base for a sand bed (live or dead)
Skimmed thru this real quick.
I am a NSW user here on teh west coast. Been doing it for a few years now. There are a bunch more who use it here. Where I am, I get it straight from a spickot at UCSb hwere they filter it down to 20 microns in a huge sand bed filter. It's the same water they use in their research facilities on campus. I've stored it in closed containers for up to a month before with no airaition and now porblems when I used it. heck I don't even raise the temp of the water when I do a water change.
The water is usually around 68 degrees here. When I do a water change, I usually do a 50 % water change. That's over 200G on my 400G tank. I just drain out the old and fill up with the new. I do this on both of my tanks. One major thing I've noticed is that even though I don't do a thing to the NSw, not even match temps, my corals respond a lot better than they did when I used ASW for my water changes.
I honestly beleive that there are just some elements in NSW that cannot be dupliated in ASW yet our corals and fish depend on it. Since switching to NSW, I've seen my corals respond better, my fish look healthier and I've watched fish that were introduced to the tank with Ich, recover in a short period of time without affecting any of my other fish.
I've even had one of my LPS corals spawn in my tank with NSW. This is a coral that I had for about 4 years before I switched to NSW. After switching, he spawned. This was both a good and bad thing. Good in that it means I'm doing something right. Bad in that it consumed all of the oxygen in the system and caused a crash killing all of my fish and heavly stressing my corals. Some of the fish were 6 years old.
I also started my 400 G tank with NSW when I set it up a year ago. In the tank was a large male Naso tang that had been in the tank for over 3 years. When I bought/moved the system to my house, I filled teh tank with NSW. Shortly after moving the male into the tank, he started to grow some long streamers that he did not have in the tank when it was full of ASW. I don't know for sure if it was the NSw but it sems that way.
I have no scientific proof that NSW is better for my corals or fish, all I have is my 7+ years of obsevation on the same tank and corals to see the difference in my corals after switching to NSW.
I am a NSW user here on teh west coast. Been doing it for a few years now. There are a bunch more who use it here. Where I am, I get it straight from a spickot at UCSb hwere they filter it down to 20 microns in a huge sand bed filter. It's the same water they use in their research facilities on campus. I've stored it in closed containers for up to a month before with no airaition and now porblems when I used it. heck I don't even raise the temp of the water when I do a water change.
The water is usually around 68 degrees here. When I do a water change, I usually do a 50 % water change. That's over 200G on my 400G tank. I just drain out the old and fill up with the new. I do this on both of my tanks. One major thing I've noticed is that even though I don't do a thing to the NSw, not even match temps, my corals respond a lot better than they did when I used ASW for my water changes.
I honestly beleive that there are just some elements in NSW that cannot be dupliated in ASW yet our corals and fish depend on it. Since switching to NSW, I've seen my corals respond better, my fish look healthier and I've watched fish that were introduced to the tank with Ich, recover in a short period of time without affecting any of my other fish.
I've even had one of my LPS corals spawn in my tank with NSW. This is a coral that I had for about 4 years before I switched to NSW. After switching, he spawned. This was both a good and bad thing. Good in that it means I'm doing something right. Bad in that it consumed all of the oxygen in the system and caused a crash killing all of my fish and heavly stressing my corals. Some of the fish were 6 years old.
I also started my 400 G tank with NSW when I set it up a year ago. In the tank was a large male Naso tang that had been in the tank for over 3 years. When I bought/moved the system to my house, I filled teh tank with NSW. Shortly after moving the male into the tank, he started to grow some long streamers that he did not have in the tank when it was full of ASW. I don't know for sure if it was the NSw but it sems that way.
I have no scientific proof that NSW is better for my corals or fish, all I have is my 7+ years of obsevation on the same tank and corals to see the difference in my corals after switching to NSW.
Paul B
Premium Member
Hello there Chevy, It always amases me that people are surprised that you can use NSW. I think they should be amased that you could use ASW. I believe you are correct that there are chemicals in NSW that can not be duplicated. After all the stuff has been there for a billion years. Every element on earth is in NSW including vitamins and toxins, some of which may be beneficial for either maintaining the health of the animals or as you mentioned imparting some sort of immune response to paracites. ASW is fine if that is all you have but your animals would do far better with slightly polluted seawater than with pure fake water. The water that I collect in New York comes from a couple of miles from NYC, as a matter of fact it goes through the East River which circles Manhatten. I have been spawning animals for many years with not one case of ich or anything else. I have never heard of a problem using NSW, has anyone else?
I once started an entire aquarium store with 100% natural Long Island Sound water that had nothing at all done to it. I filled up garbage pails in my old boat and drove the boat on a trailer to the store where we just pumped the water into the empty tanks. There was no cycling, the fish were put in the next day with no losses. I wish I could use more of it but as you know it is a little heavy so I suppliment it with fake water.
I also have no scientific proof of it's superiority but I do have a fairly old reef.
Have a great day.
Paul
:dance:
I once started an entire aquarium store with 100% natural Long Island Sound water that had nothing at all done to it. I filled up garbage pails in my old boat and drove the boat on a trailer to the store where we just pumped the water into the empty tanks. There was no cycling, the fish were put in the next day with no losses. I wish I could use more of it but as you know it is a little heavy so I suppliment it with fake water.
I also have no scientific proof of it's superiority but I do have a fairly old reef.
Have a great day.
Paul
:dance:
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